page_title: Music of South Carolina
section_title: Notable bands and musicians
hierarchical_section_title: Music of South Carolina / Notable bands and musicians
caption_attribution_description: Jazz saxophonist Chris Potter at North Sea Jazz festival, Rotterdam, 2008
context_page_description: South Carolina is one of the Southern United States and has produced a number of renowned performers of jazz, rock, blues, R&B, country, bluegrass and other popular styles.
context_section_description: Perhaps the best known rock band to hail from South Carolina is Columbia's Hootie & the Blowfish, but other groups such as Spartanburg's The Marshall Tucker Band, The Swinging Medallions, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, alternative metal band Crossfade from Columbia, Charleston's indie Band of Horses, Southern rock band Needtobreathe, and Blue Dogs also hail from the Palmetto State.
  Jazz saxophonist Chris Potter from Columbia has released 20 CDs as a leader and performed as a sideman on more than 150 other albums. He is the leader of the Chris Potter Underground and has regularly performed with many world-class jazz musicians including Dave Holland and Pat Metheny. In the December, 2014 issue of Down Beat magazine, which featured the results of the annual readers poll, Potter was named the number one tenor saxophonist in the world.
  Other prominent musicians and singers born and/or raised in the state include James Brown, Brook Benton, Dizzy Gillespie, Chubby Checker, Eartha Kitt, Peabo Bryson, Arthur Smith, Cat Anderson, Tom Delaney, Freddie Green, Drink Small, Johnny Helms, Terry Rosen, Jabbo Smith, Bill Benford, Tommy Benford, Nick Ashford, Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, Bill Anderson, Edwin McCain, Duncan Sheik, Rob Thomas, John Phillips, Walter Hyatt, and David Ball.
  The state's bluegrass scene has produced important bands such as The Hired Hands featuring pioneering three-finger banjo player Dewitt "Snuffy" Jenkins and old time fiddler Homer "Pappy" Sherrill. Other notable groups are The Hinson Girls, featuring four sisters from Lancaster, and Palmetto Blue, featuring two South Carolina Folk Heritage Award Recipients: Chris Boutwell (2014) and Ashley Carder (2012), along with vocalist and bassist Shellie Davis, banjoist Steve Willis, flatpicking guitarist Edward Dalton, and South Carolina junior fiddle champion Ella Thomas.  Bluesmen Pink Anderson (namesake for Pink Floyd; buried in Spartanburg) and Reverend Gary Davis were both from Laurens, S.C. Charleston's Roger Bellow, a South Carolina Folk Heritage Award Recipient and former host of the "Vintage Country" radio show on SCETV radio and WYLA-LP, leads the long-running country/swing band The Drifting Troubadours.
  The Beach music classic "Stay" by Lancaster's Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. James Brown's (buried in Aiken County) soul and funk song "I Got You (I Feel Good)" was #3 on the Hot 100 in 1965, and #1 on the Rhythm and Blues Singles. Greenville's Peabo Bryson's r&b song "A Whole New World" from Aladdin was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993. Hootie & The Blowfish's roots rock song "Only Wanna Be With You" was #1 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart in 1995. Hootie's debut album Cracked Rear View was the best-selling album of 1995, the 7th best-selling album of the 90s, and is the 19th-best-selling album List of best-selling albums in the United States of all time. Their 2nd album Fairweather Johnson also went to #1 on the Billboard 200 in 1996.
  The Upstate band Needtobreathe had a #2 album on the Billboard 200 with Hard Love in 2016. Indie folk singer Iron & Wine had a #2 album on the Billboard 200 with Kiss Each Other Clean in 2011. Country star Darius Rucker has had two #2 albums on the Billboard 200: Charleston, SC 1966 in 2010 and True Believers in 2013, as well as 8 #1 songs on the Country Airplay chart from 2008-2017. Country singer Josh Turner from Florence County had a #2 album on the Billboard 200 with Your Man in 2006. And country singer Lee Brice from Sumter had 2 #5 albums on the Billboard 200 with Hard 2 Love in 2012 and I Don't Dance in 2014. Toro y Moi, a popular electronic artist (who had a #1 album on the Dance Chart with Anything in Return in 2013), and rapper Lil Ru are both from Columbia.
  Urban centers in the state including Greenville, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston continue to have thriving rock and hip hop scenes.
caption: Chris Potter
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 20D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:10:06 22:02:34", "Image Artist": "Geert Vandepoele", "Image ExifOffset": "236", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "574", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5428", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:07:11 23:58:02", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "88", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "529", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "750"}