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20 YEARS OF BLUES
Home Team BBQ is West Ashley's lone Lowcountry Blues Bash venue this year
drink small lowcountry blues bash andy lassiter west of home team bbq
Drink Smalls brings the blues to Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ.
 
Andy Lassiter
Contributing Writer
 
Friday, Feb. 5, marks the official start of the 12-day Lowcountry Blues Bash (LBB). This year, the series features over 50 artists playing nearly 90 shows at different venues around the Lowcountry. Most of the acts featured are nationally acclaimed touring musicians, but the event also showcases many of the talented blues musicians from Charleston, including the event's founder Gary "Shrimp City Slim" Erwin.
 
Erwin has been the organizer, director, and promoter for the LBB since its creation in 1991. Since beginning his musical career in Charleston nearly 27 years ago, Erwin has been deeply embedded in the local music scene. He started out working as a disc jockey in 1984 on the now-defunct Charleston public radio station WSCI, he soon began booking, producing, and promoting blues music around the Lowcountry, while simultaneously touring with his own band. He later went on to open a record store on Wentworth Street, Erwin Music, which would eventually be sold and renamed as 52.5.
 
These days, Erwin is still one of the busiest musicians around town. On a typical night, you can find him playing keys and singing the blues with his band, Shrimp City Slim, at any number of local venues. But this time of year Erwin is single-handedly organizing and coordinating one of the biggest and longest running annual festivals in Charleston.
 
Twenty years after he started the Lowcountry Blues Bash, Erwin is proud of the festival's accomplishments. "After Spoleto and other city-sponsored festivals like Piccolo Spoleto and MOJA, the LBB is the longest running arts, music, or cultural event in Charleston," he says. "The evolution of the LBB has been its staying power and endurance. We have weathered a lot of changes, not only in the art scene, but also in the economy."
 
As Ewrin reminisces about the Charleston music scene, venues that have come and gone, and musicians of days past, you can sense the deep connection of the man and the music he loves. "I've always considered myself a lifelong blues fan number one," he says. "I believe in blues advocacy: promoting the music as an art form and promoting the people who make it. There's nothing really more human in music than the blues. It's really the music of humanity."
 
Although Erwin expects many fans to travel from across the country for the LBB, the majority of support for the event still comes from the local community. "When you consider that the blues was created from Southern culture, I think this is an essential thing to offer the community, to give [the music] back to them, and make it available for everyone to appreciate," he says.
 
For Erwin, the LBB is a great opportunity to provide gigs to some talented blues musicians, as well as offer intimate experiences for the attendees. "You can actually talk to the artists, buy their CD, buy them a drink, hang out, and ask them questions," he says. "You know, no security fences, no backstage passes, no high ticket prices. It's all about small venues and about under-the-radar type artists. It's all about the real deal blues people that are out there. There's still very much a blues culture in this country."
 
You can get more information about the Lowcountry Blues Bash as well as a full schedule at www.bluesbash.com. To learn more about Gary Erwin and his music, visit his website at www.shrimpcityslim.com.