The Blues in the School program is now in its 13th year. Students in Bruce County were given a lesson inside the blues final week from visiting roots musician and historian Rev. Robert Jones Sr. Jones Sr., who hails from Detroit and has over 30 years of performances beneath his belt, introduced his celebratory message of range thru music and testimonies to college students at 4 faculties closing week, consisting of Saint Anthony’s and Huron Heights in Kincardine.
While Jones Sr. has done for all styles of audiences, from union contributors to prisoners, he stated that the precept is always equal. You need to hook up with your target audience, wherever they are. But the six-album veteran, who additionally played May 15 at the Sutton Park Inn in conjunction with Ripley’s Anna Shield, stated performing for young people usually energizes him. “It’s always extra a laugh to play for children than to play for drunks,” he said previous to his performance at Saint Anthony’s on May 15. “And I in no way get tired of having a kid run up to you and say, ‘hi there, guy, that’s cool.’”
“In that experience, playing for youngsters sincerely reinforces a sense of task and purpose way more than the illusion of superstardom that most musicians, I realize, are chasing.” And at the “mission and cause” of Jones Sr., to light up the pervasive impact and importance of African American and American roots track, dovetails with the Bruce County Blues Society’s goal of freshening the blues genre for new generations. To that impact, the society’s Blues within the School application is now 12 years old.
“It’s a generally held thought that blues songs are simply the roots of all the famous music accessible these days, along with the United States and rock, so we want kids to research that and recognize it,” said Rick Clarke of Bruce County Blues. According to Clarke, the other element of bringing blues into faculty gyms as a part of the Ontario Power Generation-sponsored application is acknowledging that schools generally don’t have the money to rent musical acts.
“In today’s economic climate, faculties simply don’t have the finances for professional musicians to perform in their colleges,” he stated. “So we offer this program, as pricey as it is, for free to the colleges.” Jones Sr. has performed at Saint Anthony’s and other schools within the area earlier than, as he achieved Blues inside the School’s 2008 collection as well.
Fast-forward 11 years, and the multi-instrumentalist hasn’t lost his touch. At Saint Anthony’s this time, he had college students and teachers alike enthralled as he deftly switched between songs, memories, and some teachings at the music he refers to as “domestic cooking,” rather than the fast meals of the popular track.
“Hopefully, you’re the fellow who evokes them to listen to something apart from the famous song that’s being fed to them,” he said. “And there’s usually some little bizarre child in a crowd who might be the next Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Cyndi Lauper, or whoever this is, and you desire to connect with them too.” Over four suggests Jones Sr. completed for college kids from six schools, which include Ripley-Huron Community, Paisley Central, and Kincardine-Township Tiverton, who visited for the Huron-Heights public school session.
