By Dariel Bendin
I would have written about this terrific event sooner, but I caught the granddaddy of colds on my trip to the Upstate and I’ve just now been able to get my thoughts together. Comments from guitarist Rickey Godfrey add a musician’s POV, so I’ve included as many as possible.
Taking place at [...]
By Dariel Bendin
I won’t say that music in Myrtle Beach died along with Jeff Roberts. But it took a hit and the whole community is feeling the pain.
Co-founder and director for Myrtle Beach’s nonprofit South By Southeast, Jeff has been working his butt off for years - keeping music in our schools, supporting our local [...]
2009 Homecoming Jam - Greenville S.C.
Woo woo! Greenville, you better make room for the mighty large talent that’s heading your way. These guys are the soul of the south. They put the rock in southern rock, and they are coming together to pound it ‘til you bleed.
Then, just when you’re ready to call Uncle, they’ll [...]
Interview by Stoney Dennis
EG Kight on Koko Taylor
EG Kight, known as the “Georgia Songbird,” writes music that encompasses blues, jazz, country, southern rock, gospel, and funk. Early in her blues career, she was the only independent artist to have songs included on two Get the Blues! albums, both of which remained on the Billboard charts [...]
November is going to be a great month for music fans along the S.C. Grand Strand. If Carolina beach music is your bag, a special weekend of Carolina Beach Music Academy (CBMA) awards, live music and shag dancing is set for Nov. 11 - 15. For cutting edge rock with beautifully crafted lyrics, plan [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Freddy Mangum
1963 - 2009
We recently lost two musicians, one I knew personally and the other only by reputation. Both were significant artists and deserve mentioning here. Freddy Mangum, 46-year-old lead vocalist for Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs passed away unexpectedly on Oct. 7; and Johnny Jones, 73, Nashville blues guitarist and mentor [...]
Observations About an Old Pro, Donny Trexler, at Captain Poo’s
By Rickey Godfrey
When I walked into Captain Poo’s about a quarter till nine on Tuesday night, I already knew I was gonna be entertained by a real pro, Donny Trexler. The atmosphere was festive, but not too rowdy; you could tell right away that most [...]
Let me tell you about South By Southeast, and why I think it’s so critical to the Carolinas, especially to its native Myrtle Beach.
The group was formed in 2003 by a bunch of music lovers who believed there was more to music than the Top 40. According to their mission statement, their goal is “to [...]
By Dariel Bendin
You simply can’t have a conversation about the most hottest vocal groups to come out of the New York scene without including Little Anthony and the Imperials. Lead singer Anthony Gourdine gave a voice to teenage passion and angst back in the fifties and continues to push the boundaries of contemporary R&B today.
Gourdine [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Singer/songwriter Verlon Thompson at South By Southeast in Myrtle Beach Aug. 8, 2009
“In the end, it’s about what you feel more than what you hear.”
As we talk, writer-picker-singer Verlon Thompson is at home just west of Nashville, Tenn. and I’m parked in my car outside a waterfront joint on the Intracoastal [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Woooo-ey! Lock up your silver and hide all the women and children and good-lookin’ dogs. Lord of the swamp, King Tyrone and his randy Graveyard Ramblers are blowing into town on July 22 for a romp through Papa’s Pizza Wings & Things.
Dickie and Dianne Spencer, owners of the otherwise reputable restaurant on the [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Cape Fear Blues Festival! July 24 - 26, 2009
The Cape Fear Blues Society is presenting it fourteenth annual Cape Fear Blues Festival on July 24 through 26. This year, the group is focusing on homegrown blues in a three day music fest featuring live shows, a workshop, an all-day blues jam and a [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Sweet Explosion: Greenville, S.C.’s Chocolate Thunder
Linda Rodney, better known to her fans as Chocolate Thunder, is a powerhouse and her latest recording is sure to satisfy your craving for tasty grooves and funk-laced R&B.
Ear Candy, released on June 25, is a sensory explosion of musical morsels. All 12 tracks were written by Rodney [...]
By Dariel Bendin
This Charleston band has been partying for years. Their main job is to have fun … and when they have fun everyone has fun. The popular dance band includes six sing-from-the-gut vocalists and the horn section is nothing to sneeze about either.
Bass player Jack Tankersley and Mike Shuler (guitar/vocals) founded the [...]
