A chronicle of the Upstate South Carolina music community and beyond
By DAN ARMONAITIS When Marshall Chapman returns to Spartanburg this weekend, she’ll be performing as part of what she said will be her “favorite show of the year, for sure.” While some of that feeling can be attributed to the fact that it’s been nearly two-and-a-half years since she last Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS During the heyday of big band jazz in the 1940s, one of the genre’s biggest stars was bandleader Woody Herman. A three-time Grammy Award winner and a recipient of the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the clarinet-playing Herman toured the country with various ensembles dubbed The Herd Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Mike Savino laughs when he thinks about a moment of youthful indiscretion he experienced in the early 1990s. “I got arrested for shoplifting when I was 16 because I wanted an Alice in Chains CD,” said Savino, who grew up in Long Island, N.Y. “My mom was Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS The last two years have been unusual, to say the least. Between the global pandemic that turned the world upside down and political divisions that seemed to widen to unprecedented levels during the most recent U.S. election cycle, it’s as if society has been living through a Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS If not for social distancing measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, MerleFest would have been held this past weekend in Wilkesboro, N.C. Since 1988, the festival has brought tens of thousands of music lovers — including many from the Upstate — to the Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS As I started the new year, I couldn’t help but take inventory of what has happened with TheMusicAdvocate.com in the short period since the site launched on Oct. 23, 2019. While having a morning cup of coffee, I looked back at the statistics for the site and Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS The first time Marshall Tucker Band co-founder Paul T. Riddle ever heard the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet recording of “Take Five,” which featured Joe Morello on drums, it was over the phone. Riddle was just a kid and his drum teacher, David Haddox, called the Riddle home Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Howard Childress was only 14 years old when he and three other teenagers from Spartanburg County made their network television debut on “The Nat King Cole Show” in 1957. After Cole introduced The Sparkletones, a camera cut immediately to a close-up shot of Childress, whose boyish face Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Twenty-five years ago, David Ball burst into mainstream consciousness with his breakthrough single, “Thinkin’ Problem,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard country charts and was the cornerstone of a fabulous, neo-traditionalist album of the same name. What was unknown to much of his newfound fan base Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS During Episode 6 of Ken Burns’ eight-part “Country Music” documentary that aired last month on PBS, there’s a scene in which songwriting giant and Country Music Hall of Fame member Kris Kristofferson speaks of his deep appreciation for the works of Romantic period poet William Blake. Slightly Read More