The creativity and pleasure bubbling from local bands sent music lovers to clubs and performance halls in droves in 2023 to enjoy a post-pandemic year of tunes.
At the top of the list of highlights was the 2023 City Paper Music Awards, which featured 17 talented winning performers and professionals ranging from Grayson Little (Male Singer-Songwriter of the Year) to Song of the Year winner Caryn Egan, who also won Female Singer-Songwriter of the Year.
Keep in mind, too, these major Lowcountry music stories of 2023 in a musical trip down memory lane:
February: Ranky Tanky earns second Grammy Award
Charleston’s acclaimed Lowcountry Gullah band Ranky Tanky earned its second Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album for a live album. The band recorded the album during its April 2022 performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
“It’s a testament to our live performances — we put out our all in all,” singer Quiana Parler told the Charleston City Paper. “We leave it on the stage. We never tried to recreate a moment that we’ve done previously.”
May: Spoleto, Piccolo Spoleto have great seasons
Thanks to a partnership with talented arts journalism graduate students at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, the City Paper published more than 70 stories, reviews and photo essays of the 17-day explosion of music and arts during the 2023 Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto seasons.
June: Charleston jazz played a big role nationally
In a special issue celebrating the opening of the International African American Museum, former staffer Chelsea Grinstead explored the importance of early Charleston musicians to America’s jazz scene. She wrote, “Charleston played a fundamental role in the formation of American jazz music, yet the story is not often told in the same breath as New Orleans, Chicago or New York. Holy City jazz musicians and industry professionals illustrate the importance of our city’s contribution to the genre throughout the 20th century.”
June: One-of-a-kind opera premieres in Charleston
Charleston’s Holy City Arts and Lyric Opera brought the famous chamber opera As One to the Queen Street Playhouse. It explored the story of a transgender woman named Hannah as told through the voices of Hannah Before and Hannah After and a simple yet evocative string quartet, Grinstead wrote.
August: The fundamental colors of rock band Susto
In a year marked by lots of new albums by area groups, the latest recording from longtime Charleston indie rock act Susto stood out. Grinstead observed the album My Entire Life “feels like releasing a deep sigh of relief after a long journey.”
August: Edisto Island bass player honored for music contributions
South Carolina paid a long-overdue tribute to legendary bass player James Jamerson of Edisto Island by naming the intersection at S.C. Highway 174 and Steamboat Landing Road in his honor. Jamerson, an Edisto native who died in 1983, had a distinctive one-finger style of playing the bass guitar that powered the soulful low end for a string of familiar Motown hits. He played with the Funk Brothers, an ensemble of studio musicians whose uncredited rhythms made household names out of the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and Smokey Robinson, special projects editor Herb Frazier wrote.
September: How I realized my dad’s friend Jimmy (Buffett) was famous
In a column mixing heartwarming and heartbreaking memories, college student Lucy Dixon of James Island wrote how Margaritaville star Jimmy Buffett was always part of her life as she grew into adulthood — even though she didn’t initially understand how big of a deal he was. She brought a smile to many readers saddened by Buffett’s death with these three sentences: “Once on a trip to Myrtle Beach, we stopped at the only restaurant with a passing food grade. ‘This is Margaritaville, Jimmy’s restaurant,’ my mom said. I wasn’t aware Jimmy worked in a restaurant, and I was sorely disappointed when he was not our waiter.”
November: Charleston musicians create song to support local percussionist Castillo
Charleston’s tight-knit music community started fundraisers to help medical bills of jazz percussionist Gino Castillo, diagnosed in 2023 with leukemia. In a touching story, City Paper intern Mary Martha Beard also outlined how a group of local musicians released a song called “Holy City Bossa” to encourage people to donate to Castillo’s cause. As of Dec. 20, more than 600 people contributed $64,000 to one GoFundMe campaign (gofundme.com/f/help-gino-fight-leukemia).
To review more than 130 music-related stories published by the City Paper in 2023, follow this link: charlestoncitypaper.com/category/musicclubs.
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