Upstate Live Music Preview: January 13th

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Easy Listening and Shows Around Town This Weekend

Last week we used this space to encourage you to go to the Upstate Music Awards website and dive into the deep end of the talent pool nominated for this year’s UMAs. It turns out that there is an even easier way to get to know the nominees as UMA co-founder Jeremy Theall put in the work for us and created the ultimate 2020 Upstate Music Award Spotify playlist. Thanks to Jeremy, getting to know our local artists has never been easier.

The playlist includes one song from each of the artists nominated for a UMA this year. That means there are 141 songs of all genres representing the Upstate music scene. There are plenty of familiar faces and tons of artists I am just getting to know. Thanks to Spotify’s easy to use interface, you are never more than a click away from an artist’s broader catalog, which is a rabbit hole I keep going down every few tracks.

Get your local listen on, and get over to the UMA website and do your civic duty and vote for your new and old Upstate favorites.

Weekend Live Music around Greenville SC

As for live shows, Greenville has more than a few options for the weekend ahead. Local favorites Jef Chandler and Little Lesley & the Bloodshots will perform at Quest Brewing Company and Mac’s Speed Shop, respectively Friday night. Both artists make for some tough decisions but, I assure you, there are no wrong answers here.

If you are in or nearby Downtown Greer that same evening, Nashville folk outfit The Arcadian Wild will be at The Spinning Jenny. It is always nice to see touring artists coming through town right now and, even more so, great to see The Spinning Jenny return to action. It is a great listening room that has been quiet for too long thanks to the pandemic and I am darn sure ready for that to end.

Saturday is a day for brewery shows with Vilai Harrington bringing a trio to Fireforge while Luke Deuce stops at Carolina Bauernhaus for a CD release show. Anybody who reads this space at all knows how big of a fan of Vilai’s I am but, I have to admit, Luke Deuce’s name was one I had not run across before. Turns out he is a 15 year old country music prodigy from Pickens that, if you familiar with him yet, it will not be long before you are. The best part is that the Baurenhaus show is at 3pm while Fireforge kicks off at 6:30 so you can make a day of supporting local craft beer and live music (just make sure you call a Lyft or Uber if you do).

Whether you venture out for a live show or hunker down with the UMA playlist, thank you for supporting the local music scene in any way you can. They cannot do what they do without it, especially in these strange times that do not seem to be going away anytime soon.