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My First Experience
I am pretty sure the first beach music artist I saw live in person was the Band of Oz in Raleigh. I seem to remember seeing them at a corporate function that I was working at when I was in college. At the time, I don’t think I knew it was beach music, but learned the term Beach Music a few years later and got hooked.. on the music, the fun and the bands. I think I became a Coastline Crazy before Jim Quick started using the term and look back to the many Coastline Band shows I have attended over the years. I have had a great time with all the bands and the events I have been involved. Check out my featured artists and events
I have recently started working with some new bands and look forward to all of the shows with them as well as my continued involvement with Band of Oz and Jim Quick & Coastline, who have stuck with me for well over a decade.
Who was your first?
Do you remember the first Beach Music Artist Performance you attended? Who was performing? Where was it? For some of you, you may recall seeing band or artist that at the time was not considered a beach music performer.. That is OKAY… Tell me about it anyway below in the comments section.
I remember the early Embers ( with Durwood Martin/Frank Reich )at a K-Mart located at the corner of Six Forks and Wake Forest Rd.I was around 17 and it was my first encounter with beach music.They sounded so good that I made a pact to play beach music myself in a band.Since then I have been in several bands with 3 of them playing mostly beach music.I am playing beach music these days w/East Coast Rhythm and Blues Band.
I moved to the beach in 2001. I knew nothing about shag dance. I took shag lessons from Jay Holder who was a Craig Woolard fan. After going to a CWB concert, I was hooked! Love ‘Come Get to This’
My first beach music show was The Embers & Four Tops at the Chesapeake Jubilee probably in 2006 because my daughter had just turned one year old. Though I had been listening to beach since the late 80’s, I’m pretty sure this show was what got me to start adding beach songs to the country music that I was singing at the time and to, over time, become more beach music and less country.
I remember Bill Deal and the Rhondels at the Peppermint Beach Club at Virginia Beach in the 1960’s. Their beach music produced some of the great hits of the day: “May I” “What Kind of Fool” and “I’ve Been Hurt.”
I remember seeing General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board at the Holiday Inn, Myrtle Beach, Admiral’s Showroom in 1980 or 81. They wore the light blue jumpsuits with tassels and the room was full. I was hooked and still today love the music and the lifestyle.
Barry Hooker……we loved playing all the Holiday Inn venues.