A chronicle of the Upstate South Carolina music community and beyond
By DAN ARMONAITIS As the Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs prepare to kick off the Carolina Revue, group co-founder Kendra Bragg Harding is fully aware that the concert, which will be held on Friday, Feb. 28 at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, is much bigger than any one band on the bill. Read More
Truckfighters will make a stop at The Radio Room, 110 Poinsett Highway, Greenville on Wednesday, Feb. 26. The Swedish trio, which has been on the scene for nearly two decades, has built a solid international following with a fuzz-driven stoner rock sound that’s similar in spirit to such bands as Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS When James Carter was growing up in the 1970s, there was a brief period in which one of his older brother’s bandmates came to stay at the Carter home in Detroit. Charles “Chazzy” Green, who would later play with Ray Parker Jr., brought with him a few Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS As the frontman for Spartanburg-based progressive pop-rock outfit The Consumers, Joe Power has spent more than a decade crafting melodic songs that are sometimes edgy but almost always accessible. With his new band, Buffalohead, Power has a different mission. “My goal is to melt your face and Read More
Uncle Goo & the Country Dragons will lead a Gypsy Farm Records label showcase on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Yesterdaze Records and CDs, 318 W. North St., Seneca. The group, which recently released a fabulous tradition-soaked outlaw country EP, “Cattywampus!!!,” will be joined on the bill by Asheville, N.C.-based garage Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Spartanburg-based singer-songwriter Shannon Ferguson has reinvented herself as Rhea Deléo and is poised to take her music career to a new level in 2020. “I chose the artist name Rhea Deléo because I have always resonated with the first name Rhea since I was a child, and Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS As the drummer for Ranky Tanky, a Charleston-based group that specializes in jazz-influenced arrangements of traditional Gullah music, Quentin E. Baxter was recently honored with his first Grammy Award. The group won in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category for its latest effort, “Good Time,” and Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Nine years ago this week, a teenage Noah Guthrie nervously stepped in front of a microphone at Little River Coffee Bar in downtown Spartanburg for his first public concert. “I didn’t know anything about playing in front of people or anything really,” the Greer-based Guthrie recalled recently. Read More
Arlo Guthrie will perform on Sunday, Feb. 16 at the Walhalla Performing Arts Center, 101 E. North Broad St., Walhalla. Best known for his epic 1967 satirical talking blues “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” the legendary folk troubadour has spent more than a half decade railing against social injustice through songs and Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS A few weeks ago, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jason Ringenberg was escorted through the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum by former Spartanburg resident Peter Cooper, who now serves as its senior director, producer and writer. Ringenberg was visiting with his wife and daughters, who were given the Read More