While he may be used to playing slightly bigger venues, it’s obvious that singer and songwriter Marty Raybon still knows how to pack them in. That was the case in Auburn on Monday as Richland Elementary School continued its Alabama Heritage Week celebration, welcoming the lead vocalist of the 1980s country recording group Shenandoah.
Raybon, a Florida native, who was a part of a band that recorded many of its hits in Muscle Shoals, performed some of his classic tunes like “The Church on Cumberland Road” and “I Want to be Loved Like That” for the RES students in the school’s auditorium Monday.
Prior to Raybon’s performance, RES students saw a film that chronicled the history of musical greats from Otis Redding to Aretha Franklin.
Many of the students in attendance were humming along to ditties that were decades older than they were.
But more important than the musical chords he strummed on his acoustic guitar, Raybon struck a chord in his young listeners’ minds about life.
“It’s important that we understand that the choices we make in life have consequences,” said Raybon, who currently resides in Tuscumbia. “If you’re willing to give it all you’ve got to get to where you want to be in terms of reaching positive goals, you’ll make it.”
Alabama Music Hall of Fame Executive Director David Johnson agrees.
“Everybody dreams, but you can be anything you want, if you set your goals and work hard at it,” said Johnson, who describes music as “the universal language.” “Music is the one thing that brings us all together regardless of race or anything else. We hear it in lullabies when we’re born and in spirituals at funerals when we die.”
Alabama Heritage Week will continue at RES through Friday and is made possible through a 2008 Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarship that RES Reading teacher Lorie Johnson was awarded as well as a FACES grant.
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