EASTON, Kan. — Students at Pleasant Ridge Elementary School in Easton, Kansas, had the reddest of Fridays when country music singer Blane Howard stopped by to sing his song "Run It Back."
In February, the school created a music video to the song. The idea came from former music teacher Jeremiah Nichol.
"I reached out to his management team to find out if I could get an instrumental version and if it would be okay for us to do a remix of it where I record the kids playing instruments and singing along," Nichol said.
Nichol said Howard's team said yes in a heartbeat. He put a call out on social media asking students and families to show up decked out in Chiefs gear.
After putting the video out, Howard was so impressed that he did a Zoom call with the students. When he found out he'd be in the area for several concerts, he knew he had to stop by the school to hear the kids sing along in-person.
"They knew the words better than the crowd from the show we played last night. It was incredible," Howard said Friday.
Nichol said the experience of putting together the video helps show kids music class can be much more than just remembering the words to a song.
"We can produce things, we can make things, we can put together concerts in a way that haven’t been done before, we can shoot music videos if we want to," Nichol said.
During a year-and-a-half like no other, Howard said he's happy to give the kids something to get excited about.
"I think the kids being able to have something like this at their school definitely makes it feel like you’re getting back to normal a little bit," Howard said.
Howard released his new song "Take It Back" Friday. Nichol said the school hopes to make another video to the new song.
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