A chronicle of the Upstate South Carolina music community and beyond
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 Brooks Dixon has played some livestream concerts in the last few weeks, and the Greenville-based singer-songwriter has also enjoyed watching such performances by others in the Upstate music community and beyond. “It’s been nice to see people play, but (it’s) definitely not the same,” Dixon said. “I Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Jordan Caparell had been anticipating the arrival of Friday, April 3 for quite some time. REdEFIND, the veteran Upstate band he joined about seven months ago as its new lead vocalist, was to have celebrated the release of its latest EP with a concert that night at Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Like many other musicians throughout the world, Mary Emma Norris has spent the past couple of weeks in isolation and unable to perform in public due to crowd-gathering restrictions related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It’s a far cry from how the month began. On March 1, Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Little Lesley & the Bloodshots were to have played gigs this weekend at Smiley’s Acoustic Cafe in Greenville and at Rockabilly Reckoning in Austell, Georgia. Instead, like other musicians throughout the world, their shows were canceled due to concerns regarding the coronavirus pandemic. In the internet age, Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Sarah Shook has a reputation as a bit of a badass, and it’s a label that the North Carolina-based singer-songwriter warmly embraces. “By my estimation, nothing is more badass than having compassion for others,” Shook said. “And assuming that assessment is true, then, yes, I got badass Read More
Dan + Shay will bring its “The (Arena) Tour” to the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, 650 N. Academy St., Greenville on Saturday, March 14. [Update: The concert has been postponed until Sept. 10 due to the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the coronavirus.] Having won Grammy Awards each of the past two Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS Charleston-based singer-songwriter Matt Megrue hasn’t played The Radio Room since the Greenville music venue moved from North Pleasantburg Drive to its current location on Poinsett Highway in 2017, but he already knows what to expect when he performs there on Friday, March 6. “I saw Titus Adronicus Read More
By DAN ARMONAITIS While living in Savannah, Ga. for 13 years, Anna Chandler would often drive up U.S. Highway 17 to Charleston. Along the way, she’d pass through the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto Basin, a beautiful estuary better known as the ACE Basin. “That drive is my favorite to do Read More