09/23/2025
This young lady is Amazing and a true class act. We have met her twice and she talented and a real sweetheart ❤️
Long a feature of weddings, funerals and parades, and often played by kilted middle-aged men in starched shirts, the bagpipe has found a new generation of players.
The revival of the ancient instrument began with the 1995 movie “Braveheart,” but it’s been supercharged in recent years as bagpipers like Ally Crowley-Duncan have gone viral with rocking versions of popular hits.
The 29-year-old's many covers of the 1973 Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird” have been viewed more than 100 million times on social media. At a recent show at the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, the crowd flew into a frenzy as Crowley-Duncan launched into a medley of tunes on a red set of MacLellan bagpipes.
“She told me when she was 16 that she was going to make the bagpipes relevant,” said her mom.
Ally Crowley-Duncan played for a while on the heavy-metal-free competitive bagpipe circuit. Part of male-dominated bands, she wore a tie and a plain white shirt, her long hair discretely tied back.
Covid changed all of that. In late 2020, with her public gigs and lessons canceled, she decided to post a video of the contemporary bagpipe tune “The Pumpkin’s Fancy” on TikTok. When she checked the app the next day, it had logged more than 150,000 views. Crowley-Duncan was astonished.
Read more: 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/425628q
