The members of InnerVision will never get to see the adoration in audience members’ faces, but that doesn’t stop them from playing the best music they can.
All three members of the Westerville-based cover band are blind.
“We’re trying to inspire others,” says member Sam Shepherd.
Westerville residents Sam, Andy Love and Genene Blackwell started performing together in 2009. All perform vocals, often singing three-part harmonies during shows. Andy, 26, plays bass guitar; Genene, 22, plays keyboard; and Sam, 22, plays trombone, harmonica and some guitar.
Tailoring their song selections to their audience, the three have put their unique spin on oldies, patriotic, gospel, country and contemporary Christian music. While they typically perform around the Columbus area, the band also has visited such northeast Ohio locations as Youngstown, Canton and Canfield.
“We’ve been all over the place,” says Paula Shepherd, Sam’s mother and InnerVision’s musical adviser.
The trio met at the Ohio State School for the Blind, where they played in the school’s marching band: Genene played bells, Andy played sousaphone and Sam played trombone and upright bass. For six or seven years, the three would sit together during the hour-long bus ride to school singing songs playing on the radio.
“Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you can’t try stuff,” Paula says.
InnerVision showed an affinity for music early in life. At only age 3, Genene began playing piano after she heard it at church. Sam started taking piano lessons when he was 4. Andy, who was always singing as a child, started taking formal singing lessons at age 14 or 15.
Genene, Sam and Andy all had complications as a result of premature birth, each weighing less than three pounds upon arrival. Genene and Andy were born blind, while Sam lost his vision at 4 months old. Andy has pervasive developmental disorder, a form of autism, while Genene has a touch of cerebral palsy.
Despite these challenges, all found they had musical gifts.
“When they lose one of their senses, another one seems to be heightened,” says Patti Love, Andy’s mother.
Their memories seem particularly uncanny. Andy, for example, memorizes whole stories and movies. Because music is not available in Braille, the three instead have memorized more than 125 songs just by listening to them.
“I just start picking things up,” Sam says.
If his mother gives him a 16- or 17-song set list, Sam memorizes the titles in five minutes.
Paula feels fulfilled helping the trio develop their musical skills, she says, and the “sometimes tricky social skills of being blind in a mostly sighted world.”
“This adventure has shown them that hard work and lots of practice pays off,” she says.
That adventure started with Genene, who, as a student at the School for the Blind, often performed for retirement centers. In the summer of 2009, she recruited Andy as a backup singer. When Patti asked Sam if he wanted to sit in on a rehearsal, the trio was complete.
Now, Paula receives booking calls almost daily. InnerVision had 15 shows in December, seven planned for January and five for February.
“In the beginning, they would tend to get frustrated, but now they are confident that they can learn and arrange and memorize any song and any style of music,” Paula says. “The biggest area of growth that I’ve seen is that they all now really enjoy stretching themselves musically.”
InnerVision had the opportunity to expand its horizons when the band participated in the Columbus Jazz Council Jazz Academy Workshop last summer.
The environment gave them the chance to hear new music styles, Genene says.
“We can all learn from each other,” she says.
Even prior to the workshop, Genene enjoyed putting her own creative flair into her performances, playing, for example, the guitar solo in Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” on the piano. At the workshop, though, she learned to incorporate jazz chords into her routine, playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in a completely different way.
Similarly, Andy expanded his vocal abilities, learning a bit of improvisational singing, or scatting. Sam, who was used to the more traditional trombone style used in marching band, was exposed to a variety of complex notes.
“I’m already starting to play it differently,” he says.
“I think it really sparked their creativity,” Paula says.
As the parent of a child with a disability, Paula says she often grieves that her now adult son cannot be as independent as he would like to be.
“But when I hear him sing and play, and I see the reaction on the faces of his audience, the grief gets swallowed up in joy,” she says.
Sarah Sole is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
