When someone brings up the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival, people likely imagine the scent of spicy roasting meat coupled with the sounds of roots music and the twang of a blues band for a whole weekend in September. But if you wander the venue and look carefully, you will see more and more young people — elementary-age young people — enjoying the festival. There’s a very good reason for that.

Noted blues and jazz musician and educator T. J. Wheeler has brought his Blues in the Schools program to Columbia for several years now. Richard King, with The Blue Note, has been intimately involved with the festival from the beginning and says the first time he ever saw Wheeler at the festival, he had only a vague idea the performer had been to Grant School earlier, when his son had mentioned it in passing.

“So I jumped on my golf cart and went down to Flat Branch Park…and I saw all of these parents from Grant School, and I saw all these teachers from Grant School, I saw all these kids from Grant School on the stage, and I was just blown away,” King says. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, look at this.’ You know, there’s, to me, nothing like children’s voices on stage with a guy like T. J. being the ringleader. … It was so much fun to watch the participation.”


Excited about the music
King worked with the board of directors to bring Wheeler back each year and introduce the program to multiple schools; now, Blues in Schools is in 12 schools, with the goal to have it in every school in the district. The current funding only allows for Wheeler to come for a short time, but with donations and fundraising, King hopes to have him visit for a month.

King says the best thing about Wheeler is his sheer love of and knowledge about the music. He has a tremendous ability, as King says, “to relate to kids that age,” which gets the students excited about what they’re playing.

King gives credit for the advancement of Blues in the Schools to one of the newest members of the foundation board of directors, Chris Belcher, superintendent of Columbia Schools. “Chris recognizes exactly what kind of impact that program has on the schools,” King says. “He’s pretty much 100 percent behind us.”

Another member of the board of directors for the foundation is Joe Moseley, with Shelter Insurance. “The program is a great way to introduce kids to music history as well as music,” Moseley says. Shelter is a Partner in Education with what will become West Middle School (formerly West Junior High), and Moseley says he’s hoping to see Blues in the Schools expand from elementary schools to middles schools next year. He also hopes to see the program include a growing number of schools, add an art component and a blues camp in the summer, among other things.

Funding the future

Moseley admits the biggest obstacle for the Blues in Schools program right now is financial, and the foundation is hoping to bring in money from private donations and fundraising events, such as the Brews for Blues event at this year’s festival.

Both King and Moseley agree that, despite funding cuts in the district, Columbia schools are holding their own in arts and music education. They also agree that the school board recognizes the value of the Blues in the Schools program and believe it will stand behind its expansion.

Another future hope for Blues in the Schools is to take the program to Joplin or Moore, Okla., in the wake of the tragedies there.

For more on Blues in the Schools, go to rootsnbluesnbbq.com, and click the “Foundation” tab.