The Marching.com Spotlight presents news and articles on topics related to marching bands and pageantry arts.

Share this page:



View more articles

Suggest an article topic

Popular articles

Seen and Heard at BOA 2017

2017 Winter Circuit Championship Schedule

Prep your body for marching season

2015/2016 Bowl game parade and holiday parade schedule

12 Holiday Gift Ideas for Marching Band Fans

Seen and Heard at BOA 2015

Double Thumbs Up for the Mighty

Cavalcade of Bands Honor Band

Inaugural Parade Marching Band Invitations

Pride of the Dutchmen Marching Band

German bugle band makes its mark at Calgary Stampede

Marching bands to honor 9/11 anniversary

Traveling Efficiently

Specialized Marching Band Carts

2012 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Band Selections

Don't You Judge Me

The Sound of Perfection Movie

Working With a Travel Agent

Fiesta Bowl Memorable for Norton Band

Nerds vs. Geeks

'Band Nerds' Holiday Poem

Drum beat sparks music passion

Sport, Art, or...Spart?

Musical Growth Spurt

First Day of Rehearsal

Troopers Drum Corps Documentary

Ripped Jeans And Self-Esteem

Boot Camp For Bands

Gimme Some Props

Benefits of Indoor Percussion

Secrets of a Successful Audition

A Disappearing Act

An Alternate Universe

One More Time Around Again Marching Band

Steamboat Springs Ski Band

Band Boosters Support Dreams

Ohio State School for the Blind Marching Band

Rose Parade Float Honors Marching Bands

Throw It Down Movie

Bob McGrath inspires on Sesame Street

Rose Parade Float Decorators

Bugles Across America

High School Musical Choreographer Bonnie Story

Working in Harmony at Fillmore Central H.S., Harmony, Minnesota

Marching Amidst the Glaciers at Colony H.S., Alaska

Empowering Multiplicity at Trenton Peabody H.S., Tennessee

Visualizing the Extraordinary at Sebring H.S., Florida

Henson blends winter guard with puppetry in Panther & Crane

Competition: How important is it?

Band Nerds Poetry Book

XtremeBrass Technique helps brass players

Capturing Show Design Ideas

Halftime Magazine Debuts

From The 50 Yard Line Movie

Three Tips for Cleaning Drill

American Band Book

YouTube Marching Videos

Brentwood Band plays on Brad Paisley CD

Macy's Marching Band

Broken Arrow Documentary

Online Fundraising

Color Guard Flag Design

Marching Band Health Tips

European Flower Parades

Book features Concord H.S. Marching Minutemen

The Concord High School Marching Band from Elkhart, Indiana provides the setting for a new book that details the triumphs and trials of the marching band experience.

Author Kristen Laine immersed herself in the band for six months to gather research for American Band: Music, Dreams, and Coming of Age in the Heartland. The result is a respectful account of real-life characters whose stories are skillfully woven together.

American Band follows the Concord H.S. Marching Minutemen through the entire 2004 season. The book highlights the band's challenges and triumphs as its staff and students try to defend the state championship title. The book informs readers about the band's secrets to success, but this is not simply a play-by-play manual of how to create an outstanding marching band. The story goes well beyond the daily rehearsals and into the lives of the people involved.

Several students come to the forefront of the story and serve as lead characters along with band director Max Jones. The elements of hard work, dedication and teen dynamics are frequent themes of what the students are experiencing both on and off the performance field.

The writing is polished and literate. Author Kristen Laine is an award-winning journalist whose commentaries can be heard on Vermont Public Radio. Laine also has marching band experience, although the shows she performed hardly resemble today's sophisticated production.

"The straight lines and 90-degree angles of my band days are long gone," Laine says. "When I was in marching band, we prepared for one month and entered a single competition."

The thought of writing a book about marching band surfaced when Laine attended her twenty-fifth class reunion.

"While reminiscing with high school classmates, all of us discovered how much band had meant to us," Laine says. "Band had been, in varying degrees, a surrogate family. But more than that: we also believed that band had prepared us for life better than anything else we'd done in high school, or even college. Like the others, I believed that I had a stronger work ethic, felt more confident, worked better in groups, and reached higher—because I'd been in band."

Once Laine started the project, the story evolved into a broader, deeper book than she originally imagined.

"At first I assumed that I'd find an updated version of my own story, band as surrogate family," Laine says. "I found some of that, to be sure. But as I talked to the kids in the Concord band, I grew to understand that religious faith was the most important thing in many of their lives.

"Immigration and the decline of manufacturing towns are other examples of issues that come up even though one wouldn't typically associate them with a book about high school students. Having a wider focus allowed me to explore issues of community and generational connection, which I think makes for a deeper story than the hermetic environment that sometimes passes for life in high school."

American Band is a treat, especially for anyone who has enjoyed a connection to marching band. The project was literally years in the making, and the author and publisher have shown great dedication to deliver this story about the impact marching band has on the lives of those involved.

American Band is available in hardcover (324 pages, plus eight pages of photos) and paperback. For more information about the author and the book, visit AmericanBandBook.com.

Read an excerpt from American Band >>


Author photo by Medora Hebert.

Copyright 2007 Marching.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published or redistributed without permission.

Recent Headlines: 2018 Tournament of Roses Bandfest Photos | Prep Your Body for Marching Season | Marching Band Music Arrangers | Marching.com on Facebook | Marching.com on Twitter | Marching.com on Pinterest