Subscribe to FREE Blues E-Newsletter

Michael "Hawkeye" Herman and “Blues In the Schools”

2012 marks Michael "Hawkeye" Herman's 34th year of "Blues in the Schools" programs. He began this effort long before most blues support organizations and festivals even existed. Since that time he has helped to initiate educational programs for many blues societies and has single-handedly introduced blues music workshops to major festivals including the San Francisco Folk Festival, The Northwest Folklife Festival (Seattle), the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the Sonoma County Folk Festival (CA), the Tumbleweed Music Festival (WA), the Rogue Valley Blues Festival (OR), Blues sur Seine Festival (France), the River Music Camp (CA), and most recently at the International Blues Festival (in Cali, Colombia).

In 1998, Hawkeye received the Blues Foundation's "Keeping the Blues Alive" award for achievement in education. He was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame in 2004. Over the past 34 years, Hawkeye has presented his "Blues In The Schools" programs in more than five hundred schools (all levels; from elementary schools to college level), in twenty-eight states in the USA, in nine foreign nations, and to over 1/2 a million students. The list of institutions that have benefited from his presentations range from Stanford, Colorado, and Arkansas State Universities, to elementary, junior and senior high schools throughout the USA, in Europe, and South America.

"My mission is to let young folks know that the blues is an important aspect of American music history, influencing other styles of music in the past, right up to the present," Hawkeye states. "Blues is the real deal, the story of the human experience, and that will always hold a place in the hearts and minds of the people. I'm trying to ensure, through my educational programs and workshops, that future generations are aware of their own rich musical heritage.
"The personal satisfactions of doing what I love, combined with reaching out to people, are wonderful rewards in themselves. I am most honored, grateful, and encouraged to be recognized for my efforts by the Blues Foundation."
www.HawkeyeHerman.com

You'll find many of his videos here. You can select whichever one you want to use ... or just supply the link to my youtube.com 'station' for all of the videos.