2007

5-~l-L7 WEEK OF ----- - - - - -

Carson -.Continued from pu~e lA "And here f am, a

e,·ening's practice, he puts on headphones and writes ?ut the parts, isolating each mstrument, starting with bass guitar. . "You can't buy pub- h-.;hed arrangements, so I ha,·c to write everything from scratch to ma ke it sound just like it does on the cd," he says. "I hand write every– thing", even though there is computer software that could make it easier. ''I'm just old-school," he 1aughs. Along with directing the marching and jazz bands, and playing with the Collegians, Carson has his hands full with side projects. There's City Lights, his country group that plays regionally, The EC Rockers, made up of EC employees and alumni, and what he calls his "proudest accomplishment": The Hopeless Rejects. His 14 year old son Jeremy fronts the band, made up of 7th and 8th graders. Jeremy isn't the only child artistically inclined: oldest son Chris s tudies theCiter a t USM, where daughter Jennifer just grad– uated with a degree in music education. Cilrson's wife Brenda has also just finished 25 years at EC as director of the financial aid office.

would bleed black and she would bleed gold." With band director duties and side gigs, Carson has little down time. In what little free time he has, Carson might be found working out fu his gym at home. 1 "It's a necessity, 1 have to do it," he says, then re~ates perhaps his greatest actevement. "I lost a tremendous amount of weight about 3 years ago when J lost 165 pounds," he says. "It he I ped a lot with my ener– gy level and gave me a new lease on Jife." Staying healthy (he loves cooking) and work– ing with his students are his passions, but of course, there's playing the guitar: " J haven't put the guitar down," Carson says. "1 probably play more now than I did when I was younger. That's my pas– sion." "I may be 70 years old, still on stage with the Collegians playing guitar," he laughs. He'll be on stage when the Collegians finish this year's 'tour' at the eshoba County Fair this summer. Then it's back to drawing board- and staff paper- to begin recruiting young musicians for the next school year. "Every year there is something new to think about."

band director.. th1s is some– thing I ne\'er would've thought 1 would\·e done... but I thoroughly enjoy it." · His first year as band director at EC, he mc~naged the small 17 member marching band (it now· a\'erages 150 members), started a ja.a band, and worked with the Collegians, the show choir. "f wanted to ha\'e a rock n' roll band," he says, so he dispensed \Ylth the show choir style and point– ed the group towards rock and roll town. "I played in rock bands all through col– lege.. l saw the potential that there were a lot of stu– dents who weren't (march– ing) band students but liked music. This was a chance to get students involved and see what it was like to have a working rock and roll band to be in." The Collegians ha' e become famous for their high energy sho....,·s, always in tune with current trends in pop music. Carson has the task of arranging the music and expanding what he hears on the radio. Most pop acts. are four or five piece bands, while The Collegians can stretch to mer a do/en members, with a full hom section, multiple singers, and percussionists On Sunday nights, in prepar.1tion for Monda-,.

"We both love East Central," he says. "Talk about bleeding black and gold, if you got a knife, I

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