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Beach Bits: Hot
tracks in today's Beach music include one we called out here a few months back which has caught on fire. That would be Jimbo
Durham's Bouncin' Back, which has been
rapidly climbing the Smokin' Top 45 chart..... Steve Owens & Summertime's rendition of I Just Want To Satisfy has been really heating up of late. It comes
from their latest album, Second Time Around,
which was released just under the wire to qualify for the 2014 Carolina Beach Music Awards, for which it was nominated for
Group Album of the Year.........Over on the 94.9 FM The Surf's Top 20, the Band of Oz recent Extra Careful has been sitting at #1 for at least seven weeks.........More
songs that are taking off include Rhonda McDaniel's I Need You Now, the Terri Gore/Tim Cashion duet of Whenever I Call You Friend, Rick Strickland's Wishing, the new one from the Carolina Breakers entitled Fell In Love Too Late, Lesa Hudson's Shame On You, the Fantastic Shakers Can't Stop Loving You Baby, Entertainers with Maybe We Can Still Be Friends and
Debby Dobbins' Take Me Away.........Two
new ones from the latest KHP Dancing With My
Baby compilation that are destined to spend considerable time on the charts (just our prediction here at 45.com, of
course) would be the Jim Quick/Grayson Hugh duet of No More Pain and the Kingdaddy single You're My Girl that features the vocals of former Swingin' Medallions and Embers frontman Wayne Free.........
Speaking of the upcoming CBMA Weekend, which is just around the corner (yes,
many folks still refer to it as CAMMY Weekend!), it is the 20th year of this great event with alot of ground to cover across
the planned schedule. One notable change this year will be the fact that the
awards will be given out over a three day period instead of just the Saturday Industry Awards and the Sunday Show. Certain
selected awards are to be announced on Friday afternoon in the OD Beach Club in conjunction with the 94.9 The Surf radio broadcast.
A huge overall weekend is planned - check out all the information at www.cammy.org.
It is most definitely encouraging to see new/first time nominees in the
different categories of the CBMA Awards. This is certainly good for the industry as a whole, reflecting growth and ongoing
interest in the genre. I always pay particular attention to the Rising Star category, which represents some of the newer artists
in Beach music that are receiving recognition. Nominated in that particular category are: Jimbo Durham, who has performed
with Shag Attack and has had the above mentioned hot charting song that is also nominated for Song of the Year; KB & The
Shifters, whose trio of songs have made the charts over the last 18 months; Marsha Morgan Band, whose song Don't Snap Your Fingers from their Rockin' The Beach album has been on the charts for several months this year;
The Shag Doctorz, whose tune Always Running
Back To You has recently been on the charts; and Summerdaze Band, see their story in the article below.
The Songwriter(s) of the Year is also a very important category, it represents
initiative, creativity and positive inertia which is vital to our Beach music industry going forward. Surprises in this year's
CBMA nominations? It was certainly no surprise that the Entertainers received several nominations including Group, Song, Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year, they have had an explosive 2014. One category
I was surprised by was the omission of Ms. Jody's The
Rock and O.B. Buchana's Just Go Dancin'
in the National Dance Song nominations. Both songs have been on the Smokin' Top 45 chart since late fall 2013.
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It was great to
see WKTE 1090 AM in King, NC show up in the AM Radio station nominations as a first time entry to the CBMA Awards. The small
town broadcast has captured the Stokes, Surry and Forsyth County listening areas with a combination of Beach music and Oldies.
Rodney Booth is the DJ/Station Manager - additional Beach DJs include Brad Wiggins,
Randy Thomas and 'Uncle Benny', the never shy Benny Huff! The station features On The
Beach with Charlie Brown on Saturdays and gets involved in many of the weekend Beach band events in the area. To find
out more about this exciting station, check them out at www.wkte1090.com.
A hot chart ascending tune from the national arena right now is Move from Kevin Moore, better known in music circles as Keb Mo'. It
comes from his latest album entitled BluesAmericana.
The California born artist is a heritage Blues revivalist, assimilating styles all the way back from the early Mississippi
Delta of Robert Johnson to today's contemporary groove. It is certainly not the first tune that Keb Mo' has appeared on the
Beach charts. The Door, Muddy Water, Soon As
I Get Paid, Stand Up And Be Strong, She Just Wants To Dance and People Got To Be Free are a few of his songs that have been significant
in our market over the last twenty years. Highly recognized in the genre and currently residing in Nashville, Keb Mo' has
been the recipient of three Grammy Awards in the Contemporary Blues Album category.
Do you remember a kickin' Beach band from back in the day known
as the East Coast Rivieras? Founded in 1980 by Mitch Simpson and Sam Forshee and based out of High Point, NC, they begin playing
small local gigs in the Triad area. Both Mitch (Blue Light Band) and Sam (Cannonball) had experience leading previous groups.
The original roster of members included Sam on drums, Mitch on keyboards, Johnny Forshee on guitar (who unfortunately just
passed away a few weeks ago), Garland Ellison on bass, Wayne Burley on trumpet, William Payne on saxophone and James Williams
on lead vocals. The band eventually expanded their horizons by playing local and regional clubs, traveling to Greenville,
NC, as an example, to play New Year’s Eve at the Holiday Inn. They went into the recording studio in 1985, coming out
with Say Goodbye To Love and Carolina Lady, both of which made the Beach charts. The band became
known over the years for radio friendly original tunes, later turning out hot charters such as We Can Build A Love, Night And Day, Donna and Something Special.
The East Coast Rivieras performed on the show and played the after party at the second
Beach Music Awards series, organized by John X. Aragona in the mid-'80's and held in Raleigh, NC. There were four such shows
held during that decade as the predecessor to today's CBMAs. The band had also received a nomination for New Song of The Year
at that event. As a normal occurrence with all groups, members came and went. Later members in ECR included Ted Tedesco, Ron
Johnson, Brian Umberger, Doug Reid, Vernon Jordan and Nat Corbett. The group played for many years, breaking up in the '90's,
with the name being carried on for a time with a band formed by Doug and Ted. Like all good things though, they more often
than not come to an end. Such is the case with many of the golden memories of Beach music and the original East Coast Rivieras.
New beginnings, however, are often possible, as experienced over the last
several years by Mitch Simpson. In 2005, he formed a brand new group called Summerdaze Band.
Based at Mitch's home office and studio in Tega Cay, SC, the band has steadily made progress, gaining a strong fan
following and maintaining a robust playing schedule. Summerdaze released a few singles (some through our Beach Music 45 Network
with Craig Fleming a few years back) and their first album, entitled All Summer Long, in 2008. The follow-up release, Keep Movin', has had phenomonal success with both Give Me Something Fried and Somebody
Throw'd Bad Luck On Me zooming up the Beach music charts. Not surprisingly, Summerdaze is nominated in both the Rising
Star and the Group Album categories for this year's CBMA Awards.
Who is Summerdaze? The band
consists of Mitch Simpson on keyboards and vocals, Cassie Kessler on vocals,
Shaun Quan on bass and vocals, Adam Rouse on vocals and saxophone, James Jones on vocals, guitar, saxophone, mandolin and
keys, Ted Matthews on drums and vocals and newest member George Mattison on trumpet, sax and vocals. Not resting on their
laurels, the band is working on their third album, Under The Radar, which will be released sometime in 2015. In the meantime, the single Shoot That Moon is beginning to get DJ play AND there will be an awesome
Summerdaze Christmas tune available in time for this holiday season!
Artists, DJ’s, Club owners etc. send me your latest news for potential inclusion in Beach Buzz at nealfur@aol.com.
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