Rhythm and Blues Festival Kicks Off at Secrest Auditorium

DOWNTOWN ZANESVILLE, Ohio- Today the Secrest Auditorium is hosting it’s last free concert of the summer. It was the Rhythm and Blues festival which began at 2PM and ends at 10PM in the parking lot across from the auditorium. 

The concert is taking place just in time to ring out the last unofficial days of summer and to kick off the Labor Day holiday weekend. 

“Well Labor Day Weekend is a very important weekend. My father was a coal miner so in my heart I always knew that Labor Day was one of the most important holidays. But it’s really your last opportunity to have all your family come together,” Don Mason, Mayor of Zanesville stated.

Of the three bands playing: The Flew Crew, Motown Sounds of Touch, and The Deal Breakers; we were able to go back stage and talk with the band ‘Motown Sounds of Touch’ before their performance. There, they shared their touching recollection of what rhythm and blues means to them and the people they’re performing for.

“It brings back a lot of memories of things that used to be, people can relieve their life through our songs,” ‘Plum” from the band said; “We get that a lot. People after the show, sometimes we do a meet-and-greet -we’re supposed to do one tonight, people always come up and tell us how they grew up listening to Motown, and it makes them remember this and it makes them remember that,” Arthur from the band added.

“It takes me back to meeting my first girlfriend, walking her home and all that stuff. And like I said, it was a good time for music. The lyrics were really simple back then,” ‘Spoon’ from the band recollected.

The Secrest Auditorium has plans in the works for a concert or two in the fall and winter months to keep the concert momentum going. Also, if you’d like to learn more or get in contact with the Motown Sounds of Touch band, you can find them on their Facebook Page ‘The Sounds of Touch’.