This week The RFC MINI SHOW presents the mighty Plaid Clash, bringing their Celtic magic to the Bluegrass Kitchen. This four-piece features Chris Higgins, Garrett Maner, Dan Carney and Vaughn Gold singing and playing a variety of instruments.
This dynamic combo has been playing around Charleston for a few months, and we finally caught up to them at the Bluegrass Kitchen just a couple of weeks ago. We will be catching up with them again in the future, as we didn’t bring the right recording equipment to capture the audio at this event in our usual high quality. Bluegrass Kitchen is one of the finest restaurants in town, and was packed, and our microphones picked up nearly every dinner conversation in the place instead of the music.
Even with the less-than perfect audio, we wanted to give you a taste of this great band. Rest assured that Plaid Clash will grace the RFC screen again in the near future, with audio that does their beautiful sound justice.
You can next hear Plaid Clash Sunday, September 7, as part ofCulture Fest in Pipestem.
This week The RFC MINI SHOW digs up a gem from the Radio Free Charleston vault–It’s the progressive Jazz quartet, C2J2, recorded at The Empty Glass in April, 2011. C2J2 was Chris Hudson on Drums, Josh Cannon on Electric Guitar, Chris Mickel on Tenor Sax and Jamie Skeen on Electric Bass. Following a line up change, the band still performs around Charleston as Ignition.
One reason for reviving this lost classic is that C2J2 will appear on The Empty Glass 30th Anniversary Live collection. They will not be part of the vinyl project, but they will be represented on CD and via digital download (and everyone who buys the vinyl will get a digital download, too).
There’s about four weeks left in the IndieGoGo campaign for the Empty Glass Live vinyl, and if you are a supporter of live, local music, you should check out the crowdfunding page and kick in a few bucks on the project.
Our host segment was shot right outside The Empty Glass on Elizabeth Street in Charleston shortly after a taping session for two new bands that you will see on The RFC MINI SHOW in the coming weeks, Elephant in the Room and Super Heavy Duty.
This week The RFC MINI SHOW offers up a preview of The Legend of Sleeping Beauty, a musical version of the classic fairy tale that is fun for the whole family. You can catch this cute musical at the Alban Arts and Conference Center starting Friday, August 15. The performance dates are: August 15-16, 22-23 at 8 PM and August 17, 24 at 2 PM. Tickets are available online at albanartscenter.com/ or by calling (304) 721-8896. Adult admission is $15, while Seniors and Children (under 12) is $10.
We recorded a preview performance of this show at The Charleston Town Center weekend before last, and the group did a great job in what is a tough venue. We bring you two songs: “Bright and Shining” sung by Sheila Jarrett as Evelyn and Rachel Couch as Elise and “M-A-L-I-C-I-A” sung by Sara Golden as Malicia and Alondra Johnson, Ben Valleau, Claire Atkinson, Jaxzen Allen, Bethany Cole, Rowe Tapley and Bodie Allen as mice.
Sara Golden as Malicia with her “mice”
When the new princess is born, the court is excited that this is the child who will save them all from the evil force that threatens to vanquish the kingdom. The king asks his three favorite aunts to be godmothers to his daughter, Elise. A fourth aunt, Malicia, who has harassed the king’s family for years, shows up uninvited at the christening, causing a scene which ends with deadly curses.
To protect the child, the three kindly godmothers take Elise to live in a secluded forest cottage until after her 16th birthday when the curse will expire. It is then that the princess and her protectors leave the safety of the forest and proceed to the king’s castle, but it’s a day too early to avoid the curse! The crazed and powerful Malicia arrives at the castle, making demands and threats, knowing that the time is right for fulfillment of the curse. Prince Michael, who is in love with Elise, also arrives at the castle, where his newfound love has fallen victim to Malicia’s curse and is sleeping in an isolated tower. In his search for Elise, Michael confronts Malicia, overcomes her curses, and finds his dear Elise. Michael awakens Elise, proclaims his love, and together they triumph over the curse and fulfill the legend.
This week The RFC MINI SHOW stars Charleston Rock Institutions, Blue Million. This is footage of Alan, Andy and Gary that we recorded in April, 2011 at The Empty Glass. Our crew that night included Johnny Rock, the drummer for the legendary RFC band, Go Van Gogh. You’ll see him in a couple of shots.
Blue Million was one of the original local bands featured on the radio version of Radio Free Charleston, and they are still going strong 25 years later. They still perform locally, most recently in June at Bruno’s, and we will keep you posted on their next shows in PopCult.
This episode of The RFC MINI SHOW features two songs from the band’s night at the Glass back in 2011, one of which has never been seen before.
PopCult is proud to present the first look at Doctor Who: The Classic Series Regenerated. This is a locally-produced fan-film tribute to the long-running BBC science fiction series, particularly the era of the Fourth Doctor, who was portrayed by Tom Baker. You can check out the Facebook page for this projectHERE.
