© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KBIA 91.3 FM will be at low power for a portion of the day on 3/29/2024 starting at 9:30 a.m. to accommodate a tower crew doing some maintenance on equipment
Here Say is a project in community storytelling. We travel to a new place each week and ask people to share true stories about things we all experience: love, family, learning, etc.Click here for a full-screen or mobile-ready map.00000178-cc7d-da8b-a77d-ec7d2fad0000

Here Say: Your Stories about Music, Told at Roots N' Blues

Steve Judasack
Sarah Kellogg
/
KBIA

Here Say is a project in community storytelling. We travel to a new place each week and ask people to share true stories about things we all experience: love, family, learning and more. To see where we've been, check out our interactive map. And to hear your favorite stories from last season, you can find our free podcast on itunes.

Steve Judasack told us about what music means to him.

It’s a string that runs through my body and through my wife’s body and through my family. I love to play music. I love to listen to music. Music can make the worst day go away. It touches you all the way to your soul.
 
Steve told us about his grandchildren's love of music.

 

We have ten grandchildren, an eleventh on the way. We have everything in a music room and the kids go in there and they beat on stuff. I mean, the good guitars on the walls, but they beat on the djembe and the percussion and the egg shakers and it’s spiritual. It moves ‘em.

 

 

Lauren Young
Credit Rebecca Greenway / KBIA
/
KBIA
Lauren Young

Lauren Young plays the synthesizer in the Battle High School marching band and tells us that, while the electronic piano may not be the star of the show, it supports the rest of the band.

"Well, you get the music and it doesn’t make a lot of sense when you get it because it’s all the different band parts, you’re reinforcing what they’re playing. It doesn’t look like real music. But when you get it all together It’s really cool how your instrument can really make the sound so much better even if you’re not necessarily heard as an instrument.

Lauren shared with us about how music makes her feel.

"It can take you some place else. It tells - every song tells a story and sometimes you don’t know necessarily understand the story until you are in a certain situations and then you finally - that song speaks to you differently than you ever have - that it has ever before, which is really cool."

 

 

Howard Christian
Credit Sarah Kellogg / KBIA
/
KBIA
Howard Christian

We met Howard Christian who told us that when he hears the Blues, he dances like nobody's watching.

 

"It makes me happy, it gives me a good feeling about myself. My wife, she thinks I’m crazy sometimes. I’ll be out, listening to Blues, dancing in the garage or something, neighbors think I’m nuts or something but, I mean, I just like Blues."

While he may not be the best dancer, Howard tells us that doesn’t always stop him.

"I mean, I can’t sing. I’m not a very good dancer, but I think I am."

Greg Theis
Credit Mary McIntre / KBIA
/
KBIA
Greg Theis

Greg Theis told us about his wife’s favorite part of Dwight’s concerts.

 

"She really enjoys his jeans, so if you’ve ever seen Dwight Yoakam on stage, you would understand that statement."

 
 

Pam Smith and Husband
Credit Sarah Kellogg / KBIA
/
KBIA
Pam Smith

We met Pam Smith and her husband, who shared with us about what music means to their family.

"Music means everything, really. It’s how our family, you know, we cross the age divide between us and our kids and we get to share a little bit of our history of how we grew up with them and they’ve kind of picked up on it and it just kind of goes to your soul."

 

 

Sara Shahriari was the assistant news director at KBIA-FM, and she holds a master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism. Sara hosted and was executive producer of the PRNDI award-winning weekly public affairs talk show Intersection. She also worked with many of KBIA’s talented student reporters and teaches an advanced radio reporting lab. She previously worked as a freelance journalist in Bolivia for six years, where she contributed print, radio and multimedia stories to outlets including Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg News, the Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, Deutsche Welle and Indian Country Today. Sara’s work has focused on mental health, civic issues, women’s and children’s rights, policies affecting indigenous peoples and their lands and the environment. While earning her MA at the Missouri School of Journalism, Sara produced the weekly Spanish-language radio show Radio Adelante. Her work with the KBIA team has been recognized with awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and PRNDI, among others, and she is a two-time recipient of funding from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Related Content