Upstate blues legend Mac Arnold will have two days of school music outreach in Greenwood next week, plus a blues exhibit Wednesday and two performances Thursday.
Upstate blues legend Mac Arnold will have two days of school music outreach in Greenwood next week, plus a blues exhibit Wednesday and two performances Thursday.
South Carolina bluesman Mac Arnold and his band, Plate Full O’ Blues, will work with students from Mays Elementary School next week, and share the stage at Greenwood 50 Performing Arts Center.
Plus, Arnold figures in a new blues exhibit opening at The Museum of Greenwood.
The Museum’s exhibit highlights memorabilia from the area’s blues history and WCRS radio. Arnold and his band are scheduled to attend.
The public is invited:
5 p.m. Wednesday to The Museum of Greenwood, 106 Main St., for the free meet-and-greet reception celebrating The Blues: A Southern Tradition. This exhibit is in partnership with Greenwood Performing Arts.
5 p.m. Thursday, to the Greenwood 50 Performing Arts Center on the Greenwood High School Campus, 1816 Cokesbury Road, for a lively 30-minute free concert, featuring students from Mays Elementary and Emerald High School, along with Mac Arnold and band members.
7 p.m. Thursday to the Greenwood 50 Performing Arts Center for a ticketed concert by Mac Arnold and Plate Full O’ Blues. Get $20 general admission tickets at the door, or in advance, at Howard’s on Main, Flynn’s on Maxwell, Fat Daddy’s, First Citizen’s Bank and online: greenwoodperformingarts.org.
Gas-can guitar-playing, cowboy hat-wearing Arnold, 80, maintains a busy music schedule and working organic farm in Pelzer.
Arnold had none other than a young, future “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, on piano in an early band. Arnold cut his own blues chops as a left-handed guitar player, who toured and recorded with Muddy Waters, among other greats.
Arnold is a member of the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame and a slide guitar of his has graced the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Still actively performing and recording, Arnold has established a nonprofit — I Can Do Anything Foundation — to preserve music education for youths, particularly in public schools.
“I Can Do Anything,” the foundation’s uplifting song, is an integral part of Arnold’s work with Mays Elementary students Tuesday and Wednesday mornings next week, and a collaborative performance Thursday evening, with students from Mays Elementary and Emerald High School.