By Dariel Bendin
When Odell Mickens calls me, he’s on the turnpike returning from Philadelphia, where he’s just played organ at the funeral of his friend’s sister. His friend is Earl Young, legendary drummer and owner of the Trammps, known around the world for their 80s hit “Disco Inferno.”
Mickens has played bass guitar for the renowned [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Daddy
For a Second Time (June 16, 2009)
Label: Cedar Creek Music
www.myspace.com/daddytheband
Genre: Americana/Alt-country
Well, today’s convoluted music news is that Daddy’s gonna be a daddy for a second time with For a Second Time, and if you understand what I’m talking about, then God love ya and log onto ReverbNation.com/DaddyTheBand PDQ because time’s running out to [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Summer’s barely here, but now’s the time to make your plans for the 2009 Charleston Beach Music & Shag Festival. I can tell you firsthand, this event is a blast. It’s being held again at the Citadel Alumni House (69 Hagood Street), which is a terrific venue and the band lineup is tops.
Thursday [...]
By Dariel Bendin
For June, South By Southeast is bringing us a roots-rock group that’s not quite a household name yet, except maybe throughout the upstate of South Carolina and North Carolina.
The Bad Popes are a popular five-piece group known for their own brand of Texas swing, their country leanings, their rockin’ roots and their folksy [...]
By Dariel Bendin
Various Artists
Ready To Party (2009)
www.khpmusic.com
Label: KHP Records
Genre: R&B
Ready To Party, the dance-driven offering from KHP Music features 14 tracks designed to get you on your feet and groovin’ to the music. This is the collection produced in conjunction with the National R&B DJ Association and released in time for Spring S.O.S., the ten-day [...]
By ‘Fessa’ John Hook
The Coachman and Four Club and Restaurant in Bennettsville was a beacon for Beach Music enthusiasts in the Golden Era from 1964 to 1974. It was more than the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smoky Robinson and the Miracles, Jr. Walker, the Tams, Jimmy Ruffin, Mary Wells and a host of other beach [...]
After talking, planning and working together for months, Andy Smith, Rick Lee and Jeff Scheible officially formed Green Dot Discs in March of this year.
Andy owns Green Dot Music, which until recently handled Wilmington band Jim Quick & Coastline. Rick Lee is a co-owner/keyboard player of Charlotte, N.C.-based Too Much Sylvia. Jeff Scheible owned [...]
The annual Cape Fear Blues Festival, number 14 this year, is set for July 24 - 26 in Wilmington, N.C. Events will include the Friday night blues cruise on the Henrietta III; a post-cruise blues party at The Rusty Nail; a daytime concert at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater; a sundown concert in downtown Wilmington at Water [...]
Buddy and Julie Miller
Written In Chalk (2009)
Label: New West Records
Genre: Americana, Roots
myspace.com/buddyandjuliemiller
A friend of mine in California just sent me the latest offering from husband and wife duo, Buddy and Julie Miller. First thing I did was pop it in the car’s CD player, and I’ve been listening to it for a couple days now. [...]
Okay, you Carolina folks are going to have one up on me here. I wasn’t in this neck of the beach in the eighties, so I didn’t recognize this group by name. I thought the Jumper Cables were, well, jumper cables.
Turns out they’re a rock trio that was based in Charleston featuring none other than [...]
New Band To Debut at Spanish Galleon • 8 p.m., April 25
Rick Strickland is a prolific, sometimes obsessed songwriter. He tells me he writes a song most every day. In fact, when he and wife, Gail, sat down to document his total tally of tunes, it came to some 2,500. “And some of them are [...]
Babs Ludwick One Woman Show April 18
Award-winning local artist Babs Ludwick will present Painting From the Heart, her one-woman art show, on Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Brunswick House at Brunswick Plantation and Golf Resort on Hwy. 17 in Calabash, N.C.
The show consists of more than 20 original watercolor [...]
I had a friend’s request on MySpace a couple weeks ago, a group named Bull City Syndicate. I’d never heard of them, so I went to their profile. What a great sound! Funky, soulful, strong vocals … tremendous horns. Not long after that, I get an email from JD Cash; they’re coming to Razzie’s at [...]
