Guitarist, Bassist and Percussionist Derrick Enyard was the featured musician Monday night at the first of the Boone County Historical Society’s 2018 concerts. The Blind Boone Concert series is named for Missouri pianist and composer John William 'Blind' Boone. The theme of the event is the roots of African-American music in America, specifically African, Spirituals, Folk Blues and Jazz music. The concert series is anchored around Boone’s custom-made 1893 grand piano.
Chris Campbell, the Executive Director at the Boone County Historical Society, says he worked with organizer Bill Clark to create the event.
“He and I together thought it would be perfectly timed - just a week after the national holiday Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and about 10 days before the beginning of Black History Month - to program something that celebrated the cultural roots of pretty much every part of American contemporary music today, which is the African-American roots.”
The Missouri Arts Council is one of the sponsors of the event. Executive Director Michael Donovan stresses that events like these are important for local communities.
“One of our strategic goals is to engage people with meaningful activities in the arts,” Donovan says. “This concert series is a perfect example of that. It is a chance to see quality art, it’s in an interesting venue, and it is bringing communities together around the arts.”
Chris Campbell, Executive Director for the Boone County Historical Society, says that celebrating the roots of African-American music is extremely important.
“Whether its Jazz or Blues, almost everything that followed in Pop music or Rock music today came out of that,” Campbell says.
