Local five-piece Dan’s Tramp Stamp & the Money Bags is holding a memorial show for frontman Jackson Abraham Sun., Aug. 1 at The Windjammer with performances from bands he’s played with throughout the years, Pluff Mud Queen, Zach Bedell Music, Flash Mob and Saluda Shoals. There will be a silent auction to raise money for a memorial for Abraham and for South Carolina’s Artist Relief Fund.
Dan’s Tramp Stamp & the Money Bags came together thanks to a kickball team back in 2009.
“At the end of the year we had this party to celebrate the kickball season,” said guitarist Dan Bladykas. “Jackson had a garage full of instruments. He started playing piano. I started playing guitar. It was nice from the jump just playing music with him. Jackson and I started playing as a duo.”
Then Cameron Ballinger — whose sister played on the kickball team — came into the mix as drummer, and Abraham brought in Stefan Williams on bass, who was his good friend from high school.
“The four of us couldn’t be more different,” Bladykas said. “Everything was naturally easy though. We often joked that it’s the longest relationship that we’ve ever had.”
Another high school friend, guitarist Hunter Moss, played with the band for about four years, and when he moved on, guitarist Rob Royson joined.
“Everyone knew their role,” Bladykas said. “It was a really healthy relationship.”
DTSMB plays everything from Lumineers to Led Zeppelin and Amos Lee to AC/DC as well as original music. “It all came down to Jackson, he had the ability to cover any song that he wanted to,” Bladykas said. “At the end of the night at 2 or 3 in the morning, you might hear him doing an impersonation in the parking lot at the bar. I think that’s why we had such success, because Jackson was able to not just sing the part, but also the inflection and the natural way that the person would sing it originally.”
“I started playing with him when I was 14 or 15,” Williams said. “We’ve always written songs and covered songs. Our first band did a lot of Green Day back in high school. I remember in the earlier days sitting on the dock of his parents house writing music with Hunter Moss. And after that we were in probably two or three bands in middle school and high school.”
“He loved emo music more than anything in the world,” Royson said, who also recalls Abraham was influenced by hip-hop and loved to freestyle.
“He embraced all genres,” said his sister Mary Abraham. “I remember as a kid listening to music he was listening to and being like, ‘What?’ And then hearing him listen to Johnny Cash the next day and then Waylon Jennings. That never changed for him, just embracing all music.”
“He was a huge fan of Eminem,” Bladykas said. “When 8 Mile came out, it was a scary thing for us because rap battles were a huge thing for him. And he would usually win. We said we can only have compliment battles because he would slaughter us.”
“Jackson had this way of covering songs, and he always put his special twist on it,” Ballinger said. “Every single time we played ‘Little Talks’ by Monsters and Men, he would do perfectly each male and female part. Every time I looked at the crowd, as soon as he went to the female part of the song, everyone in the audience would immediately turn and look at him. It would get people right up on the dance floor. He was able to control the crowd like nothing else. A lot of people would be looking to see if he was using some sort of pedal to alter his voice.”
Jackson grew up in Anderson, S.C. and went to the College of Charleston. “For years I would say, ‘It’s time to do something with your degree,” Mary Abraham said, even though she knew how musically talented he was. “He was playing music from when he was a small child. He would be 5 and sit up at the piano and would be able to perfectly play out what I had been practicing. He couldn’t read music yet. We knew he was talented. Then after years of nagging him about getting a real job, he said, ‘I have magic to make people dance. Why wouldn’t I do that for the rest of my life?’ I never watched him perform through the same lens after that. Almost immediately after his fingers hitting the keyboard and voice hitting the mic, people would rise from their seats and start dancing. My father would tell him, ‘Son, you’re musically talented, but you’ve got to figure out how to perform.’ And he worked at being a performer. He’s always liked to impersonate. He really thrived from the energy of the crowd.”
Abraham died unexpectedly from fentanyl poisoning, a fact his family wants people to know. “We don’t want it hidden — people need to be aware that there’s a real risk in Charleston with any type of recreational drug use,” Mary Abraham said. “It’s out there and it’s scary, and we are worried if people don’t talk about it then people don’t know about the risk.”
“It is our goal to keep playing as a band going forward and to remember the unique style and incredible talent of Jackson in all of our performances,” Ballinger said.
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