Crossroads Blues Society's is getting ready to celebrate their 100th Blues in the Schools (BITS) program. Their programs scheduled for January 30, 2012 will be the 99th and 100th programs that Crossroads has hosted since they began providing BITS programs for area schools in May 2002. Who would be better than Fruteland Jackson to do these programs, especially since he did the first BITS program for them? Since that time, they have brought the blues to close to 30,000 student across Northern Illinois.
January 30th brings them to South Beloit for their first visit to that school system. Riverview Elementary School will host the AM program. In the afternoon it is back to Rockford and Martin Luther King Elementary School will host the 100th program.
Crossroads are proud of their efforts in helping to keep the blues alive in the Rockford area. Funding for BITS in the past had come from the generous support of the Rockford Area Arts Council and Illinois Arts Council. Current funding comes from their annual Byron Crossroads BLues festival held on the Saturday before Labor Day weekend in Byron, IL. Programs are held at no cost to the schools. Crossroads already has February programs scheduled for Keith School and Spring Creek ES on February 22nd. More programs are being planned for the Spring.
Fruteland is a singer & songwriter performing acoustic blues, from contemporary to traditional, from the blues of early field-holler songs and work songs to Delta and Piedmont Blues, as well as his own original works. Fruteland is one of a select group of Americans dedicated to gathering, preserving and performing acoustic blues in its many styles. Fruteland has performed at venues across the US, Europe and Russia.
BITS program costs have been maintained low and continue to average only $1 per student in attendance. Assembly attendance averages about 300 per school. Crossroads Blues Society is a non-profit corporation staffed entirely by volunteers. They publish a bi-monthly newsletter of blues music reviews and articles in addition to their BITS work and running the annual festival in Byron. For more information about Crossroads visit http://crossroadsbluessociety.blogspot.com or call 779-537-4006.
