Bah rum papa pom!!

I think we already discussed the drums importance in the American Revolution. But if not, here is the opinion of the NPS from Guilford courthouse

I want to mention music again because RG's band, RG Absher and Extra Measure, will perform at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center in Cary on Friday Night. I can't go ( ;-( ) because of the major practice for Tom Dooley this week. I hope you can go. You will love it! I want to go home next weekend to see the NC Symphony and the Circus at the Koka Booth Amphitheater.

Koka Booth is just a wonderful person. He brought his family to Cary from West Virginia when I was in high school. His vision encouraged our high school band parents to dream big. Our Director, Jimmy Burns, another incredible person, taught us from 5th grade on and inspired us with pride and finesse in the 1970s from a high height to win the Sun Fun Festival in Myrtle Beach, SC to the highest heights all the way past the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to the Fete de Geneve in Switzerland... And the Nixon Inauguration, a parade in Raleigh for Governor Holshouser, and the Orange Bowl and the Kentucky Derby... and... and... and.. thanks to Hardees and RJ Reynolds and selling a bunch of plastic roses at Crabtree Valley Mall.

Not that the Cary band wasn't already great- they went to the Rose Bowl in the 1950s, but since the 1970s with the leadership of Jimmy Burns and Koka Booth, the band just hasn't stopped. Inspired leadership is so important.

Someone with a spark and a talent, that "energetic minority" that creates something that lives on and on...

My cousin's son was the drum major this year. The 50th anniversary of Cary Band Day was fun, fun, fun. That said, it is so hard to have a magnificent band these days given the 90 minute classes and weird schedules at school. So when a marching band is magnificent, they must be super! Listen to these drummers from 2008 from Granville county and these from 2007 from Jack Britt High school in Fayetteville .

America's got talent!