Music is a beacon of hope, and at Recovery Jam, it’s a symbol of recovery. The annual music and arts festival returns to Charleston for its fourth year from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Isle of Palms Exchange Club.
Nashville singer-songwriter Jaime Wyatt and singer-songwriter JamiSun, a Lowcountry native, will perform music that traverses rock, country and Americana. Several visual artists will exhibit works, including local creators Swhitey Art and Adrienne Mixon, plus jewelry from Magdalene House of Charleston.
“Music is like meditation for me,” JamiSun told the Charleston City Paper. “Music has saved my life [and] helped me say things I couldn’t say with just words. It’s a beautiful way to unite rooms full of strangers with songs they know and love and bring them together as friends.”
The festival is centered around celebrating artists of all types in active recovery from drugs and alcohol, and the proceeds benefit various Lowcountry recovery programs.
“Recovery Jam was born out of the idea to support recovering artists of all forms through an omni-channel platform and benefit concert,” said the festival’s founder Ray Spellerberg.
“Since so many find connection through art and music,” he said, “we use their artistry as the conduit to spread a message of hope. The other aspect of our nonprofit is to offer several community organizations working in the field of substance abuse disorders the same platform to highlight their programs and resources.
“I love the principle that Recovery Jam is a nonprofit that supports other nonprofits. Proceeds of the annual event are donated to various beneficiaries, with a different recipient selected each year.”
This year’s festival will donate to WakeUp Carolina, a nonprofit spreading awareness, promoting education and providing hope in recovery for individuals and families touched by substance use through collaborative community partnerships, resources and support services in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.
“The beauty of our program is we believe that substance-use disorder is not just an individual disease, but it is a family or community disease, and it is necessary for treatment to be wrapped around community and family recovery, not just the individual seeking treatment,” said Nanci Steadman Shipman, founder and director of WakeUp Carolina.
“Our Treatment Scholarship Program provides financial assistance not only to an individual seeking detox, treatment or sober living but also financial assistance for family members impacted by the disease of their loved one,” she said.
Healing together
Headlining performer Wyatt said Recovery Jam is close to her heart because she’s been on a sobriety journey for more than 12 years and worked in treatment centers throughout her 20s.
“In my experience, recovery communities need support, since addiction is a disease of isolation,” Wyatt told the City Paper.
“Group therapy and peer support is an integral part of recovery and harm reduction,” she said. “Now more than ever, it’s an important time to support and encourage communities in their sobriety. In the pandemic, a lot of addicts in recovery were isolated from treatment and need more support now.”
JamiSun has been sober for eight years and travels around the country performing his lighthearted tunes since he got his start as a musician in 1999 in Atlanta. His first gig in Charleston was at Taco Boy on Folly Beach on New Year’s Eve in 2007, and since then, he’s played over 5,000 shows.
“Anything I can do to spread awareness of this community that helps many people become their greatest version — I’m all about it,” he said. “Some people are going through life trying to escape it constantly, because they are afraid to feel their feelings, and it’s really easy to just hit the eject button with a drink or a drug. You don’t have to do that when you have a community of people that care about you, you don’t have to do this alone.”
Nationally, Charleston consistently ranks high in substance abuse and overdose cases, Spellerberg said, and holding Recovery Jam has been a salute to the possibility of being a successful, sober artist connected to a strong community.
“One critical thing [that is] lost when a person is in the spiral of drug addiction and alcoholism is hope,” he said. “One of the many things that come back to us when entering recovery is the very hope that we told ourselves was lost forever.”
Visit recoveryjamchs.com for tickets and details.
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