Thursday Night’s Patriotic Pops Show Kicked Off Holiday Weekend

Director John Brane

By Tim Arnett

WABASH,Indiana – The Mississinewa Valley Band under the direction of John Brane and the Mississinewa Valley Swing Band under the direction of Don Lamb returned to the Honeywell Center’s Ford Theater stage for the second-annual Patriotic Pops event Thursday night. This year’s crowd met or exceeded the 1,000 or so attendees of the inaugural Patriotic Pops event last year.

The 67-member Mississinewa Valley and Mississinewa Valley Swing Bands played a wide variety of music from the National Anthem to music from the show Jersey Boys to tunes made famous by Cab Calloway and Glenn Miller to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” The bands are made up of amateurs mostly from the Marion area. And they have loyal fans that come and see their performances.

Patriotic Pops started two years ago when the Plaza Music Series moved the shows to Thursdays in the month of June instead of both June and July. Having the series only in the month of June allowed concert goers to beat the heat of mid-summer. Since the end of the month edged the 4^th of July holiday, organizers decided to have a very patriotic show. And last year’s performance with the Mississinewa Valley Band was met with such success, they were asked back.

Ellen Mock, Corporate Relations Manager at the Honeywell Center, said that the band focused on Hoosier-penned music thanks to the Bicentennial. Emcee Alan Miller told the crowd the story of the Manchester High School fight song which was written in 1958 by Manchester High School Band Director Harold Leckrone. It seemed that a little movie called Hoosiers used that song in the film as the fight song for the fictitious school modeled after Milan High School and their famous championship victory in 1954.

Director John Brane told MiBash News that the band is in its 17^th year and the music selection is extremely varied every time the group plays. He added that the band usually plays to 900 or 1,000 people at each of their performances.

The next performance for the Mississinewa Valley Band will be in Hartford City on Wednesday, July 27^th.