Outdoor Events Headline the Music Weekend Ahead
• Greenville, SC
As summer stubbornly gives way to fall and I have finally felt a long-awaited nip in the air, I want to do one thing – listen to music outdoors. Open air listening requires just the right weather as nobody wants to hear their teeth chatter over the music at a winter show and I’ll be damned if I am going to melt to death in a crowd of sweaty bodies in mid-July. As temperatures settle into my own personal Goldilocks zone, I am thrilled to see a plethora of outdoor events happening in the weekend ahead.
My Girl, My Whiskey, and Me
First up is the second-to-last Saturday of the Music in the Woods concert series at Paris Mountain State Park. This one holds a special place in my heart as the park is a place that I have visited as long as I can remember and is still a place that I frequent for a hike at least once a week (on a side note – the SC State Park Pass is arguably the best way you could ever spend $100 if you are the outdoorsy type). The park’s amphitheater feels like a time machine that transports you to simpler, more innocent days of old and the music on the calendar fits that vibe to a T. This week the series features My Girl, My Whiskey, & Me with their incredibly unique brand of bluegrass and Americana, rife with original tunes and captivating covers of everyone from Pink Floyd to The White Stripes making sure there is a constant question of “what the hell is happening right now?” in all the right ways. The husband-and-wife duo of George and Kelly Colyer always deliver an impressive and heartfelt performance and I can think of few venues better suited for their talent.
On Sunday you are invited to a couple of community events, whether you are a resident of the neighborhoods or not. First, the Hampton-Pickney neighborhood is hosting their inaugural music festival The Hampton-Pickney Porchfest from 2-5pm. As the name might suggest, 14 local musicians will take a turn playing on the front porch of seven neighborhood homes over the course of the afternoon. It is an eclectic lineup of artists from Darby Wilcox and Kelly Jo to Pueblo Now and Shyland Flowers. Having said that, I will now take the opportunity to say something that I have written countless times for other publications but I will say for the first time here on Forthright Records –Shyland Flowers is a beacon of light in the Upstate hip-hop scene and a total badass. It is possible that you might eventually get tired of me saying that but I do not care. Seriously though, this is an amazingly talented and diverse lineup of artists and there are few better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon listening to great musicians commandeer historic homes to share their gifts.
Shyland Flowers
