Although the Marion Square Jam is new this year to the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, its curation by Awendaw Green’s Eddie White makes it feel like a festival regular.
“We’re like a non-venue venue,” White said of Awendaw Green, which features a weekly showcase of original music called the Barn Jam. “It’s really great to showcase these bands because their original music sometimes, even though it might not be something you instantly recognize, is something that you end up enjoying because they do it so very well.”
While the Barn Jam takes place about 15 miles north of Charleston, the Marion Square Jam will bring these same local artists and the authentic Awendaw Green experience downtown.
The two-day series boasts a potentially unwieldy lineup of 12 acts, but White said he worked to really make it digestible for audiences.
“It’s multi-eclectic — it’s not just folk or bluegrass or even rock ’n roll,” White said. “We always mix it up with different genres of music. We find that that’s part of our secret sauce: You never know what you’re going to get, and hopefully it’ll be something you remember.”
Celebrating hometown talent
The Marion Square Jam’s free admission may increase the pull of the event, but the emphasis on local artists is the real selling point.
“A lot of the times when we’re playing, we’re part of the ambiance of what’s going on, whether that’s a brewery or a bar,” said George Stevens of the Letter Show, which will perform June 8 at 2 p.m. “Whereas this is all about the art and the individuals taking it in. That’s one of the reasons we love playing at Awendaw Green. … It’ll be a good listening-room opportunity, and we look forward to fluxing out of the bar band into an artist role.”
Stevens started the Letter Show with fellow songwriter Becca Bessinger in 2011. With 13 years under their belt, the duo has performed everywhere from breweries and bars to other festivals and events.
“There is a bond established between Becca and myself,” Stevens said. “We’ve been playing together for a very long time, and you don’t play together for that long without really enjoying each other and enjoying these sorts of special opportunities.”
Persevering for the sake of their art
For other performers, pursuing their original music has been a long and ardent road traveled, with multiple hurdles along the way. Take the harmonica-powered Hibachi Heroes, which will perform June 8 at 5 p.m. A string of losses had sidelined the funk-rock band but also proved instrumental in forging its identity, according to one member.
“It’s really hard to keep a band together,” Rob Lowe said. “We’ve been somewhat unlucky that our guitar players haven’t been able to stick around, and we lost one of them to suicide. That really set us back. Then we had COVID happen, which slowed us down. Our new guitar player had been in the band for three years, and he just decided we were going in a different direction after COVID. Then we found out another one of our good friends passed away. So, loss is a big part of our story.”
While the initial loss put the band on the back burner, the latter brought them together again — Lowe credits their “love of music” for getting them to this point. Performing at the latter’s celebration of life and then for a Ukraine benefit “reignited the fire.”
“As an original music band, it’s been a challenge,” Lowe said. “But it was also an inspiration.” For the album, they wrote a song in memory of Rick, the member of the band who died by suicide, and also included one that Nick, their friend who passed away, contributed to.
Playing in the heart of Charleston
White, Lowe and Stevens all expressed excitement to bring the Awendaw Green ethos not just to downtown Charleston but to the historic 6.5 acres of Marion Square.
“Being embedded in the heart of Charleston and surrounded by the festivities in all directions will be a little different, but in a good way,” Stevens said. “People always respond well to our original stuff, whether it’s at a background gig or something more like this, but it’s the expectation of originality as opposed to its novelty that attracted us to the Marion Square Jam.”
And while the Hibachi Heroes have had their share of gigs on Upper King Street and elsewhere in town, Lowe said, “it’s nice to be able to be part of something that … isn’t tucked away in some random hole-in-the-wall bar. It’s right there in the middle of the action. It’s in Marion Square.”
Brandon Wallace is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.
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