By Pamela White

Like so many kids, Gary Lennox once dreamed of being a rock 'n' roll star. As a teenager, he hung around with kids who played guitars until one day they asked him to fill in on bass, even though he'd never played one.

"We just kind of fooled around together in people's houses, and as one house started kind of getting to not accept the loud music, we just kind of moved to the next person's house," Lennox recalls. "We graced them with our musical ability."

His band— King Corn Bloom and the Purple Haze Peace Band—performed at school dances and did little concerts to raise money for their senior class. Though the band never inked any major record deals, the time was pivotal for Lennox, who turned rock music into a lifelong career.

Now the owner of Dog House Music, a fully equipped rehearsal complex in Lafayette, Lennox is trying to pass the rock 'n' roll dream along in hopes that other kids will find inspiration and direction through rock music. Lennox and Dog House host Rock & Roll Camp, where kids ages 12 to 17 learn from professional musicians how to improve their playing and to write and perform original music. Kids spend the morning learning music theory and improving their skill on their instruments, then break into bands during the afternoon to write music and practice performing together. Lessons are taught by local studio musicians. Camp concludes with a live concert performed for parents on Dog House's professional stage.

"They all listen to rock 'n' roll," says Lennox, noting that music is the universal language. "Give them a chance to try and do it, but then also let them see that it's not only playing the instruments that's going to get you into music. There's recording. There's lighting. There's the guy who does live sound. There's promotion. There are so many aspects that you can kind of go off on—it's a pretty wide-open thing."

But because not all of the kids in Boulder County who dream of being rock stars can afford the $395 per week price tag, Lennox is looking for people who might be willing to donate scholarships. Dog House has a list of kids who would like to attend but whose parents cannot afford it.

Already some area businesses have signed on to help. Guitar Center, located in Denver, loans keyboards and other instruments to Dog House for the duration of camp, enabling kids without financial means to experiment with instruments their parents can't afford to buy. H.B. Woodsong's will be showing the kids how to care for guitars, while The Drum Shop will present a workshop on how to change drumheads and maintain drums.

In turn, Dog House Music is donating 10 percent of its profits to Compass House, a nonprofit that provides therapy and counseling for teens and families in Boulder. Lennox is also looking at ways that public schools might integrate rock 'n' roll into the mainstream musical curriculum.

"It helps give kids direction," he says. "Maybe we can save a kid."

Lennox says he's watched teens make great strides in the course of the weeklong program not only musically, but also in terms of confidence. Although kids love becoming better musicians, they benefit greatly from learning to use their creativity and to work together with other kids in a group, he says.

But in the mean world of entertainment, success in rock 'n' roll is measured on stage, and Dog House has bragging rights there, too. Three bands that formed over the past year at Rock & Roll Camp will be performing at the Boulder Creek Festival on Memorial Day weekend. The bands have also performed at local clubs, and one played on WB2.

"The thing that makes the Dog House really cool for that is that we have five fully equipped rehearsal studios with top-of-the-line guitar amps, bass amps, drum sets, PA systems, mics," he says. "For kids to have an amplifier is a good thing, but a top-of-the-line amp? They're like kids in a candy store. You've never seen so many smiles on kids in your life."

How to help

For more information about sponsoring a teen for Rock & Roll Camp, contact Gary Lennox at 303-664-1600. To register, go to www.doghousemusic.com.

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