Director of the Levan Center and Professor Reggie Williams hosted the first of three installments of Deep Cuts and Conversation emphasizing music on Sept. 20.

Williams aspires to bring music enthusiasts to participate in an hour and a half jamming session with the help of two BC music professors.

Professors Josh Ottum and Kris Tiner both teach for BC’s music department and play instruments themselves.

With the help of Ottum and Tiner, the discussions were about hating a certain song or critiquing the music notes. 

“You don’t have to be a musician to enjoy [music],” Williams said. His goal is to encourage music lovers of all genres at BC and the community to join Williams, Ottum, and Tiner in the discussions.

“I immediately hit these two [Ottum and Tiner] up and said ‘Hey, I don’t know the name yet but I would love the three of us to have informal [discussions] and listen to tunes,’” Williams said.

Williams said that the idea behind the event is to listen to some music and have the discussion immediately after. Each meeting will have different themes ranging from genres, love,and hate, or a request from the audience members.

“The mission isn’t just to talk about the terms of the music…We will talk about the significance of lyrics, some of the concepts, how they hit us a certain way-in personal ways that are not just musical,” Williams said.   

The first night, Williams, Ottum, and Tiner picked three songs and compare and contrast each song. Williams went first and picked the year 1970 to break down and analyze the differences in his song choices. Two out of the three songs were charted number 1 for weeks while his last choice was not charted.

“I’ll Be There” by The Jackson 5 and “Summertime” by Mungo Jerry were the two songs that were charted and had a very positive message. Contrasting with these up-lifting tunes, Williams’ third pick to compare was “Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath.

This sparked a discussion on the obvious contrast between light and fluffy with the charted hits to dark and metal to “Black Sabbath.” Audience members shared personal stories and how the songs related to everybody.

Deep Cuts and Conversation is an ongoing event that allows students and people from the community to have a big music session with BC professors and BC students. 

The next installment is on Oct. 25 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at BC in The Levan Center for the Humanities building.