Back from spending an intensive and rewarding time working with over forty eight graders @ LIBERTY ARTS MAGNET SCHOOL in Lima, OH for their 25th annual BLUES IN THE SCHOOLS WEEK (February 26- March 2, 2018)- funded by the man they call "PICKLE" (organizer of PICKLE'S BLUES EXTRAVAGANZA, an annual non-profit event), the students were arranged into three bands of aprrox. fifteen members, and each class tackled a tune: "Good Rockin' Tonight" by Roy Brown, "Reconsider Baby" by Lowell Fulson and "The Blues Is Alright" by Little Milton- the end goal was a concert held Friday morning for the school. I was so impressed by these young folks- they worked hard and accepted direction in order to achieve the goal of being part of a band that grooved together and made one unified sound. There was also fearlessness involved: some of the students, notably two of the three bassists, never played the instrument before but were wiling to apply themselves, and in the end they nailed it! The concert on Friday was a great success, and on top of it all it was FUN! This was my no means a solitary endeavor: it was a concerted effort along with Liberty Arts Magnet School's music instructors Kara Place and Paul Eckert- it would have been virtually impossible to achieve the end result alone. SIncere thanks to these remarkable students for enriching my life- I greatly appreciate it!
R.N.
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