Growing up in southern Ontario, the car radio was always tuned to Detroit AM radio. So much soul we would belt out singing along. Aretha, The Supremes, Sam & Dave, Smokey Robinson and on and on. And the radio commercials … “Sunday, from Detroit dragway see Big Daddy …!”
If you had a garage or high school band you had better do some soul covers. Great article!
Reading this caused me to travel down the usual mental rabbit hole, thinking of seeing their shows advertised at The Embers Club in Raleigh and also at The Embers Beach Club in Atlantic Beach. Never saw them in Raleigh but the venue in AB had a deck on the ocean side with large windows. If you were cool (and the bouncer was your older sister's boyfriend) you could stand on the deck and watch the band despite being underage. Saw quite a few "beach music" and "soul music" groups that way.
The crossover between "beach music" and "soul music" in NC/SC would make an interesting book. Bobby Tomlinsom of The Embers group says he started hearing the term "beach music" sometime between '65 and '68 but can't quite pin down when he heard "soul music" for the first time. At any rate, bands like James Brown and the Famous Flames played his clubs and it would be a real stretch to think of JB as beach music.
While the Embers clubs were proving that you could make money this way, they helped spawn (to my mind) places like The Experience in Raleigh and The Raft in AB, followed by The Music Factory in Greenville which somehow managed to attract shows like Johnny Winter and Steppenwolf to play in a small club in the middle of nowhere.
So many memories are stirred due to the beach music scene! You might want to check out David Menconi's book, 'Step It Up and Go' for a history of NC music as a section does cover that scene. https://bookshop.org/a/101214/9781469676784
I think "soul music" started being used around the dawn of the '60s, most likely through the descriptions of the music of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, etc. That's the first I saw of it, anyway.
I started a beach show at one of the stations I programmed (and I'm proud to say it's still running) and we worked with the Embers on a lot of events. Although Bobby's not behind the kit anymore, I'm happy to see Craig Woolard is keeping the fire lit!
Growing up in southern Ontario, the car radio was always tuned to Detroit AM radio. So much soul we would belt out singing along. Aretha, The Supremes, Sam & Dave, Smokey Robinson and on and on. And the radio commercials … “Sunday, from Detroit dragway see Big Daddy …!”
If you had a garage or high school band you had better do some soul covers. Great article!
Thanks!
Reading this caused me to travel down the usual mental rabbit hole, thinking of seeing their shows advertised at The Embers Club in Raleigh and also at The Embers Beach Club in Atlantic Beach. Never saw them in Raleigh but the venue in AB had a deck on the ocean side with large windows. If you were cool (and the bouncer was your older sister's boyfriend) you could stand on the deck and watch the band despite being underage. Saw quite a few "beach music" and "soul music" groups that way.
The crossover between "beach music" and "soul music" in NC/SC would make an interesting book. Bobby Tomlinsom of The Embers group says he started hearing the term "beach music" sometime between '65 and '68 but can't quite pin down when he heard "soul music" for the first time. At any rate, bands like James Brown and the Famous Flames played his clubs and it would be a real stretch to think of JB as beach music.
While the Embers clubs were proving that you could make money this way, they helped spawn (to my mind) places like The Experience in Raleigh and The Raft in AB, followed by The Music Factory in Greenville which somehow managed to attract shows like Johnny Winter and Steppenwolf to play in a small club in the middle of nowhere.
So many memories are stirred due to the beach music scene! You might want to check out David Menconi's book, 'Step It Up and Go' for a history of NC music as a section does cover that scene. https://bookshop.org/a/101214/9781469676784
I think "soul music" started being used around the dawn of the '60s, most likely through the descriptions of the music of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, etc. That's the first I saw of it, anyway.
I started a beach show at one of the stations I programmed (and I'm proud to say it's still running) and we worked with the Embers on a lot of events. Although Bobby's not behind the kit anymore, I'm happy to see Craig Woolard is keeping the fire lit!