GUELPH – Playing with bands is nothing new for Fergus bagpiper Peter Hummel, but a chance meeting at a restaurant led to him sharing the stage with an iconic Canadian blues rock band that he’s been a long time fan of.
Hummel, current pipe major with the Grand Celtic Pipe Band, got to show off his pipe skills on Friday at Guelph’s River Run Centre with Big Sugar playing their song “All Hell for a Basement.”
“It was awesome,” Hummel said in a phone interview.
It wasn’t planned far in advance either.
Hummel and his family went out for dinner to celebrate his son’s birthday at Fergus’ Gente Urban Italian Eatery on Tuesday.
Big Sugar, who had an interview on a local radio station, was there at the same time. Hummel, a fan of the band who saw them live multiple times in the 90s, eventually recognized them and decided to introduce himself.
“You know, they want to sit down and have dinner and I said ‘I’m not going to keep you much longer. I just want to let you know I’m a big fan,’” Hummel said. “We started talking a little about music and then I said “I kind of play the bagpipes.’”
He then told them of what he’s done as a bagpiper, including lots of work opening at Elora Riverfest which he credited for getting him on stage with bands.
Gordie Johnson, Big Sugar’s front man, stopped Hummel on his way out asking him what key the bagpipes play in.
“I said ‘B-flat’ and he goes ‘well we have a song we wrote in B-flat,’” Hummel said, before Johnson asked if he knew the song All Hell for a Basement.
Hummel knew it and was told if he could figure out something to play he could join them at the River Run Centre on Friday.
“I had basically like two days to come up with something to play in B-flat for this song,” Hummel said.
It seemed to be enough time as Hummel felt his performance was awesome and had the band’s approval.
“Johnson’s like a master musician and everything and he was just kind of floored that I was able to tune close enough to them, I did it on the fly,” Hummel said.
Johnson was seen in a video joking about their chance meeting at the restaurant.
“That was pretty good wasn’t it?” Johnson asked the crowd.
As he often does, Hummel will be opening each day at Elora Riverfest this summer in August.
See the full performance below.
