by Grace Abernethy
It started after hours in a high school choir room…This isn’t the beginning of an ’80s coming of age
movie. It’s Nashville Pipes & Drums’ origin story.
On September 18, 1984 a group of pipers, drummers, and people aspiring to either, or both, gathered in
the Hillbsboro High School choir room with a collective goal: to form a pipe band. The meeting was the
culmination of months of work, and Danny MacLeod, his teenaged son Scott, Willie Cantu, and Toby
Parrish were some of the primary drivers behind it.
And so the Nashville Pipes & Drums was born. The group elected Jim Black its first Pipe Major. 16 year-
old Scott MacLeod, the best piper in the band, was Instructor. Over the next few years, Toby Parrish served as band manager. Other original members included Ann Black, Andrew McRady, and Steve Snoddy.
It wasn’t long until Roy Barbee arrived and became the band’s first Drum Sergeant, bringing the total
number of snares to two and making Nashville Pipes & Drums elegible to compete in the EUSPBA. The
band’s first competition was in 1986 at the Stone Mountain Highland Games. After that, it routinely
competed at regional contests.
Early gigs
Nashville Pipes & Drums was also extremely active in Nashville’s gig scene in its early days. It played
numerous parades, performed at downtown churches, the Opryland Hotel, the Nashville Symphony
Christmas concert in 1990 (directed by Kenneth Schermerhorn), Amy Grant’s Tennessee Christmas at the
Grand Ole Opry in 1995, Bridgestone Arena, and even made a Jeopardy commercial.
Turnover in the 1990s
By 1996, only two early members remained on Nashville’s roster: Steve Snoddy and Roy Barbee. The
band had clearly entered a new era. That year, Jay Dawson took over as Pipe Major. Dawson had crossed
over from the world of symphonic music two years earlier when he had begun learning practice chanter
with the band. He lead the band as Pipe Major for fourteen years, stepping down in 2010. The band
competed in grades four and five during this time.
This period also saw Carol Davis in the role of Drum Sergeant, as well as the arrival of members active in
the first decade of the 2000s, such as Tom Wilhoite, Greg Cutliffe, Cindy Dawson, Sarah and Daniel
Pentecost, and Nathan Huguley. Other arrivals included Bill Fleet, who is the longest-standing active
member, Chris Minnis, Becca Sanders, Nathan Dungan, and Bill Wilkerson, all active members of the
band in 2024.
Reforming in the 2010s
Following Dawson’s resignation in 2010, Nathan Dungan assumed the role of Pipe Major. By this point,
Chris Minnis had taken over as Drum Sergeant. This period again saw many of the members from the
1990s leaving the organization. As 1996 must have also been, 2010 saw the band attempting to put its
thumb on a changing identity.
David and Chella Goodman joined the band in 2011. Dave Goodman and Dungan would alternate the
roles of Pipe Major and Pipe Sergeant over the next six or seven years. Josh Barton and Nick Bergin also
joined during this time. Struggling with low membership, the band sat out the 2016 competition season.
By the end of 2016, however, a group of four teenaged boy students (David Cannon, Ward Metcalfe,
Noelan Alcorn, and Joe Nugent) was just coming up on the bagpipes. Brendan and Grace Abernethy, two
pipers from the Carolinas, also moved to Nashville and began playing with the band. Like Scott
MacLeod, they came out of the Grandfather Mountain Pipe Band.
2017 saw the Nashville Pipes & Drums back on the competition field in Grade 4. In 2018 and 2019, the
Grade 4 band routinely challenged up to Grade 3 with considerable success, and at the end of that season
the band was moved into Grade 3. Nashville Pipes & Drums also operated a Grade 5 band concurrently,
lead by Brendan Abernethy, which also competed. Others who joined during this time include Karen
Cannon, Garry Dillon, Ian Spears, and John Feltt.
The regrade coincided with Nashville’s meteoric growth, which brought unprecedented numbers of pipers
and drummers into the area. COVID-19 proved a setback, but with it, the band’s numbers burgeoned.
During and directly following the pandemic, Gwen Jones, Ryan Griesl, Cooper Lloyd, Peter Lieu, Jason
Matteson, Steve Bicknell, Vince Ayub, and many others joined Nashville Pipes & Drums’ ranks.
Forty years after that meeting in the Hillsboro High School choir room, Nashville Pipes & Drums
continues to thrive. It sponsors both a Grade 5 and a Grade 3 band and still gives free lessons to any
interested in learning to play the pipes or drums. Pipers and drummers may come and leave, but the spirit
of the original Nashville Pipes & Drums persists today.