Even though I was raised in the Carolinas, I finished high school in Maryland. After graduation, I talked a buddy of mine, “Karpo”, into to going with me to N. Myrtle Beach for a little R&R and skirt chasing! On the way down, we bought a bootleg cassette tape of the Tams from a gas station and that was his first taste of Beach Music.
Over the years, we’ve stayed in touch by phone, and he called this week saying he was in Florida on his way back to Maryland and planned to spend a couple of days along the coast of South Carolina. He asked if I had recommendations of where he should stay. Of course, I said his only choice would by OD (N. Myrtle Beach). I re-educated him about the Shag and reminded him of the music we heard years ago when we were there. He asked if I knew a good club where he could go and I told him he couldn’t go wrong at Fat Harold’s.
He called this morning, after spending several days at OD. He told me he bought 13 CD’s at Judy’s House of Blues and had gone to Fat Harold’s on Wednesday night and said you would have thought it was Saturday because of the large crowd. He also said he heard the best music he’s listened to in the past 20 years. While he was just standing and watching the shaggers, a girl asked him to shag and he said he didn’t know how. She dragged his Yankee ass out on the floor and he said he was shagging up a storm!
Oh yeah, he wanted to turn me onto this great radio station he listened to while he was there…..94.9 The Surf (of course, I just laughed because I’ve been listening to The Surf for years). He said he plans to come back in the fall and I gave him the website for SOS Fall Migration.
I’d say we’ve converted another Yankee. Rev. Bubba D. Liverance
Tags: 94.9 the Surf, beach music, Fat Harold's, Judy's House of Blues, N. Myrtle Beach, Ocean Drive, SOS Fall Migration, The Tams
