PORT TOWNSEND — Monday night is open mic at The Upstage, and Andy Mackie’s name is always first on the list, even during the past six months after his move to Michigan.
“Andy will always be first on this list,” said emcee Jack Reid.
“It’s an honorary thing.”
But Monday night, Mackie was there in person, the leadoff performer for a reunion between Port Townsend and, as Reid puts it, “the man who has brought music to every child in the valley.”
Mackie, 72, has his own music foundation and is renowned for his work building and supplying musical instruments to the schools.
After moving to Michigan to be closer to his family, he immediately began spreading the same musical seed and has already taught 1,000 Michigan kids to play harmonica,
Aside from that direct instruction, he has prepared a course to instruct teachers how to build his line of inexpensive, simple instruments that allow anyone with a tune in their head to play it out loud.
Mackie’s local tour began Sunday with a performance at the First Presbyterian Church, followed by an appearance at The Upstage’s open mic.
He returns to The Upstage at 6 p.m. today, when many local musicians will appear.
On Wednesday, he will appear at Chimacum High School auditorium, 91 West Valley Road, in a performance that will include students from the PIE program and the ICE Program as well as other talented students.
The performance is scheduled to be filmed by a KING-TV correspondent for a broadcast report on Mackie and his musical efforts.
On Sunday, he will again appear at The Upstage at 2 p.m. for a program featuring students and local musicians.
Admission to all events is by donation, with proceeds going to support Mackie’s programs.
Mackie is scheduled to return to Michigan on June 8, at which time he will begin planning a program to build musical instruments in prisons.
Those instruments eventually will be donated to public schools.
Prior to leaving Jefferson County in September, Mackie taught more than 12,000 children, mostly in public schools, to play harmonica.
He also has brought music to an estimated 4,000 children by building or acquiring simple stringed instruments on which they can hammer out a simple tune.
Mackie works with public schools, where shop classes learn how to make guitars and a “strum stick,” a three-string open-tuned instrument that resembles a dulcimer.
Among the honors given Mackie was recognition at the inaugural Real Heroes Breakfast of the Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the American Red Cross in 2003, which honored 11 people and one group for having helped others.
Mackie also was one of five recipients of the first Jefferson County Heart of Service award in 2006.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
