By Skylar Bell Brenner, Entertainment Editor
The “World Famous” Cowboy Band will be marching in three Christmas Parades during the first week of December. The first parade will be Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m., located in downtown Abilene. On Friday, Dec. 6, the band will be marching in Ranger at 6 p.m. On Saturday, Dec. 7, they will march in the Dallas Christmas Parade, which will be televised on NBC.
The band will be playing festive Christmas songs, such as “Jingle Bells”, “Adeste Fideles” and “Jolly Ole Saint Nick”.
Bill Harden, assistant professor of music and directors of the Bands, enjoys performing in the parades because he loves the reaction people have to the unique marching style the Cowboy Band brings to parades. His favorite part of the parade is bringing entertainment to the people there to watch the parades.
“Watching the people. Watching the crowds, seeing the reactions...We are very different than anybody else, everyone else is very military-like...We’re not that way at all. People get into that. It’s kind of fun to watch. It’s all about entertaining. Entertaining people is fun because of the joy you bring to their existence,” Harden said.
Maranda Westbrook, a sophomore at Hardin-Simmons University and a member of the Cowboy Band, loves the parades as a way of getting into the Christmas spirit and connecting to the community.
“It’s a great opportunity to get you in the Christmas spirit and it keeps you connected to the community to see all of the floats and the things the community and different organizations put on. Don’t just come for the Cowboy Band, come for the community,” Westbrook said.
Westbrook also enjoys interacting with the crowds at the parades. “We look forward to it all semester. My favorite thing about the parades and the Cowboy Band is interacting with the crowd and being a different band that is there for the show and is there for the audience, rather than just for the music. We get to bring a smile to people’s faces, and I love it whenever I get to run up to the little kids and give them high fives and just get to have fun with the people. That’s my favorite part,” Westbrook said.
Of the Christmas songs the band plays, Westbrook’s favorite is “Jingle Bells”. “We have a different swing to it and it’s fun and unique. It’s not classic, but it’s classic enough that everyone loves it,” Westbrook said.