Enjoy a lecture/live music presentation of the spirituals, work songs, and slave songs that evolved into the blues at McHenry County College’s next Experts and Insights speaker series Thursday, January 18 at 6 p.m. in the College’s Luecht Auditorium. “A History of Blues Culture” will be presented by Music instructor Pat Gaughan and violin teacher Nancy Maio.
The session will explore the role that oppression played in the development of the blues, from slavery to Jim Crow laws and civil rights struggles. It will also cover the Delta blues style, the migration North, and the development into the classic blues.
“Music expresses the feelings and beliefs we are experiencing at the time it is created,” said Gaughan. “The music that was written and performed during slavery and the Jim Crow era expresses feelings of oppression, sadness, and hope through its melodies and lyrics.”
Pat Gaughan teaches World Music and guitar at MCC as an adjunct Music faculty and through Community Education. She received her Bachelor of Music from the American Conservatory of Music and her master’s in music from Northern Illinois University. Pat performs vocals and guitar on the folk music circuit throughout the Midwest with fiddler Nancy Maio.
Nancy Maio is a violin teacher and performs with several local orchestras including the Racine Symphony, the Festival City Symphony, and the Wisconsin Philharmonic. She is also a sought-after Irish Step Dance competition musician.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is requested but walk-ins are welcome.
The next Experts and Insights session will be “Bad Boys: Why We Love (and Need) the Movie Villain” on February 15 at 6 p.m.
Register and learn more. If you need an accommodation or a sign language interpreter, please contact MCC’s Access and Disability Services department at (815) 455-8766 or disabilityservices@mchenry.edu.
The Experts and Insights series originally started in 2019 as an opportunity for the community to experience the high quality of education and expertise provided by MCC’s faculty as they present topics in their fields of study.