Listening Party: Is There Something In The Water?

Earlier in the week, I found myself listening to SC ETV radio’s Clemson-produced radio show Your Day, which is a sort of general interest “radio magazine” about South Carolina. I was really just wanting some noise to occupy me while I made a slightly complicated lunch, and didn’t really expect to hear anything that actually interested me, which is generally the case with SC ETV’s local programming. So, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a short interview with local jazz/jam/blues musician Shane Pruitt.

It’s not that the interview was particularly interesting — interviewer Roy Scott seemed to have only a very basic knowledge of Pruitt’s work — but what caught my attention was a brief exchange about Spartanburg. Scott, in trying to contextualize Pruitt’s place in the regional music scene said something along the lines of this: “Is there something in the water up there that produces such talented musicians?”

Over the next few moments, Pruitt and Scott very briefly discussed this topic, noting popular examples like Hank Garland and The Marshall Tucker Band. But the more interesting part was the follow-up question, in which Scott asked why Spartanburg has such a history of talented performers. Pruitt’s take on the question essentially boiled down to their being a supportive community of like-minded musicians and fans. And while I’m sure that’s true in many cases, it’s not an answer that really satisfied me.

As I noted last week, it’s hardly a myth that Spartanburg has a real and significant musicial legacy. It may not be a history littered with mega-stars, but it’s clearly one filling with dynamic, innovative performers who, as a rule, found success only after leaving the city. The pool of talent is here, but the mechanism for supporting them — or even recognizing them — has been weak or nonexistent for most of the city’s modern history.

And yet, if we accept that many of the mostly unknown, yet clearly talented local bands this column has documented over the last 18 or so months are part of that continuing history, clearly something is different about Spartanburg. Talent bubbles up here all the time, and not because of commercial reasons. People aren’t moving to Spartanburg to start bands and take advantage of an existing notoriety, like you’d find in a city like Athens, GA. So, what is it? Something in the water?

I honestly don’t know what it is — I doubt anyone really does — but what I’d like to do with this examine a few possible elements that might help explain this strange phenomena. This isn’t a comprehensive theory, it’s just sort of a list of springboards for the discussion.

1. The Hub City Premise: Not all that long ago, Spartanburg was a major regional crossroads, particularly when it came to shipping things via train. That’s the origin of the “Hub City” nickname, as the city was a shipping and transportation hub. A lot of people passed through Spartanburg in those days, including a large number of musicians, which might have exposed talented locals to a broader range of musical ideas than people in other nearby communities. Additionally, living in a town that allowed easy access to other cities in the region may have given local bands a bit of an edge when it came to performing, being able to get to more places with less hassle and expense than their competitors in, say, Gaffney. As a result, these performers had better exposure and more opportunities to play. Additionally, having a large amount of people passing through town may have helped to support a live music scene — including several active music venues — which lasted until the city began it’s decline as a transportation hub following the introduction of the Interstate Highway System in the late 1950s.

2. The WSPA Theory: Spartanburg had the very first radio station in South Carolina, with WSPA 950 AM going live on February 17, 1930. It would be decades before the rest of the cities in the region had their own stations, which meant that for several years Spartanburg was the place to be if you wanted people to hear your music, buy your recordings and see your live shows. Many musicians made Spartanburg a regular stop because of this, and as a result many noteworthy musicians rubbed elbows with local talent. This allowed many local musicians to gain valuable contacts outside of the immediate area. It’s also worth noting that some talented folks may also have been attracted to the city because of this media outlet. One example would be the Blue Ridge Quartet, a gospel group who moved to Spartanburg shortly after WSPA-TV went live on April 29, 1956. Access to the station allowed the group to create a nationally syndicated TV program which helped them become one of the most popular gospel acts of their era. If one group moved to Spartanburg to be close to one media outlet, it’s reasonable to think that others did the same, even of they never attained any significant amount of fame.

3. The Racial Diversity Argument: It’s worth noting that the city of Spartanburg has had a large African-American population for a very long time. It’s also worth noting that most popular music of the modern era has roots in black music. A large black population means a greater chance for talented black performers, and Spartanburg’s history reflects this. Clara Smith, Pink Anderson, Arthur Prysock, Ira Tucker and Peg Leg Sam are all examples of musicians that were either born in Spartanburg or had significant connections to the city. But it’s also worth noting that several Caucasian musicians who were highly influenced by African-American music also hail from Hub City, most notably country/jazz/rock guitarist Hank Garland and swing-era jazz drummer Johnny Blowers. Both started performing jazz music when they were very young, and well before any kind of music was racially integrated. Clearly, these musicians were being exposed to new kinds of music ahead of the curve in the region, and it’s likely that Spartanburg’s large black population and existing set of musicians had something to do with that.

4. The Isolation Situation: Many of the musicians I’ve mentioned were products of the relative boom that happened in Spartanburg in the 1920s through the 1950s, but there’s a whole other collection of local musicians who became known well after this period. In the 1960s and 1970s, groups like Uncle Walt’s Band and the Marshall Tucker Band came out of Spartanburg. Both were hailed for having innovative sounds, and both used roots music elements to explore new territory, helping to shape Americana and Southern Rock, respectively. Yet, Spartanburg wasn’t a metropolis, and had been in a period of decline that was at least a decade old. So how did innovation happen in a city that was increasingly considered second-tier? Was it that the city’s once-thriving music community had become somewhat isolated, performing mostly to each other? Now in a relative cultural backwater, were these musicians free to develop a musical style of their own, pulling from other sources than the R&B and psychedelic rock that had been popular in the previous decade? Was the relative lack of touring acts coming through Spartanburg actually an incentive for local acts to fill the niche? After all, these folks were exposed to popular music of the era, but if they actually wanted to hear it live, they either had to wait for a performer to come to them (and few big names would during this time) or make their own music.

5. The Big Hope Theory: For the last several decades, Spartanburg has been a relatively poor area. With limited educational opportunities and even more limited employment prospects, it’s hardly surprising that talented people often play into those talents as a means of escaping poverty. Making music is — after an initial investment in an instrument and basic training — essentially free. What’s more, if you’re any good at it, you can even make a little money from doing it. Even playing cover songs in hotel bars, while not for everyone, can earn a musician a living wage. And in the right setting, crowds can even be encouraging of new, original music by these performers. Certainly, some of Spartanburg’s most notable performers today — the Shane Pruitt Band being a good example — make at least part of their income by filling this niche. While I don’t know the specifics of each band’s financial history, it’s not too much to think that in some cases music was really the only realistic way out of poverty for some of the performers in Spartanburg’s past, as well as its present. The abundance of local hip-hop performers who proudly claim to come from poverty certainly hints that this might be the case.

As I’ve already mentioned, these aren’t true theories, but rather fragments of some larger framework. There are probably a great many things I’m overlooking, including several parts of Spartanburg’s musical history that I’m simply unaware of.

Which is where you come in. What I’d like to see are more pieces, theories, ideas and bits of relevant information that help to flesh out this story a little. Why is it that Spartanburg has such a relatively high proportion of musical talent? Is it a myth? Is there really something in the water? Please leave your thoughts in the comment fields below.