Coy Bowles has more claims to fame than playing guitar with the Zac Brown Band or winning a Grammy. He also writes books for children, including his latest The Little Red Door that he read to Mundy Mill Academy students Wednesday morning.
Bowles read his book at the Oakwood elementary school after playing a little guitar and talking to the kids about music and creativity. Callie the Dog followed Bowle's reading; the dog was a featured in The Little Red Door.
"I started hanging out with the fans and afterwards they'd say, 'you gotta see this video of my kid singing Chicken Fired' or 'Toes' or something like that. It started happening so often it sort of clicked. I also realized it was sort of a missing piece to connecting with the fans and the kids," said Bowles, who had previously been a guitar teacher. What turned into short stories later turned in children's books, encouraged by his bandmates and their children. The Little Red Door is Bowle's fourth book.
Bowles said he felt there was a connection between music and literacy, remembering that he struggled with reading music in college. "You see these stories of people struggling to read English at a later age and how important it is to read, and I experienced that, but with music... In a roundabout way, literacy is really important to me because of me going through that struggle with music reading."
Bowles has toured several other elementary schools in the area, including in Athens and Gainesville. "It's been really exciting to come to schools, especially really amazing new schools like this one and see the kid interacting - how polite, well mannered, smart, bright-eyed they are. It gives you a lot of energy and a lot of faith."
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