I learned today that piper Hunter Lee has died at an early age of approximately 29 years. I am not sure of the date of his death.
Hunter was apparently well known by the likes of Jerry O’Sullivan and others as a young yet superb and dynamic piper. He is legendary in Nashville but had moved away by the time I came to reside in this fair city. Hunter had recorded with innumerable well-known artists, toured with John Tesch and others, and had done well as a musician with the Celtic Rock Band Ceili Rain. He had some problems, was down on his luck, and had moved to Mississippi, his native home state, and then to New Orleans. The last I had heard of him, perhaps on this list, was that his set of pipes was stolen while he was living and busking on the streets of New Orleans.
You’d think with all the pipers we could start some kind of support network to keep other pipers from being homeless/living on the streets. Unless it was a life choice (which doesn’t seem likely).
Hey! I’m going to be a homeless piper in just a couple of weeks! Can I come stay at your place? I don’t take up much space and can easily fit in a standard-sized closet.
On a more serious note, that’s terrible news about Hunter.
I received an update on Hunter’s passing from Ric Blair a Nashville singer songwriter. Ric told me that he had a brain tumor or some such illness and that it was probably as far back as last October.
Thanks for the update Patrick. The only other thing I’ve learned is that he had started having seizures. I suspect these were due to the tumor.
Damn brain tumors are increasing in incidence. Who knows why? Cell phones? Power lines? Viruses? Gene pool? I’ve had two colleagues die of 'em in the past 6 years…one an ENT specialist dead at age 43 and one a rheumatologist who died at age 41 just a few weeks ago.
The phenomena of “social drift,” personality imprinting by age 2, freedom of choice, genetics of addiction and consequences thereof, and a multitude of other factors will lead to mankind ultimately failing to solve the homelessness problem in the world. I’ve studied the human condition from the perspective of a physician/student of medicine for over 20 years now. I’ve made some interesting observations and seen some very altruistic things done on behalf of homeless peoples that have been flat out rejected. On the other hand, I cleaned out closets a few weeks ago. I put 4 bags of my old clothes and shoes in the car and drove to the area of downtown Nashville where homeless men wander the streets. I found a group, stopped and popped the trunk, and called them over to hand over the clothes and other things. They were delighted and we all had an interesting discussion. One particular question struck me as interesting…“Are they nice clothes, mister?” Funny…it never occurred to me that homeless people like nice things, too. We often assume they don’t. And, of course, for the benefit of those of you wise guys out there who might be inclined to comment, they were indeed nice clothes, coats, and shoes.
I don’t take up much space and can easily fit in a standard-sized closet.
