Several genres of music will be represented at Rounders tonight for the student-organized “Relief at Rounders” concert, including country, rock and hip-hop. Every performer, with the exception of Wynt Earley, is a UA student.
Bo Latham, hip-hop artist and one of tonight’s performers, helped organized the concert as part of a class project.
“Usually for the music management class project, a group of students will rent out a small orchestra room and do a twenty-minute show for their friends,” Latham said. “I thought, why not do something cooler and bigger than that, something that could give back to the community. So, we came up with the idea to have the tornado benefit.”
Latham will release his new song “4/27/11” at the concert.
“Relief at Rounders is the perfect platform for the release,” he said. “People will be coming to this concert to have a good time, but obviously to support the city too, because we still need it. The song ‘4/27/11’ is my way of taking what we went through that day and putting it into one song and one time to share it with everyone, taking the memories we were forced to make on that day and moving on to make new ones.”
Latham, a public relations major from Tuscaloosa, has been writing music since the age of 10 and was first inspired when he heard a Tupac song.
“The first time I heard a Tupac song, I really related with the passion in his voice, his passion for music and for where he was from,” Latham said. “I try to find meaning in the everyday…Whether I’m sitting at a bar or picking up rubble from a tornado, I say to myself, ‘Okay, let me take this moment and resonate it with my music.”
Sean Rivers, a UA senior, will perform his song “My Mind on Tuscaloosa” that he wrote for his friend Loryn Brown, who died in the storm.
Conner Barnes, who goes by the name of “DJ Houndstooth,” will also perform at the event. Barnes, a New College senior with a depth study in music and entrepreneurship, is a Tuscaloosa native.
“When Bo called me and asked if I was interested in this event, I was totally on board,” Barnes said. “Relief at Rounders will be a good way for people to come support good music and a good cause at the same time. Tuscaloosa is where I grew up, and we don’t want people to forget about the tornado.”
