2007

Carson wra~ up 25 years ofmusic

"I mavbelO vears old, still on ..

America.

s tarted at ECCC (then East Central Junior College) as a theater major, having some experience in the dramatic arts: he had performed the Greek play Antigone in the ruins of Pompeii. But he also had an interest in rock music, and had been playing guitar since hls early teens. "I was sort of a rebel," he recalls. "I liked groups like the Rolling Stones." The self-profesed introvert says he "spent hours and hours recording songs off of records, and singing along with them, playing guitar along with them, and doing my own arrangements." The band director at EC convinced him to major in music, which necessitat– ed a shift to a very un-rock and rol1 instrument: the French hom. "It was all new to me," he says, when he took

the field with the band and a funny looking hom. "At that point I thought 'I want to be a rock star now and p lay gu i– tar' .. .I had no idea of being a band director," he says. He continues: "Then my sophomore year I met my wife and fell in love, and at that point I started looking at this rock band thing... I thought that living out of vans and eating Cheetos might not be too prof– itable, so J started looking at music edu– cation." The young guj– tar pla¥er earned a degree in Music Education at Delta State University.

By Bill Graham Appeal News Editor Husband. Father. Marching band director. Weight loss expert. World traveler. Son of a diplomat. Rock and roll guitar player. Monday morning, Carson is sitting in his office at East Central Community College, where he has just fin– ished 25 years as Director of Bands. But looking back, Carson says he never planned on a career in music education. Carson, whose father was a diplomat Consul General, actually grew up in Europe and South Tom Carson is all of those, and more. On a quiet

"I went to 14 differ– ent schools," he remem– bers. "1 wasn't even in the band in high school, " he says, because schools in Europe don't have march– ing bands. In 1973, his father retired and decided to move back to Mississippi. "We

were living in Italy at the time. I remember like it was yesterday: on May 71 was walk– ing around in Naples, Italy, and on May 20, I was standing in

Tom Carson

Continued on page 7,

Conehatta, ·Mississippi, saying 'What the heck is going on?" The college freshman

see Carson...

·~

~·

........,.• .,..'JIO'__ ~·-•"!tl