Beach Buzz

The nominations for the 2016 Carolina Beach Music Awards were announced on Friday, September 23rd at North Myrtle Beach. Among the nominations, what stands out to us is an amazing thirteen selections across different categories for the Rick Strickland Band, including Rick for Male Vocalist of the Year and Lesa Hudson in both Female Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year. Additional nominations are: Group of the Year, Song of the Year, Solo Album, Smoothie, Live Production, Engineer, Producer, Songwriters (both Lesa and Rick) and Instrumentalist. What makes this even more significant is that the music performed and recorded by this unique combination of talented professionals is all original compositions - absolutely no cover tunes are included. Hats off from Beachmusic45.com to these well deserved nominations from one of the hardest working bands in the business!!

As time marches on, people, music, trends etc. come and go but, from a Beach music perspective, it is always hopeful that we have the newer artists that enter the genre come in with the intent to stay. This is important from the standpoint that, the history of Beach music has pretty much followed the life cycles of what we refer to as the 'baby boomers'. In order to preserve this history and pass it on, we will need younger folks to continue to embrace the culture. This is certainly significant with the artists and DJs that are relatively new to the industry.

With this in mind, we wanted to focus in this month's issue on one of the nominee categories for this year's Carolina Beach Music Awards. The Rising Star Award was previously known as the New Group/Artist Award, which was a little misleading, since you did not have to be a brand new group or artist to be nominated and/or win the award. The very first winner of this award was the Coastline Band in 1995 - last year's winner was the Blackwater Rhythm & Blues Band. A few of the previous winners have come and gone but many of them are still with us, which makes the award just that more meaningful as a contributor to the vitality of the industry. Let's take a look at this year's five nominees.

The Carolina Soul Band has had quite a year. In addition to being nominated for the Rising Star, their #1 hit True Love is also in the running for 2016 Song of the Year. The band has performed at many clubs and festivals in the Carolinas and beyond and has been featured prominently this summer season in North Myrtle Beach. They have a new dance tune that is making big strides as well - it's the Carolina Soul Slide! Based in the Triad area of NC, the band came together with a base of four former members of Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters. Their first hit out of the gate was the jammin' Don't Be Mad At Me. They were previously featured as the official band representative of NASCAR, performing as such prestigious events as the Daytona 500. This dynamic group plays the best in classic Soul, R&B and Beach music with years of performing experience. For further info, check our their webpage http://carolinasoulband.com/ or go to their Facebook page at Carolina Soul Band.

Nichol Andrews is a native of and still resides in Richmond, VA. She has been in and out of local bands in that area over the last twenty years, the last eight of which she has fronted the Redneck Pool Party Band. An album called Long Time Coming was just released. Nichol got in to recording Beach music a couple of years back, at the ongoing suggestion of friend and KHP Producer Keith Houston. Her first single, Make Your Move, landed her a 2015 Rising Star nomination. She followed that one up with a duet with Jim Quick, On The Way Out, which is also nominated in this year's Collaboration or Duo category. Nichol also has another hit single on the rise with her smoking rendition of Mama She Treats Your Daughter Mean. For more, info check our her Facebook page at Nichol Andrews Music.

The Shag Doctorz, headed up by Larry Moore, are based out of the Greenville/Spartanburg, SC area. A well received studio album was produced in 2010, with the group officially getting off the ground with live performances in 2013. Their first hit single, Fire Burning In My Heart, was followed up by the smash charter Always Running Back To You, which helped them garner a Rising Star nomination in 2014. The 2015 follow-up tune was entitled I'm Going Down Down For Your Love. The band just wrapped up September performances with the Edisto Beach Music and Shagfest and an SOS appearance at Deckerz, where they always get the crowd going. For more info, check out their webpage at http://www.theshagdoctorz.com/ or go to their Facebook page at The Shag Doctorz.

The Summerdaze Band has been around in Beach music the longest of any of the nominees. Headed up by former East Coast Riviera co-founder Mitch Simpson, this band, based in the Charlotte/Fort Mill SC area, has been on the road since 2005. They were previously nominated for the Rising Star Award in 2014. The band has really hit its collective stride in the last two plus years with six charting singles in the Beach music arena. Give Me Something Fried, She Throw'd Back Luck On Me, Shoot That Moon, Gotta Lotta Love, I Got A Feeling and I Got to Know have all climbed the various charts, with the latter recently hitting #1, making them one of the hottest bands going during that period of time. Summerdaze played to a packed house at the Spanish Galleon at SOS on Friday, September 23rd and continues to draw well everywhere they perform. For more info, check out their website at http://summerdazeband.com/#home1 or go to their Facebook page at Summerdaze Band.

The Swashtones have a current hit entitled 1-4-3, that has done very well on all the Beach charts. Based out of Salisbury, NC, this band cranked up in 2014, with an upbeat sound that included members who had previous Beach band experience. They have caught on with the crowds very quickly and have become a popular performing act at North Myrtle Beach. Their first song out of the gate made it on the charts - a cool groove called Sun, Surf And Summertime. The band's fast start resulted in being nominated in 2015 for the Rising Star Award as well as again this year. Recent gigs this past weekend included the Surfside Beach SC Festival and the Autumn Jubilee in Salisbury. For more info, check out their website at http://www.swashtones.com/ or go to their Facebook page at The Swashtones.

Just wanted to say congratulations to all the 2016 nominees for the Carolina Beach Music Awards to be held in November as well as thanks to everyone involved that works so hard to keep this genre alive.
A special thank you to all the folks that nominated us for Internet Radio Show and Internet DJ of the Year. You can catch the show here at RememberThenRadio.com Noon to 3 PM on Sundays and an encore presentation on Thursday 5 pm to 8 pm.

Artists, DJs, Club owners etc. send me your latest news for potential inclusion in Beach Buzz at nealfur@aol.com.