By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Musical memories
Boley's book traces local bands, bandmasters
Joe Boley book pic
"Have Baton Will Travel" is the title of retired Great Bend bandmaster Joe Boley's book illustrating the history of municipal bands and their bandmasters from 1874-2022. The book's cover photo is of the military band organized by director Elmer Ellsworth Epperson in Great Bend in 1895.
In the days before Alexa, radio and the phonograph, there were community bands. The national craze for brass bands began in the 1800s, and as Kansas ascended to statehood, the settling of the prairie was accompanied by live musical entertainment – first of the military, then later, non-military genres.