MERIDIAN —
Like pied pipers, Jean Orcutt and Zoe Brumfield mesmerize people with the haunting notes from their bagpipes.
The duo walks around the harness racing track at the Neshoba County Fair stopping periodically to serenade the cabin occupants. Almost trancelike, the people slowly move out from the enclosures onto their porches to listen to the melancholy sounds that pierce the thick, morning air. Claps of approval and sometimes tips follow.
During one stop, Gloria Williamson, complete with a cooking apron and a smile, steps from the porch to talk to the two women. She has brought with her bottles of water, which Orcutt and Brumfield accept enthusiastically.
"I want you two to play at my funeral," Williamson says laughing. "So that means you have to outlive me."
Orcutt, from Meridian, and Brumfield, of Forest, get that a lot.
As members of the Father of Waters Pipes and Drums, the two women have played their pipes at a wide variety of events. Orcutt said weddings, funerals, celebrations and special occasions of all kinds keep her busy. Plus, the pair are members of a traveling group that has even opened for Rod Stewart concerts.
Orcutt and Brumfield have been playing music all their lives. Orcutt picked up the pipes about 14 years ago while Brumfield said she has been playing for about 10 years.
"You never really master the pipes but when we started getting good enough we thought why not take it to the public," Orcutt said.
Brumfield, who lists the piano and clarinet as two of her favorite instruments, said there are about a dozen people who play bagpipes in Mississippi. She said the majority of them are women. Brumfield played the pipes at the recent funeral of George County Sheriff Garry Welford who was killed in the line of duty last week.
But on this day the mood was more festive. An 80-year old man down the street is still basking in the birthday tune played to him by the two women.
"I want them to play Amazing Grace when I'm gone," Williamson says as she watches the two women slowly walk on down the red clay road.
It is the joy of music and the attempt to master an ancient instrument that brings the two women together. And it is the music, the haunting notes that strike a wistful nerve inside of many people, that brings them out of their cabins to listen.
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