BELLE FOURCHE—The front lawn of the big white historic structure located at 1208 8th Avenue in Belle Fourche, SD was the backdrop to a free neighborhood concert on Monday, July 14.
That historic house, also known as the Doug and Nancy Cole home, hosted the Center of the Nation Brass Quintet. As tuba player and band spokesperson for the evening, Steve Shuck told the crowd that the invitation to play on the lawn of the grand structure came via a comment on one of their Facebook posts. “The last few summers we have taken every other week or every third week or something and we just find some place to play,” he explained. “A couple of weeks ago, we played at our drummer’s place and our player and webmaster put something on Facebook and Nancy commented that she would love to have a neighborhood concert at her house, so that is why we are here!”
The quintet has been playing together for over ten years. “We all play together elsewhere. We all played with the Black Hills State community band for a while, and we all play with the Belle Fourche Cowboy Band,” said Shuck. “This actually got started because there were times when the Cowboy Band would be asked to play someplace and we couldn’t field the full band so we thought, well, at least we can get a little music!”
They entertained the crowd with 17 songs from a variety of musical selections. “We played some blues, we played some pop music, we played a show tune, we played a boogie woogie and we played some old Dixieland stuff,” said Shuck.
The crowd clapped along and cheered at times as they sat on the lawn and enjoyed the music. The event was BYOC, bring your own chair, but refreshments were provided by the Belle Fourche Beacon and Lynn’s Dakotamart.
Watch for the Center of the Nation Brass Quintet playing all over the Black Hills area this summer and make sure you pull up a seat and enjoy the experience of the stories and the music that these talented musicians provide. The Band is made up of Steve Shuck on the tuba, Kevin Rather playing the trombone, Tracy Kobberdahl playing the trumpet, Gary Fladmoe playing the trumpet and Carol Doerges on the French horn. They are all from the Northern Hills area.
Read the full issue of the Belle Fourche Beacon by clicking here.
