Once upon a time, before unlimited smart phone connectivity, before Facebook, before television, before radio, people used to gather and entertain themselves. No amplifiers, no conglomerate rock music publishers, no processed, target-demographic-marketed, scientifically-selected mass media fed into your brain as if one were being fattened like a Thanksgiving turkey.
This Saturday at 7:30 PM at the Arboretum State Botanical Garden of Kentucky in Lexington (on Alumni Drive, but use Tates Creek Road to get there because of construction) the Central Kentucky Concert Band will be presenting an hour’s worth of musical respite.
The band is brought to you by the courtesy of its friends, the Friends of the Arboretum. The band concludes its Summer Concert Series under the fine direction of its guest conductor, Chief Warrant Officer Gregory Stepp, the conductor of the 202nd Army Band of the National Guard.
Amid the hundred acres of emerald trees and grass that is the Arboretum, bathed in the copper-golden light of the setting sun, the band will present an entertaining mix of patriotic and popular music. It’s totally analog. It’s totally unplugged. No amplifiers. No social media. Just sixty or so people playing their horns out of nothing more than the love of music.
And for additional kicks, bring your kids. The band’s rejection of electronics is practically subversive in its embracing of good, old-fashioned values and entertainment. Your kids won’t know what to think. It’ll be hilarious.
Here’s my challenge to you: Come listen. That’s all you have to do to claim some “you” time. Come. Listen. It is that easy. No admission charge, bring your own blanket or chairs, and enjoy!
–CKCB PR director Mark Mitchell
Central Kentucky Concert Band 