The Orrville Community came together Tuesday night for the first Orrville Farmer’s Market Crawfish Boil and Blues night.

The event was to help host a bicentennial grant.

“There was money on the table available with a Bicentennial Grant,” said Karen Grimes, who wrote the grant. “I wanted to do something with Alabama and I thought what better way for our children to connect with who they are than to learn about the blues music, which has roots here in Alabama.”

Grimes said that blues artist Debbie Hope made connections with other artists to come perform at the event and to work with Salem Elementary School students the day before on a performance that was performed at the boil as well.

“It was to get our students involved with the history of blues music in Alabama,” she said. “The artists spent all day with the students yesterday [Monday] and then another part of the grant was that we had to do something in our community and this is what we chose to do to bring our community in to see what our children can do.”

Hope along with other blues artists, Radiator Rick, Marcus “Jukeman” Lee, Carla Don Edwards and Rachel Edwards, also known as AfroUnicorn, performed at the event providing Blues music while the audience enjoyed crawfish and other items to go along with it.

Judy McKinney, the owner of the Orrville Farmer’s Market, said the event turned out well for the first time.

“For Debbie Bond and her group to include us in what they were doing was great,” she said. “Blues doesn’t need to be a lost art, and that’s truly what it is: an art form. We just created an event around their opportunity to be in town, and who doesn’t love a crawfish boil? We sold probably over 70 tickets and for our first time out of the gate it was a nice learning experience. Everybody had a fantastic time. The artists were so gracious with their time, and they performed and shared what they do.”

Bond has been performing in Alabama for over 30 years and has toured the United States and Europe.

She founded the Alabama Blues Project, which is a non-profit that promotes and preserves Alabama blues. In recent years, she has turned to fronting her own band and performing her own music.

For more information on Bond, visit www.debbiebond.com.