HEART OF ART—MUSIC & OUR BETTER SELVES
This article originally published on August 28, 2025 in the Ledger Dispatch Newspaper. Click here to view the article on their website or read below.
By MOJO (Meghan Joy O’Keefe)
Have you ever wanted to score a visit to the fairgrounds outside of fair season? Now is your chance! With its gorgeous landscaping, giant sky, and space for the whole family to play, the Amador County Arts Council (Amador Arts) welcomes you to this “new-to-us” venue for our TGIF Free Summer Concerts. Join us this evening, August 22, 2025, for one of Amador County’s most popular bands: The Blowbacks.
The Blowbacks are perhaps the most prolific and sought-after band working in Amador County. Combined, this 14-piece band has more than 500 years of music experience! You will be delighted by their musicality, musicianship, and commitment to the compositions while honoring their unique sound and brand. This horn-driven, dance party band plays a little of every genre—“music for everyone and everything”, as they describe it. The Blowbacks will blow your socks off and get you on that dance floor with a big smile.
The icing on the cake of this high-energy band is the lead vocalist, Jennifer Dutton Roland, Jenni for short. Having grown up in Calaveras County (White Pines & Twain Harte) and served in the United States Navy, Jenni is no stranger to service, teamwork, and grit. I asked why Jenni thinks it is important for people in rural spaces to have access to free live music.
“Are you kiddin’ me?! Live music brings everyone together, whether they’re playin’ or watching. It’s a simple, primal pleasure baked into our DNA, and live music should be made FREE and accessible to people of every age and background. It’s a space in time where we can all enjoy ourselves peacefully for 2-3 hours, and perhaps put our phones down for a bit.”
Jenni’s joy is contagious. “[We can’t] imagine our lives without the camaraderie and hard work of making music. Making music in a band is a ‘team sport’, with all that being part of a team entails: generosity, patience, service, courtesy, and inventiveness. When we are making music together, either rehearsing or performing, The Blowbacks are our best selves.”
Our “best selves” is about how we act and move through challenging moments like substitute musicians, broken tuning pegs, long-distance gigs after grueling work weeks, and family emergencies. “We bicker and snipe…we are all quite different, politically and philosophically, but we find ways to relate because to make the band work, we absolutely have to be good coworkers. It’s important to us to do our best not to marginalize or ‘other’ another member…Creating cooperatively means that you have to have a certain mindset about seeing the very best in others, and trying to see our similarities and not our differences. When you have that mindset, then you can really give your all” to support the team.
That mindset exudes onto the dance floor and throughout the audience. Maybe it’s magic, or maybe it’s the simple power of the arts. And just maybe we can each take a sprinkle of that sparkle home with us to spread throughout all our community connections.
Join yours truly, the Amador Arts Board, and Jennifer Dutton Roland as we come together as our “best selves” to have fun in community with live music and picnicking in a stunning setting. Bring your camera! You will want to take snapshots of the gorgeous flowers and the sunset.
The Blowbacks (a group of 14+ musicians, each of whom deserves their own interview) performs at the Amador Arts TGIF Free Summer Concerts tonight, August 22nd, from 6 to 8 PM, on the Biagi Stage, inside the Amador County Fairgrounds. Picnicking and community fun begin as early as 4 PM, with FREE parking at Carnival Hill. Bring your picnics, drinks, chairs, blankets, bug spray, and dancin’ shoes. NO PETS ALLOWED—please leave your furry friends at home.
The 27th annual TGIF Free Summer Concerts are possible thanks to local sponsors and the State Local Partner program from the California Arts Council, a state agency, arts.ca.gov. Amador Arts is a 501c3 (EIN 94-2811333 established in 1982), devoted to advancing arts and cultural expression through arts resources, data, poetry, and more. To learn more about the TGIF Free Summer Concerts and the State Local Partner work, please visit our website, amadorarts.org, or call/text 209-256-8166.
Jennifer Dutton Roland (Jenni) is a veteran of the United States Navy who grew up in White Pines and Twain Harte.