Beach Newz / Entertainment / Music / Nightlife/Entertainment / South Carolina Events / north myrtle beach
April 12, 2009 0It’s that time of year when over 10,000 shag dancers descend upon the Ocean Drive
section of North Myrtle Beach for ten full days of barbecue, beach time, silliness, catching up
with old friends, live music … and above all, shagging (and no, I’m not talking about the
British version, although I’m not discounting it either).
This year’s Society [...]
Rev. Bubba D Liverance
Let My Peoples Dance (2008)
Label: Ain’t Bad Records
Genre: Beach
You know you’re in for some fun when the guy’s name is Rev. Bubba D Liverance, his band is called the Cornhole Prophets and the CD is titled Let My Peoples Dance. What you may not know until you pop it into the player [...]
The Snake Charmers
Been Gone Too Long (2008)
www.snakecharmers.com
Label: Skunk Eye Records
Genre: Blues
The Snake Charmers have been mesmerizing the larger-than-life city of Houston since 2002, when husband and wife team, Marie Angell and Will Blumentritt, formed their own band “to play what we like and like what we play.” Been Gone So Long is the eclectic group’s [...]
Beach Newz / Calendar of Events / Music / Nightlife/Entertainment / house of blues / north myrtle beach
March 26, 2009 1By Brian M. Howle
For anyone growing up - or just having the good fortune to live along the Carolina coast - over the past 40-plus years, there is an indelible impression that has been made upon their psyche that stirs up the sweetest and longest-lasting of great memories. Those in our region call it Beach [...]
Music lovers throughout the Carolinas are reeling from the loss of saxophone player Johnny Cox, who died in Charleston, S.C. last Saturday night, March 20. Musically and personally Johnny threw a bright light from the upstate of South Carolina to the Grand Strand. Well-known for his time with the Swingin’ Medallions, he’s also played with [...]
Delta Generators
www.myspace.com/deltagenerators
Devil In the Rhythm (2008)
Self-produced
Genre: Blues
I’ve never seen the Delta Generators onstage, but their debut CD, Devil In the Rhythm, makes me lust for a live performance. Right from track one, “Hand Me Down Blues,” I knew I was in for a wild ride of rockin’ funk-edged blues, and is it ever fun!
The nine-track [...]
In a cyber nutshell, Twitter is a social networking tool. And, since I know some of you are going to ask me what exactly is social networking, a social network is a broad group of websites that lets you connect with other people over the Internet.
Twitter, when compared to MySpace and Facebook is still pretty [...]
Ted Bell is one of the deejays for 94.9The Surf in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. He’s on the air from 10 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, and then hosts the All Request Beach Music Café from noon until 2 p.m.
Ted, who knew he wanted to be a radio deejay when he was 11 years [...]
John Primer
www.johnprimerblues.com
All Original (2008)
Label: Blues House Productions
Genre: Blues
There’s a lot more to John Primer’s latest release than the ear may hear. His latest project is in indeed just that - a project. All Original is a dream come true for John. The CD is his first on his very own record label - Blues [...]
If you’ve ever seen Sammy O’Banion & Mardi Gras live, you know you’re listening to the real deal. Pure, timeless rhythm and blues.
Singer Sammy O’Banion was born and raised in Augusta, Ga., where rhythm and blues was a way of life. He became interested in music as a boy, and in the eighth grade enrolled [...]
Artist: Daddy
Info: www.myspace.com/daddytheband
Album: Daddy At the Women’s Club (2005)
Label: Cedar Creek Music
Genre: Indie/Roots Rock
Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack, who are the backbone of Daddy, may be flying under the radar of the mainstream public, but alternative and roots fans know them well. Kimbrough was the 2005 American Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year. Womack has [...]
If you only remember four words of this column, they should be Don’t Miss Randall Bramblett!
South By Southeast, the innovative nonprofit supporter of independent music is beginning their 2009 season with a bang. The group, in conjunction with New South Brewery, is bringing back the high octane Randall Bramblett Band for their third appearance at [...]
Gary Erwin aka Shrimp City Slim is pretty excited about the lineup for his 19th annual Lowcountry Blues Bash taking place in Charleston from Feb. 6 - 16. And no wonder.
His headliners are Lil’ Dave Thompson; Big Bill Morganfield, who happens to be Muddy Waters’ son; Andrew “Jr. Boy” Jones; and Beverly “Guitar” Watkins.
[...]
