Henry Turner Jr.’s Listening Room Museum Foundation in Baton Rouge will host Blues Camp II from July 29 through September 2. The six-week program will be held every Friday from 2 to 3:30pm Central, with both in-person and online instruction.
Each 90-minute session, free and open to all ages, will consist of a half hour of blues structure and instrumentation, a half hour of history and syntax and a half hour of entertainment business lectures. The program is open to all ages. Participants have the option either come to Henry Turner Jr.’s Listening Room to be a part of the program or to log onto facebooklive and watch the weekly sessions.
The Blues Camp II is hosted by musician and entrepreneur Henry Turner Jr. It is a follow up to a successful program in 2020 which featured instruction on Turner’s song the “Baton Rouge Theme Song.” This year’s focus song is “Going Down to Louisiana.” Guest artists include bassist Larry “LZ” Dillon, drummer Jim Masters and keyboardist Irwin “Maestro” Foster, all of whom perform in Turner’s Flavor band. Additional guests scheduled to date include spoken word artist Kelton ‘Nspire Harper, publicist Marcia Groff, journalist Hedi Butler, musician Kasey Ball and entertainment business executives Eric Cager, co-founder of the Cutting Edge Music Business Conference.
The first session will cover blues song structure and the breakdown of the rhythm section, a history of the blues and music business entrepreneurship, marketing and promotion. Week two will concentrate on bass line structure, blues artists from the mid 1950s to the ’70s who pioneered the Baton Rouge sound and creative writing for musicians. Week three will focus on drum patterns, current blues artists in Baton Rouge and public relations. Week four will include a breakdown of keyboard chording, international artists who covered songs by Baton Rouge singer-songwriters and composing lyrics. Week five’s focus will cover vocal harmonies, how blues music affects tourism for Baton Rouge and visual imaging and interview techniques. The final week will involve student participation in the learned song with the band for both virtual and in-house audiences, a blues history recap and choosing the right instrument.
Turner is a musician, vocalist, guitar player, composer, producer and promoter. He and his band, Flavor, have toured extensively for the past 30 years. As founder of Hit City Digital records he and the band have released sixteen singles and eight albums. Their songs have been featured in numerous compilation projects, independent feature films, commercials and top rated television shows.
For more information please visit henryslisteningroom.com or call (225) 802-9681.
