Reaching Out, Lifting Up: Saturday Night Bath performs for kids in trouble
Saturday Night Bath The group’s mission statement is concise and to the point: To educate, impact, and involve at-risk youth with music therapy. In 1986, Howie Rich and his rock ‘n’ roll and blues band, Saturday Night Bath, took part in a Dodger Day event at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. Rich recalls that, other than ballplayers like Mike Scioscia and Ken Landreaux, there were low-rider cars, a motorcycle club, and his music-making ensemble. These days, Rich says, “we’re playing mostly for continuation school kids, the kids that are on the fence” – meaning that these youngsters could swing either way, into an honest life or into the arms of crime. It was L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley who suggested to Rich that Saturday Night Bath focus on continuation or second-chance high schools. “At the time we were playing a lot of juvenile halls,” Rich says, “and the juvenile halls are like the bottom rung where most of the heavy-duty felons are.” Did you know what you were getting into, 26 years ago, when you began doing this? “No, I just kind of did it as I went,” Rich says. “But along the way you realize that you’re playing for the underbelly, for the people that are literally forgotten…
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