Free complimentary copy July 24, 2015 • Volume 2, No. 39
www.raytowneagle.com • 75¢
Save the date for the 2015 Raytown Arts & Music Festival
Raytown Parks and Recreation and major sponsor Dick Smith Ford presents the 2015 Arts & Music Festival at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at the C. Lee Kenagy Park at 9608 E 79th Street. This free event will headline Brewer & Shipley and feature music by Nigel Mack & The Blues Attack, Travis Gibson Band, CJ Walker & Johnny C and Rex Hobart & The Honky Tonk Standards. Event sponsors also include KCP&L, Raytown Fun-House Pizza, Raytown-Brooking Eagle, Raytown-Lee’s Summit Community Credit Union and Saber Cycle. Raytown and Independence Artists Associations and metro area artists and artisans will display their works for sale. Food trucks will be on site and Fun-House Pizza will sell beer and mixers to wet your
whistle. Bring your lawn chairs, kick back and plan to enjoy a fun day with some of the best music on the planet. Brewer & Shipley Michael Brewer and Tom Shipley continue to blend guitars and voices and perform for audiences 40 years after their trademark vocal harmonies and intertwined acoustic guitars carved a unique niche in America’s soundboard. Their melodic music and underlying lyrical themes of personal freedom and traditional songs of love still resonate with longtime fans while continuing to draw new ones. Brewer & Shipley’s Top 10 hit “One Toke Over The Line” was largely responsible for introducing them to the masses, yet their music careers
neither began nor ended with this one song. Travis Gibson Band Born and raised on a farm in eastern rural Missouri, sports and farming were everything Travis Gibson knew until he discovered his passion for writing and performing music. “The Travis Gibson Band” was formed in July 2012 and has rapidly gained a dedicated following. They have opened for several big names in the business that include Chris Cagle, Josh Thompson, Chuck Wicks, Blackjack Billy, Colt Ford, Tracy Lawrence and Clay Walker to name a few. Nigel Mack & The Blues Attack Nigel Mack returns to the Kansas City area to deliver a high-energy show that fuses blues classics
with the punch of contemporary original blues. With a 1929 National Steel guitar, a ‘60s Martin acoustic and a harmonica on a neck rack, Mack tears through acoustic blues classics from Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Little Walter and John Lee Hooker. In addition to songs by more recent artists like Taj Mahal, Keb Mo and the Neville Brothers, Mack also throws in a healthy dose of original tunes. Rex Hobart & The Honky Tonk Standards For nearly 20 years, Rex Hobart and the Honky Tonk Standards have created songs about love, love lost and heartbreak. The boys perform a wide array of honky tonk standards and sorrowful cowboy ballads. “We’re just a country band
playing what, for our age, is the golden era of country music — the 1960s-70s sound of country music,” he said on KCUR in April. CJ Walker & Johnny C & The Supermatics CJ Walker, who graduated from Central High School in Kansas City last year, is an upcoming master of blues guitar. Born with a twisted shoulder leaving him unable to use his left hand and arm, he picked up a guitar and, with no lessons, taught himself to be a remarkable musician. Raytown’s Johnny C & The Supermatics will provide backup. Johnny’s career has taken him from Mac’s Bar at 57th Street and Troost Avenue in the late sixties to performing gigs at the legendary The Tonight Show.
Photo courtesy of Paul Andrews Photography Rex Hobart
Travis Gibson Band
Photo courtesy of Gary Graham
CJ Walker
Nigel Mack & The Blues Attack
Brewer & Shipley
Photos courtesy of the respective bands
Raytowner competes in National Senior Games
Photos courtesy of Debra Wood Debra Wood finished second in the 800-meter race at the National Senior Games from July 11 —13.
Debra Wood, second from left, stands with her 4x100 team at the National Senior Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
By Kris Collins
do at least two track workouts a week and I try to be sure and do a couple weight workouts a week (when preparing for competitions).” Wood finished second in the 800-meter run, third in the 200-meter dash, third in the 400-meter dash, seventh in the 100-meter dash and her team finished second in the 4x100.
“As long as I can,” is what Raytowner Debra Wood had to say when asked how long she would continue to compete in track events. Wood competed for the second time in the 60 to 64 age division at the National Senior Games in Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this month, running in the 800-,
200- and 400-meter races and in the 4x100. “It’s pretty hard to find track meets anymore,” she said. “You almost have to go to the national level to get any competition, but it’s a very amazing event. You have people competing from age 50 up to 100 years of age.” Wood started in the 9th grade, ran in college for Iowa State Uni-
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versity where her mile relay team won a national championship her sophomore year and she seemingly hasn’t slowed down since. “I try and keep myself in pretty good shape overall because I run, bike and swim all the time,” she said over the phone from RAGBRAI, a tour in which thousands of cyclists make their way across the state of Iowa over several days. “I
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Her greatest accomplishment, though, isn’t any medal or accolade. “The greatest accomplishment is all the people I’ve met, more so than the results themselves,” she said. “You meet some amazing people. It’s just amazing to see what people are still able to do. It’s very encouraging to stay fit and active.”
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