Blues society benefit features region’s young musicians

The Washington Blues Society wants to keep the music running through the next generation.

To that end, the society offers The Music Marches On, a benefit show set for 8 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Neptune Theatre, 1303 NE 45th St., in Seattle’s University District.

While the show is free, it is hoped that concert-goers will donate what they can to the society’s Passing The Torch scholarship program and to the Mill Creek-based MusicBox Project, which produced the documentary film “Americana Women: Roots Musicians — Women’s Tales &Tunes.”

Dyann Arthur, of the MusicBox nonprofit, has put together this multi-media concert showcasing the talents of a dozen or so young people headed into careers in music. Some have experience with Seattle Teen Music, others with Seattle School of Rock. All have been “baptized in the blues,” organizers said.

Arthur had help with the project from Edmonds Driftwood Players’ Mary Kay Voss and a volunteer band of south Snohomish County actors including Jared and Carrie Ivory, Pat Brady, Jenny Price, Rose Bryant, Patrick Hogan, Danette Meline, Jason Connor and Jay Vilhauer.

The first part of the concert is devoted to vignettes from American music history, with video of archival photos as the backdrop. After each scene in this musical journey, young musicians take the stage to play a tune from that era.

The second half of the show is a band set involving all the musicians, Arthur said.

“There is a wealth of talent in our region,” she said. “Some of these kids are already performing in national tours. It’s been wonderful to work with these kids, and, of course, I like it that half of them are girls.”

Three years ago, Washington Blues Society began to foster hands-on, educational experiences to the next generation of musicians, regardless of their financial abilities. All donations to the Passing the Torch program through WA Blues Society, as well as MusicBox Project, are tax deductible.

For more information, go to www.stgpresents.org.