New BR music festival to offer opportunity to young, local artists

The 1st Annual “Rock of Ages” Youth Music Festival will be held on Saturday, March 10, from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. on the plaza in front of the Shaw Center. The mission of this festival is to give young musicians in Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas a place to showcase their talent and strengthen this young musician community.

CJ Solar Band fronted by CJ Solar (eldest brother of the former Baton Rouge brother band, The Solar Heat) will headline the festival. CJ will be returning to Baton Rouge with his 5 piece band from Nashville where they all attend Belmont University as songwriting, music business, or audio engineering majors.

There will, also, be a special performance by Solar Heat. CJ started playing shows in Baton Rouge with his brothers when he was 10 years old - they played regularly at area restaurants such as LaCarreta, and such festivals as Live After Five and Festforall until CJ graduated from CHS, and left Baton Rouge to attend college and pursue his love of music in Nashville, TN.

Two of the other bands have already been selected. They are Young Band Nation Blues Project and the winner of the 2012 Catholic High School “Sound Off”.

The Young Band Nation Blues Project is a band comprised of 11 students of Baton Rouge Music Studios, a local school of contemporary music. The project's mission started out as a plan by director, Doug Gay, to bring young musicians closer to their rock n roll roots, which is the blues.

The mission has since expanded to help young musicians become aware of the great music Louisiana artists present to the world. The musicians are learning songs from many Louisiana artists including Tab Benoit, Anders Osborne, The Funky Meters, Chubby Carrier, Waylon Thibodeaux, Johnny Sansone and many more. The Blues Project has already secured performance spots at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Festival Internationale de Louisiane, The Baton Rouge Blues Festival, Fest for All, and the Rock of Ages Youth Music Festival.

Catholic High School has many bands outside of school and each year hold an event called “Soundoff” where these bands can showcase in front of the other students. Six bands are selected to perform at Soundoff by turning in their recorded music, and a winner is selected that night. This year’s winner will win a slot at the festival.

But, they also know there are lots of talented bands and musicians in our area that just want a place to play, and are looking for an opportunity. We want to give 2 more bands, and 2 singer-songwriters a slot to play at the festival. An acoustic stage sponsored by Zeagler’s Music will run between the band performances to showcase individual musicians desiring to participate in the festival,but are not in a band. All you have to do is apply online by February 7. Click here to apply.

This event will be fun for the entire family with not only great music, but there will be vendor booths with family appeal for the full festival experience along with food and drink availabilities.