The Humboldt Bandwagon live at the Mateel Community Center on May 15, 2010

Brass bands, Brazillian choro, free jazz, radio theater, and even a polka will fill the Mateel Community Center on Saturday May 15th when the Bandwagon for the Arts hits the stage.

The free event, set as a benefit for Southern Humboldt and Leggett Valley school arts programs, will be broadcast live on KMUD (91.1fm) from 7:00 to 8:30pm. The live studio audience will be part of the show with sing-alongs, sound effects, and the whoop-it-up fun of live radio.

Students from several area schools will be featured on the air including the exceptional 2010 South Fork Band and Mad Jazz Singers. Local music educators, pro performers, and student actors will be in the cast.

Producer Andy Barnett is putting the show together to support local school arts programs, many of which are in jeopardy due to years of overall school funding reductions. “There has been amazing support in past years,” said Barnett. “This year we need more help than ever,” he said.

The Bandwagon takes to the airwaves in the middle of a KMUD sponsored National Community Radio Conference. Barnett will conduct a workshop on live radio variety show production as part of the conference. Barnett and his on-air partner and real-life wife, Beth Wells, produced forty Bandwagon benefit broadcasts in the nineties, raising more than $30,000 for local non-profits.

First Hour (push the Play button to listen now, or download for listening later.){mp3}/humboldt_bandwagon/01humboldt_bandwagon(part1){/mp3}
Second Hour (push the Play button to listen now, or download for listening later.){mp3}/humboldt_bandwagon/02humboldt_bandwagon(part2){/mp3}