Every now and again, I ramble into someone who is just a delight. That was the case last May when I came across Danielle Howle. We met at a music conference in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I had offered to host a planning session for musicians. As a general rule, I have found that most musicians really don’t like to plan much beyond making a set list and trying to keep their bookings straight. As you might suspect, no one came to my talk and Daniel was actually looking for another training session. After walking into my room, I think she felt obligated to talk to the old dude sitting by himself! Whatever the case, we had a great conversation and ultimately wound up talking about her interests in land preservation and nature. In short order, she was telling me about her home in South Carolina, how rapidly the area was changing and developing, and how she hoped her sister would preserve the remaining 40 acres of her family’s property.
I imagined that her music was just as engaging as her personality and wasn’t wrong in that assumption. We traded our most recent CDs and I have really enjoyed listening to her music. I am sure you remember those CDs. They are silvery, plastic discs, that music can be stored on, and they used to be quite common!
I soon came to realize that Danielle is a remarkable artist. She has been called a “South Carolina Song Bird”, been featured in the magazine Southern Living, and is big buddies with “Hootie”. And when she was a teenager, she played an opening act for Bob Dylan!
If you are interested you can learn all about her at:
https://www.daniellehowle.com/home#about
Later on that evening, Danielle heard me perform a few songs at a booking showcase. She convinced me that I needed to come and perform at Awendaw Green which is a venue in South Carolina where she is works and lives as the artist in residence. She had a hard time describing the place, other than repeatedly saying that it was totally awesome, with great community support, and that I'd have to check it out just to understand the vibe. And she added, everyone would love my music.
In subsequent weeks, we were swapping emails and before long, I made a commitment to a March 2025 performance.
You might remember that I started this essay out with a reference to hosting a planning session for musicians, and if you are wondering about my own ability to plan, let me answer an obvious question: I would not earn enough money playing one show to make it economically worthwhile to drive 12 hours, down to South Carolina and back. Now that we got that out of the way, let me explain my rationale for even considering this trip.
Winters in NE Ohio can be a little grey and a tad bit on the colder side, and I thought a quick trip to South Carolina in the late winter might contribute to the ongoing domestic bliss I am accustomed to. In other words, I thought I would take my sweetie down south for a week-long winter getaway, and while she was mesmerized by the Atlantic Ocean, I would spirit away, slide in a little side gig, that was nicely embedded in the middle of the week. We would get warmed up, catch a few rays, and enjoy the ocean, I’d play a few tunes and get a little intel for future trips.
Shortly after I committed to the gig, however, I received a phone call from my oldest daughter which, in effect, dashed my multidimensional plan in a brief moment. She asked if I could send her a photocopy of her mother’s passport as she and her sister were taking their mother on a trip to Paris, This was, of course, the one and the same week as the South Carolina gig.
Paris vs Charleston… no question on who was going to Paris, and who was going to South Carolina.
I considered my options, and for a while, thought about trying to string together a couple more gigs to make a three or four-show mini-tour but that seemed like a lot of work. I opted instead to call a long time friend and see if he was up for a road trip.
I met Jim Smallwood in 1979. I was playing at the Trolley Stop in Dayton, Ohio. He and a mutual friend came in as I was setting up, and I realized I left an essential piece of equipment at home. I talked Jim into letting me cut the center front bench seat belt out of his new truck to use as a guitar strap. I might ad this is a heck of way to start a friendship.
As it turned out, Jim was open that week and we put together a simple itinerary. We would drive to the New River Gorge National Park on Monday, spend the night, knock around the park for a few hours on Tuesday, and then drive down to South Carolina. We would do day trips based on Danielle's recommendations, I would play my Wednesday evening slot and we would bolt back north on Friday.
The prospect of doing a little birding was one of the enticements this trip held for Jim, and since I was driving, he didn't have to worry about me pilfering a seatbelt out of his truck. Jim has been a devoted birder for as long as I can remember, and he is quite respected in the bird-watching community. He has a good eye, good gear, and a remarkable ability to identify dozens and dozens of birds by their call. In addition to hundreds of migrating shore birds, we would also be in the home range of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, a potentially threatened bird that only lives in long-leaf pine forests. I understand if this doesn't get you excited, but for a bird enthusiast, getting the opportunity to see one of these woodpeckers is a pretty big deal. So he seemed to be pretty jazzed about our little road trip.
The New River George National Park is the newest one in the system, and it’s a pretty cool place. Geologically, the New River is one of the oldest rivers in the country and has cut a spectacular gorge through the Appalachian Mountains. The first time I visited the area, my family and I did a raft trip down the river and it was big fun. That was long before the area was designated a national park.
In addition to spectacular geologic and other natural features, the area has a rich coal mining history. It’s just a cool place to visit. Jim and I took the opportunity to take a nice ramble down into the gorge on Tuesday morning before continuing on to Awendaw.
The Town of Awendaw is about 30 minutes north of Charleston and is located along the eastern edge of the Francis Marion National Forest. The National Forest is the perfect habitat for the aforementioned woodpecker. It is also home to the Awendaw Green Barn Jams which was where I would perform. We got into our hotel late Tuesday afternoon and had enough to do a little exploring.
I asked Danielle for recommendations on things to do and check out and she knew Jim and I were nature geeks. She insisted that we take the ferry out to Bull Island, which turned out to be a great trip. I thought it would be a good idea to check out the ferry dock and as it turned out, that was located just a few miles away from the Barn Jams stage. While we were checking out the pier, we met the skipper of the ferry, and he gave us some great information on where to look for the "star" bird.
The following morning found us quietly exploring the Marion looking for trees that had been marked by wildlife biologists indicating prior woodpecker nesting sites. By mid-afternoon, we had found the bird and later that evening, I would be playing at the Barn Jam.
The Awenda Green Barn Jam was started by Eddie White in 2009 as a “safe haven for all original musicians” and I have to say it was one of the coolest venues I have ever played. A low-key and friendly environment with bonfires, a wood-fired pizza oven, local artisan vendors, and a load of friendly neighborhood volunteers working to make it all come together. The concerts are all centered around an old barn, outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and a professional sound engineer. Several hundred people were there to enjoy the music in an incredibly relaxed atmosphere.
There were four other acts from all across the country and they were all excellent players. It was simply a great evening!
Thursday morning Jim and I were on the ferry out to Bull Island which is located in the Camp Romain National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge is managed for the protection of sea turtles, dolphins, wood storks, eagles, and a host of migratory birds. It also had a remarkable concentration of alligators, as in the most alligators I have ever seen at one time.
I mean, more than I could count of all different sizes, from dozens of little ones 12 inches long to full-sized adults up to 9 feet or maybe bigger.
That afternoon we were invited to visit some private property located within the national forest. It was an eight-and-a-half-mile drive down a dirt road to get there, and what a tranquil place. A lovely camp, surrounded on three sides by water, complete with a swimming platform with a sign warning about gators… I didn’t go swimming, after all, I am a pedestrian.
See you on the trail!
Steve