Just last weekend, scenes for Doctor Who: The Classic Series Regenerated were shot at The Clay Center, Spring Hill Cemetary, Dunbar’s Wine Cellar Park and other locations around the area.
The Dcotor and Sara Jane at Dunbar’s Wine Cellar Park, photo by Mark Wolfe Design
Doctor Who: The Classic Series Regenerated is the brainchild and labor of love of Ronn Smith, a life-long fan of The Doctor. In fact, the first time I met Ronn, several years ago at one of Dale Morton’s Halloween parties, he was dressed as The Fourth Doctor. You may have noticed our sneak peek at Ronn as The Doctor in this week’s Monday Morning Art. The plan is to recreate the look and feel of the original series while telling new adventures of The Fourth Doctor and Sara Jane, his companion.
this band is a long-time Radio Free Charleston mainstay, newly reborn with a new vocalist and the addition of a great horn section. We’ve been bringing you great music from this band for over five years, and it’s great to see them revitalized with new energy and a new line up.
We recorded them at The Empty Glass last May performing two originals, “Loud Mouth Woman” and “How D’You Like Me Now?” The members of DBB are Johnny “Hurricane” Compton,John ” The Mud Cat” Chickogee, Tommy Fountaine, Jessica Lowe, Kevin Kidd, Terry Lowry, Billy Hambleton and Morris Hambleton.
You can catch The Diablo Blues Band August 10 at The Empty Glass, where they will be recording a live album, their debut onArm The Pit Records.
This week the RFC MINI SHOW shines its spotlight on Dina Hornbaker, who made her Radio Free Charleston debut back on episode 196, last March. Dina is a very talented singer/songwriter who just moved back to Charleston last year and has become a star of the open mic scene in town.
This week’s RFC MINI SHOW brings you three songs performed by Dina just last week at the Early Open Mic at Taylor Books. The RFC Crew just happened to be there armed with cameras and we decided to snag Dina’s first three-song set before deadline duties forced us to make a hasty retreat.This was true guerilla filmmaking because we forgot to tell anyone we were recording and had to ask permission afterward.
You’ll hear Dina doing a Summertime song with nods to Sam Cooke and George Gershwin, as well as the song that she performed on RFC 196, “Mountain Mama.” We wrap up the show with a lovely song that does not yet have a title. We’d like to thank Dina for allowing us to bring you this terrific little work-in-progress.
The Taylor Books Early Open Mic is developing into quite an eclectic scene. Keep checking PopCult for details on when the next one is coming up. The video in this episode may seem a little blocky, but that’s entirely due to your producer/director/host screwing up something while rendering it. So pretend it was done on purpose.
This week The RFC MINI SHOW dives into the vault for two songs by the terrific local band,InFormation. One of these performances has never been seen before. These were recorded in May, 2011 at The Blue Parrot.
InFormation is Curtis Chittendon, Shane Durham and Roy Graley, and we first had them on Radio Free Charleston (with an early line-up) seven years ago. They continue to impress the hell out of RFC host Rudy Panucci with their progressive alternative energy and great lyrics.
We will now quote freely from their website…
“InFormation is a 3 piece Rock ‘N’ Roll group from Charleston, WV. If you think that Rock ‘N’ Roll music may be dying off, you need to see an InFormation show and have your Rock ‘N’ Roll spirits re-lifted!InFormation brings everything you need for a Rock ‘N’ Roll show; mind melting guitar solos, killer guitar riffs, 9 string basses, 7 string basses, drum solos, catchy lyrics, and most of all a real good time.”
You can next catch the band Friday, July 18, at The Blue Parrot (where we recorded these tunes) with Deck of Fools (another great band that we’ve had on RFC). The show starts at 10 PM and the cover charge is only five bucks.
Despite some technical glitches, we are bringing you a half hour of coverage of Charleston’s just-concluded FestivALL 2014 in RFC 199. Radio Free Charleston looks at FestivALL with music from Todd Burge, The Bark O Loungers, QiET and The Company Stores, plus dance from Susan Angela Hughart and The Trillium Performance Arts Collective. Sprinkled throughout are many sights and sounds of FestivALL.
This week we bring you the 2014 FestivALL Art Parade as our RFC MINI SHOW. With many of Charleston’s most creative persons marching in front of the city’s coolest bookstore/coffeehouse/art gallery, Taylor Books, the Art Parade signals the beginning of FestivALL.
You will hear Bill Kimmons introduce Peter Marshall, The Charleston Light Opera Guild, Camp Curtain Call, Jude Binder, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School, The Chemical Valley Roller Girls, Kanawha Players, QiET and more.
This is the fifth year for the FestivALL Charleston Art Parade, and it was cool to see it return to its original route in time for FestivALL’s tenth year. Next week a full-length episode of Radio Free Charleston will bring you more sights and sounds from FestivALL.
This week The RFC MINI SHOW presents the mighty Plaid Clash, bringing their Celtic magic to the Bluegrass Kitchen. This four-piece features Chris Higgins, Garrett Maner, Dan Carney and Vaughn Gold singing and playing a variety of instruments.
