Writing

Music fans not too cool for BlueSKool
Musicians provide hands-on lessons for area children

By: Kelly Steuck - Published in the Quad-City Times on Sunday, July 4, 2004

Jeff Cook/Quad-City Times Quad-City kids enjoy a special treat Saturday during the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in LeClaire Park, Davenport — participating in BlueSKool, an interactive blues teaching tool featuring blues performers. Here, from left, Brienna Barnes, 10, Benjamin Barnes, 7, and Joseph Granell, 10, use various instruments with the help of blues artist Shirley Lewis.

"It may sound strange to you, but I don't want no more rain," sang Shirley Lewis as thunder rumbled and rain pattered on the pavilion overhead.

Her improvised lyrics seemed to help defer the rain for a couple of hours.

She was one of the performers Saturday on the BlueSKool stage at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in LeClaire Park, Davenport. BlueSKool is designed to educate children about the history of blues.

"I don't know what you came to hear, but you're going to hear what I have to say," Lewis laughed. "(Blues) seems to come from the depths of your soul when you get up there and sing."

She was born to a poor, struggling family in Florence, N.J. She began performing at 4 years old with her siblings and father in the Lewis Family Gospel Singers. It was her father, who died when she was only 14, who taught her the blues. A Hopi Indian, he spent his life traveling to avoid being sent back to reservations, where prejudicial beliefs at the time told him he belonged, she said.

"My father never ever taught me to be bitter," she said. "And he was never bitter, though he had great reason to be bitter."

Before nearly every song, Lewis would ask the children to join her and play an instrument as she sang. When she realized some of them were shy, she broke the ice, saying, "I'm gonna come out there and get you," and then pulled children out of their seats.

Steven Rench, 9, and twin brothers Nick and Joseph Granell, 10, all of Rock Island, were some of he children coaxed into instrumental roles by Lewis. Together, they played the bells, drumsticks and maracas.

They were part of a four-week BlueSKool program at Audubon School in Rock Island. They were scheduled to perform along other BlueSKool participants later in the day. "I got nervous when I got here," Joseph said. "But now I'm just having fun being out here."

Vicki McCord worked with students in June at Audubon, Lincoln and Ridgewood schools in Rock sland for what she called the "Spirit of the Blues," learning the history and various styles of blues music.

"I'm a big believer in the educational element of it," said Larry Tierney, education chairman for the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, which sponsors Blues Fest. "The earlier you can get them involved in it, the better."