Inside the Music September 2022
Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone is gearing up for a huge SOS celebration along Main Street in North Myrtle Beach! The event will take place September 15th - 25th and there will be no shortage of entertainment in the clubs along Main Street and Ocean Drive. The clubs will be filled with DJ's and bands playing this music we all love! The music and lifestyle that we love will be on full display, and friends will reunite for some fun in the sun filled with great memories from times past spent at the beach.
The event usually spawns a lot of new music into the Beach Music market, and that is yet to be determined. The amount of new material released into the market has been slow recently, and my hope is that SOS will spawn some new, fresh material that is so desperately needed. In the meantime, there were several new releases that hit the airwaves this past month, and I wanted to make sure I give these artists the attention they deserve. So, with that being said, let's go Inside The Music shall we?
Big Bad Batch Of The Blues - The Holiday Band
Established in Burlington, N.C. in 1991 and inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2015, the Holiday Band's Beach Music legacy is secure. The guys have given us numerous hits over the last three decades including multiple number one's across all of the Beach Music charts! The band's line up has included many legendary players known throughout the Beach Music industry. The one mainstay behind the band throughout all of these years has been Mike Taylor, guitarist and vocalist for the group. Well Mike is back with a talented blend of players, and they have been making their way up and down the region playing those great Holiday Band tunes we all know and love!
The Holiday Band's latest effort "Big Bad Batch Of The Blues" features Mike's bluesy vocals accompanied by a smokin' saxophone, keyboard, and guitar laying down a beat that is sure to get the dancers to the floor. The track features tip of the spear instrumentation and production, and the backing vocals fit in exactly where they belong! This tune should start another run of hits for The Holiday Band! It is already making noise on the Beach Music charts as it is #26 on Eric Bowman's Wave New Beach Music Countdown! Look for this tune to get a boost at SOS and continue to move up the charts in the very near future! Well done guys! So good to have The Holiday Band back on the scene making some noise!
Not Tonight (I Have A Heartache) - Doyle Wood and Sylvia Johns Ritchie
Doyle Wood and Sylvia Johns Ritchie recently experienced chart-topping success with their duet "Days Of Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses". The tune reached the top of most of the Beach Music charts and had a long run of success for these two multi-talented artists. Well, they are back at it with their latest collaboration "Not Tonight (I Have A Heartache)" and boy is it a good one! This is a smooth tune that should do very well on the Beach Music charts for Sylvia and Doyle. It features some of the best musicians in the Beach Music industry and the vocals and production on this tune are second to none.
Another plus for this tune is that it is an original tune written by Charlie Sattenfield, Doyle, and Sylvia. This is the first collaboration between these three talented writers, and let's hope there's more to come in the future! As I mentioned earlier, the tune features some of the best musicians in the Beach Music industry including R. Mark Black on saxophone, Keith Stone on trumpet and trombone, Milton Smith on Piano and B3, Richard Gates on Drums and Percussion, and Mike Daniels on Bass Guitar!
The tune is already making some noise on the Beach Music charts as it debuted on Eric Bowman's Wave New Beach Music Countdown this past weekend at #30. Look for it to make some noise at SOS and continue to move up the charts in the coming months! "Not Tonight" is available for download on I Tunes and all of your favorite streaming platforms. Add it to your Beach Music collection today! You will be glad you did!
I Knew God Loved Me - Russell Henry
Russell Henry established his place in Beach Music history over 50 years ago when he joined Bill Pinkney and The Original Drifters. His iconic tenor voice has been heard on so many Beach Music classics that are near and dear to our hearts! Russell has continued his legacy by continuing to record and has given us recent hits like "Be Ever Wonderful", "Ruby Baby", "The Twist", "When You Dance", and "You're So Fine".
Russell and his wife Barbara moved to Myrtle Beach several years ago and they have become a fixture on the Beach Music scene with Russell showing up to perform at places like Deckerz, HOTO's, and other clubs along Ocean Drive. Often times these performances are impromptu with Russell just coming out of the crowd to sing and perform! That's what makes these performances so incredible! One constant at these performances is the ever presence of Russell's wife, Barbara. She is always with him and the love they show for each other is something we could all take a lesson from. They recently celebrated an anniversary at Deckerz and you could just see the love for each other in their eyes!
Well, songwriter extraordinaire Charlie Sattenfield took notice of Russell and Barbara's love for each other and decided he was going to write a song to celebrate the love of this amazing couple. The result is the song "I Knew God Loved Me" and the accompanying video to go along with it. The song captures the essence of this amazing love story and Russell delivers a vocal performance that defines his legendary status in the Beach Music industry. The song features outstanding instrumentation from a talented group of musicians and tip of the spear production from Tim Sidden Productions. While probably not intended to necessarily resonate with the shag dancers, this song is right in the pocket for the dancers and should work very well on the dance floor.
Congratulations to all that were involved in this project to celebrate this amazing love story. Job well done! This is a tribute to this iconic couple that they will certainly treasure for the rest of their lives! Look for this tune to really pick up speed in the coming months and make a move toward the top of the charts in the near future! It is that good!!
Beach Time - Cory Luetjen and The Traveling Blues Band
Cory Luetjen and The Traveling Blues Band have been on the Beach scene for quite a while now giving us such tunes as "Way U Move", "My Baby Just Loves To Shag", and most recently "Catch Up On My Drinking". Well, they are back at it with their best effort to date in my opinion; their outstanding new tune "Beach Time". Cory obviously loves his time visiting and playing at the beach and he has captured that love in this tune that just describes perfectly how we all love living on "Beach Time". The tune is just as smooth as it gets and features outstanding instrumentation including a smooth sax in the background, along with an underlying organ that just lends to the overall quality of this track. This tune is produced flawlessly and is also right in the pocket for the dancers. A smooth shag groove is layed down from start to finish! Folks I can't say enough good things about this track! It is fresh and original, and checks all of the boxes for a Beach Music hit! If this song is promoted the right way, I could see this song headed to the top of all of the Beach Music charts! It is that good! Hopefully it will get a strong push at SOS and make its move up the charts in short order.
"Beach Time" is available for download on I Tunes and all of your favorite streaming platforms. Do yourself and your Beach Music collection a favor today and add this smooth groove to your collection! You will be so glad you did!! Well done Cory Luetjen!!
Well folks that's it for this month! Hopefully SOS will provide us with a big batch of new releases that we can cover in the coming months. Although I am not hearing much right now, I remain optimistic that our artists are working hard in the studio and there will be a plethora of new material in the coming months!
Until next time when we go Inside The Music......
See ya at SOS!!
Craig