Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will present Mr. Jack Daniel’s Original Silver Cornet Band as the next Fowler Center series event on Thursday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Riceland Hall of the Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, on the ASU campus.

The evening’s show, “Hometown Christmas,” will include more than 20 songs with everything from “Deck the Halls” and “O Holy Night,” to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The program will be two acts with a brief intermission.

Mr. Jack Daniel’s Original Silver Cornet Band has toured the United States since 1978, bringing to life the sights and sounds of a vanished era in American musical history with a 12-piece band of Tennessee musicians. The group plays a unique blend of brass and drums with guitar and banjo to bring back the music of small town bands of over half a century ago.

Mr. Jack Daniel bankrolled the first Silver Cornet Band in Lynchburg, Tenn., back in 1892 to liven up political rallies in the quiet Cumberland foothills of Tennessee. He purchased the full compliment of instruments from the Sears and Roebuck catalog for a total investment of $227.70. The bands were made up of amateur townsmen like the banker, the hardware clerk, the merchant, and workers from Mr. Daniel’s distillery.

The band played at rallies, saloon openings, parades, funerals, and picnics along with regular concert appearances in the gazebo bandstand on the courthouse square. The repertoire ranged from the raucous to the reverent, from music hall to battlefield and from popular to the patriotic.

As other forms of entertainment came into being, the small town band phenomenon dwindled and finally all but disappeared.

Some 80 years later, Dave Fulmer took a faded photograph of the Original Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band taken in front of the White Rabbit Saloon and researched the band’s roots to recreate the sound. He imported horns from France, had others hand made and some instruments were resurrected from the attics of antique collectors.

Today, when the Mr. Jack Daniel’s Original Silver Cornet Band performs, it is more than just a concert -- turn-of-the-century Lynchburg, Tenn., comes to town.

Mr. Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band performs in hundreds of concert halls across the United States every year.  They have recorded nine albums: “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” “Moon Country,” “Rhapsody in Silver,” “An American Sampler,” “Alive! (and Kickin’),” “Cornet Marmalade,” “Cornets for Christmas,” “On Tour Across America,” and “Hometown Saturday Night.” Individual tickets to the performance are $25 and $20 for adults, $18 and $14 for students and senior citizens. “Build your own Season” tickets are available to any four events for $80 and $65 for adults and $60 and $45 for senior citizens and students.

For more information on seating options or to purchase tickets, call 870-972-2781 or visit http://tickets.astate.edu.

Other Fowler Center performances this year are: the Memphis Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 29, 2005, Ethos Percussion Group on Feb. 8, 2005, Rockapella on March 22, 2005, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra on April 26, 2005.