By Joanie Morris
Kannapolis Citizen
Kannapolis will rock Friday with the sounds of bands from all across the city.
Cooperative Christian Ministry will host the second annual Teen Concert to benefit the ministry on Friday beginning at 6 p.m.
The concert will feature the talent of teen musicians, including the bands Midsummer and Zambian Road.
Last year’s concert raised about $3,000 for Cooperative Christian Ministry to use in the Cabarrus community, said Marshall Smith, director of the Cooperative Christian Ministry Samaritan House Night Shelter and organizer of the concert.
Last year’s concert was a “wild experiment,” said Smith. This year, money raised will go to a teaching house on Bell Street.
So far, Smith said, they have raised more than $4,000.
“I just picked up two more checks yesterday,” he said. “I don’t know if a couple more people are going to call in or send a check. This is unbelievable.”
Smith calls the kids who are performing in the concert the future leaders of our community.
“These are kids that have gone off to college that are coming back to play again.” It’s not just limited to kids from A.L. Brown High School.”The last band that we added to the concert is some kids who live in Kannapolis but actually go to school at South Rowan,” Smith said. “The whole thing started as only kids that were going to Brown last year and then we expanded.”
Smith is excited about the quality of the students who participate in the benefit concert each year.
“I think the real heart of this is the fact that these are kids that really want to do something to help their community,” he said. “They are the kinds of kids that when you see them again, they are probably going to be members of the board of education and people that are active in the community. This is kind of their step out into helping the community.”
In fact, some of the students have been working as volunteers at Cooperative Christian Ministry while they are in school.
Smith said the concert shows the community there are good kids out there.
“For me, the excitement is, instead of hearing all the bad stuff about kids that get in trouble, here you’ve got some of the nicest kids in the whole community that are stepping up and using the resources they have to help the community and that’s play music,” said Smith.
Andrew Smith and Tyler Burris formed Midsummer two years ago. Both play acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass guitar. They have performed three times at the A.L. Brown Festival of the Arts and have written about two dozen original songs and produced the album Split EP.
Steven Lambert and Chris Goodnight formed Zambian Road about three years ago. Lambert plays acoustic guitar and Goodnight plays bass and congas. They have performed three times at the A.L. Brown festival. Carter Breault will join the two on the drums. Together, they have written about two dozen original songs and produced an album.
Both bands performed at the first Benefit Teen Concert.
In addition to these bands, Smith said he also picked up a band called Collective and three soloists at this year’s Festival of the Arts.
Sponsors for the event include Sam’s Club, Bank of North Carolina, Southern Select Community Credit Union, CiCi’s Pizza, Music N More, Modern Wholesale, Troutman’s BBQ and First Charter Bank.
Tickets to the concert are free and available by calling Marshall Smith at 704-786-4020.
Contact Joanie Morris at 704-932-3336 or jmorris@kannapoliscitizen.com.