After-School and Summertime Blues Camp
Alabama Blues Project

Thanks to the Alabama Blues Project's After-School and Summertime Blues Camp, the people of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, believe the Blues will continue to survive in the Deep South. For eight months of the year, Blues Camp gives young people ages 9-18 a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn to sing or to play the harmonica, guitar, or percussion guided by professional Blues vocalists and musicians. Recognizing that Blues music is based in an oral tradition, Blues Camp provides contact with living musicians from the region and connects the students with their community's rich musical heritage.

Using a combination of music training, performance experience, and life-skills instruction, Blues Camp taps into the creative potential of young people living in Tuscaloosa's most impoverished areas. Working in partnership with local churches and youth service organizations, Blues Camp recruits participants from foster homes, local housing projects, and state care facilities. Most of the young people have had little access to arts programs and have never played a musical instrument. And yet, by participating in weekly after-school and summertime sessions, these youth learn to play together as a Blues band, performing for enthusiastic crowds in retirement homes, hospitals, festivals, schools, and community centers throughout the city.

Blues Camp also addresses the personal development of each student musician. The Camp provides interactive, group classes that develop social skills, build confidence, and teach conflict resolution. The combined curriculum of personal development and musicianship is, in fact, at the heart of Blues Camp. Teaching life skills improves students' concentration, self-discipline, and ability to express themselves creatively-all skills necessary for successful musicians.

As important as their music instruction and life-skills training is the students' immersion in Blues culture and heritage. Blues Camp participants are introduced to this culture through demonstrations, videos, discussions, and visits from some of Alabama's most renowned Blues artists. By focusing on the southern roots of this American art form and providing access to the region's most influential Blues performers, the program fosters cultural pride in students, which is critical to their concept of self and community.