Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hi-yo, Steel Band!!

If you ever served with an MU who had been stationed with the Steel Band, you heard a lot of stories about "pans"; how you learn them, play them, tune them. It was all in some other language.

Here's the U.S. Navy Steel Band performing at a Navy Birthday concert at Independence Hall, Washington, in 1989. My Navy Band Newport shipmate, Dennis Jansson is in the front row, second from the viewer's right.

Okay, Denny, I finally get it.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Ruthie Foster, MU

She's a Grammy-winning, world-traveling, song-writing blues singer.

Ruthie Foster is also a former MU, grateful for her experience as a member of Navy Band Charleston. Her honesty shines through in this interview with CultureMob, in which she discusses the valuable things Navy music taught her: leadership, professionalism and, most important, how to back up an 18-passenger van.