Anna Blassingame and Margaret and Martha Chunn from the Blue Springs area are young in years. Their appreciation for timeless music, however, reaches back to the 1940s and 1950s — to the music of The Andrews Sisters, songs Anna remembers her grandfather listening to.
Today at 3:30 p.m., the three vocalists who call themselves the Yes MAM Trio perform at the Louise Campbell Center for the Arts at 235 Commerce St. in downtown West Point. The event is part of the West Point/Clay County Arts Council’s Sundays at the Center series.
“We finally have our arts center, and we’ve decided to start Sundays at the Center once a month,” said Julie Gray, a member of the arts council board at the center that bears her mother’s name. “We’ve already got monthly events scheduled through December.”
The free series that launched in April will showcase a mix of visual and musical artists throughout the rest of the year.
For the young women of Yes MAM, it all started with a couple of homeschool history assignments. After the girls worked up a song together for a project on the Wild West years ago, their harmony took off. For a different project, they portrayed The Andrews Sisters, donning tweed suits from a thrift store and experimenting with the makeup and hairstyles of the swing and boogie-woogie era. A talent show win followed and, before long, the girls found themselves asked to perform at more and more venues.
Their repertoire takes listeners on a sentimental and toe-tapping journey.
“We’re tickled to have them come to West Point and hope everyone will come out to enjoy them, and to see the new arts center,” invited Gray.
Learn more about the Louise Campbell Center for the Arts at wpccac.org.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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