It was 1983, and “Candy Girl” by New Edition was climbing the charts. Odds are I was wearing acid-washed jeans, “tight rolled” at the bottom (look it up!), a green Izod shirt and a purple Member’s Only jacket.
My friend Allison’s dad dropped us off in front of Greenville Memorial Auditorium (newcomers, also look that up; it was imploded in 1997), and we headed into our first-ever concert. This is often an important moment in a young person’s life, when individual tastes begin to develop and we feel the transformative power of music—especially when experienced in community with a crowd.
In our Music Issue, we had a blast checking in with area music lovers about their first show, and they run the gamut from Steppenwolf to Barry Manilow to the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra.
The entire issue is packed with music content, a reflection of a vast and growing talent pool in the Upstate. We check in with Grammy nominee Marcus King, who was in town to be inducted into the Fine Arts Center Hall of Fame. We learn about the Chamber Music Society, ride a tour bus with party favorites Steel Toe Stiletto, and chat with a few of the buskers who add to the culture downtown.
Have you heard of a Moog? These synthesizers have been used by everyone from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys, and Sigal Music Museum’s Chris Stack has an impressive collection—plus he played us some out-of-this-world sounds.
From the country’s best places to enjoy a live show to the best songs to inspire in spin class, we explore a variety of ways music informs our lives. We even checked in with Jeremy Phillips, a music-focused visual artist, and found out our own history columnist, Dr. Courtney Tollison Hartness, comes from Upstate radio royalty.
Enjoy the issue and let us know about the music content you’d like to see in our pages.
