WEST POINT — While many will be singing “Auld Lang Syne” to celebrate 2024, partiers at a downtown museum will be singing the blues.
The Black Prairie Blues Museum is hosting a Black and White Ball on Sunday from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., with live music by Brother Drew and the Blue Cats, food, drinks, a midnight champagne toast and more.
Museum volunteer director Deborah Mansfield said the party is going to be extremely “festive,” celebrating the new year along with blues music, which is the root of most modern American musical genres.
“We’re not going to be blue in the new year, except in our music,” Mansfield said.
Museum board member Mary Ruth Caradine told The Dispatch the music will include both covers and original songs, as partiers sing and dance the blues away.
“The blues makes you feel good when you feel bad and makes you feel better when you feel good,” Caradine said. “There will be music to dance to. There won’t just be slow blues to sit around to.”
Caradine said the band includes Drew Dieckmann on guitar and vocals, Bob Damm on drums and percussion, Jim Beaty on bass and vocals and Doug Thomas on horns. Each, she said, is well known in the Golden Triangle for their musical prowess.
“You’d be hard pressed to find any other group of musicians in the state that surpass the knowledge, the skill and the finesse of these guys,” Caradine said. “Individually they’re awesome and together, I think they’re going to blow the roof off.”
Board member Bob Brzuszek said the museum’s New Year’s Eve celebrations started last year as a way to fill a gap.
“It was born from the fact that there aren’t a lot of ways to celebrate in the Golden Triangle area,” Brzuszek said. “So we thought that filling that gap with food, music and fun would be a great way to end the old year and begin the new year.”
This year, he said, the museum added the Black and White Ball theme and dress code, to coordinate the aesthetic of the party.
Tickets for the event, Mansfield said, cost $75 in advance and $100 at the door. To order tickets in advance, text (662) 275-7819.
“Get your tickets early and get ready for a good time,” Mansfield said.
Mansfield said the event is also a great way to interact with the blues museum for the first time and to become familiar with the museum’s upcoming programs in the new year. For more information on the Black Prairie Blues Museum’s upcoming programs and events, visit blackprairiebluesmuseum.com/.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 38 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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