{"id":8521,"date":"2025-09-16T20:49:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=8521"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:55:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:55:44","slug":"sound-of-the-south-celebrates-60-years-with-current-and-past-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/09\/16\/sound-of-the-south-celebrates-60-years-with-current-and-past-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound of the South celebrates 60 years with current and past members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>TROY, Ala. (<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/troytrojanvisionstudents\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 Past and present <a href=\"https:\/\/www.troy.edu\/academics\/colleges-schools\/college-arts-humanities\/departments\/john-m-long-school-music\/sound-of-the-south\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sound of the South<\/a> (SOTS) band members are celebrating the group&#8217;s 60th anniversary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the Memphis game, SOTS alumni were invited to take the field during halftime. Instrumentalists and former auxiliary members showcased fan-favorite tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I am so excited,&#8221; said Anna-Marie Watkins, a former SOTS majorette. &#8220;I&#8217;m a little older, so it&#8217;s difficult. But it is so fun to be back and it just brings back the best memories. I&#8217;m just so thankful for the opportunity and thanks for the support. How awesome that it is that it&#8217;s been 60 years of the Sound of the South.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years that SOTS has been playing, the band has developed traditions that both fans and alumni enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think pregame is such a fun tradition, and I&#8217;m so glad they still do it,&#8221; said Watkins. &#8220;And fanfare at the beginning of halftime. I&#8217;m so excited they still do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/09\/16\/john-m-long-school-of-music-invites-high-schoolers-to-be-music-education-majors-for-a-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>NEWS FOR YOU: John M. Long School of Music invites high schoolers to be music education majors for a day<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That excitement carries on with other traditions as well. One fan-favorite event is themed Thursday night rehearsals. Themes range from as simple as PJs to as chaotic as painting themselves blue as Smurfs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I just love knowing that I make life long friends,&#8221; said Bryson Grimsley, a current SOTS member. &#8220;Knowing that I can talk to these people forever. The connections I&#8217;ve made are unmatched.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Being able to perform for everybody on the football field during games. That is extremely fulfilling to me,&#8221; said Kayla Lewis a current SOTS member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you are a fan, alumni, of a band member, the SOTS wants you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the next 60 years of the Sound of the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A full video of Saturday&#8217;s alumni performance can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scott.kigerl\/videos\/1099234989012384\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">found here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 Past and present Sound of the South (SOTS) band members are celebrating the group&#8217;s 60th anniversary. <\/p>\n<p>During the Memphis game, SOTS alumni were invited to take the field during halftime. Instrumentalists and former auxiliary members showcased fan-favorite tunes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am so excited,&#8221; said Anna-Marie Watkins, a former SOTS majorette. &#8220;I&#8217;m&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a-button\" href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/09\/16\/sound-of-the-south-celebrates-60-years-with-current-and-past-members\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":8529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[2499,2500,2422],"topics":[2412,17],"class_list":["post-8521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-troy-university-alumni","tag-troy-university-alumni-band","tag-troy-university-sound-of-the-south","topics-college-of-fine-arts-and-humanities","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8521"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8531,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8521\/revisions\/8531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8521"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=8521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}