The following came from several sources…..Kenny learned piping from his brother John, who was a contemporary of John Wilson in Edinburgh, and supposedly learned from Roddy Campbell. Ken was a tool and die maker at GM, and both he and John dabbled with making chanters for years. Back in the ’60s Ken bought a MacRae (I think) chanter, brought it home and cut it in half on the band saw, using it as a pattern to copy. He made all his own tools, including tapered reamers and a jig-box with all the holes included for boring with a drillpress. So his chanter was basically a MacRae. To my knowledge, he only ever made one set of pipes, and I think John actually made them, Kenny finished them off and sold them after John died. The guy that bought them was down in NYC somewhere. Ken made lots of chanters for lots of bands in the ’70s including the Toronto Scottish who played them when they won Champions Supreme in Grade 2, and the Mohawk Valley Frasers in Rome, NY.
When I first had the Cosmopolitan band here, when Kenny was still alive, I went round and bought up a lot of bands’ chanters, and he re-reamed them back to snuff and that’s what we played. As the pitch started climbing in bands, we weren’t able to keep up so he started designing a new chanter with a lot of help from Jack Gillies, which he called the “Loch Carron” to distinguish it from the “Murchison”/MacRae. I have the original prototype in rosewood, showing the many holes that were plugged and re-bored as they tried to get it right. He made one set of the Loch Carron chanters in Polypenco, which we played in the Cosmopolitan band. I think it was a set of 12. He also made practice chanters. We had a
matched set in the band. I still have one.
When he died, there were 50 blocks of blackwood in the shop 2″x2″x18” blanks for making chanters. The Captain asked me then to try and get them for Dunbar, but no go. I heard that his son turned them into miniature baseball bats to give out as Christmas presents!! Kenny’s own Henderson pipes hang on the wall over his son’s fireplace.
As far as I know, the tools are probably still in the shop (garage) in the house where he lived. I understand that one of his grandsons lives there.
Kenny and John were contemporaries of and good friends with John Wilson, George Grant, George Duncan, and Alex MacNeil.
Very interesting. There were two Murchison brothers in Buffalo during the 60’s and 70’s, John and Kenny. John had a connection with Willie Bryson, who was a turner for Hugh MacPherson and later for Sinclair. When Willie died John inherited his bagpipe. John was an engineer and made chanters in his basement workshop.
John and Kenny rarely spoke. Not sure of the story there. Kenny aligned himself with Gord Tuck of St Thomas Pipe Band and together they worked to produce a sharper pitched chanter, which was apparently played by the 48th Highlanders, which might account for the very sharp pitch they were known for. Kenny also had a shop and tools, which still might be intact! I have my sources working on this.
Now, the Willie Bryson bagpipe was supposed to be a MacDougall however it turned out to be a Sinclair, probably turned by Bryson himself. John Murchison sold it to Jim MacGillivray’s father-in-law. Jim won his gold medal playing Bryson’s bagpipe.
