On the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights leading up to the Sunday Awards show we were at 2001 Nightclub enjoying the performances of some of the very best in Carolina Beach Music groups and visiting with our personal friends in each of them:  The Craig Woolard Band, Sea-Cruz and The Legends of Beach.  Both Friday and Saturday afternoons we did the deck parties at the OD Beach Club, and afterwards on Saturday we attended the 2008 Industry Awards show and later that evening saw Jim Quick and Coastline at the Spanish Galleon and the Holiday Band at Fat Harold's Beach Club.  After attending the premier event on Sunday, The Carolina Beach Music Awards at the Alabama Theatre, we did the After Show party at the Spanish Galleon.  Sound like we were busy enjoying ourselves?  Indeed we were, but we also missed doing a lot of other related events that were going on at the same time.

As always, we met old friends and made new ones, and had many interesting discussions - some lighthearted and fun while others were of a more serious nature.  We'll tell you about a few of those including parts of our conversations with one of our favorite people, Harold Bessent.

It might be appropriate to note that what follows is written in a manner which assumes the reader has at least a smattering of knowledge about what Carolina Beach Music is (and what it's not) and has some sense of the groups, personalities and locations we'll be referencing.  We know for a fact that will not be the case though for many of our readers and consequently throughout the material we've included links which provide more information.  For those interested in learning about this unique cultural phenomenon we highly recommend as a starting point the brief overview of Carolina Beach Music history found on 'Fessa John Hook's Endless Summer website followed by a read of his book Shagging in the Carolinas.

Streaming internet broadcasts of this style of music are available at:

Now, let's get started with this report by first covering the main event for the trip.

The 2008 Carolina Beach Music Awards Show

Just as was the case last year, this year's show was a complete sellout including standing room at the Alabama Theatre in Barefoot Landing.  And once again because of the immense popularity of this event, numerous people were being turned away at the ticket offices because they could not be accommodated.  We made our reservations in early June thinking surely it would be soon enough to secure seats in the orchestra section of the theater.  Well, that was silly us to think such a thing because we learned the entire orchestra areas  - left, center, and right - were always completely set aside by the organizers of the event and were not available for general booking.  We'll somewhat digress at this point to share an early sample of the conversations we had on this trip with the legendary Harold Bessent, owner of Fat Harold's Beach Club in Ocean Drive and Harold's On The Ocean (HOTO's) in Cherry Grove and also generally considered to be "Mr. Beach Music" these days.  He brought up the subject of the Sunday Awards show and asked where we would be sitting and said he wanted to see us there.  We related that in spite of booking fairly early the best we could obtain were center aisle seats in row 16 of section E.  He got this really big grin on his face and said "Next year, if I'm still above ground, I'm going to see to it that you two can get seats right beside me where I always sit."  And after a bit of fumbling he found his ticket and held it up for us to see:  1st row, center seat, orchestra section.  Well, Harold, we hope you're still above ground for many other reasons including the fact you're very special to us as indeed you are to a lot of other people, but we'll hold you to that offer.

We arrived early at the Alabama because arrangements had been made to meet Sea-Cruz backstage and have formal pictures done by Dana Kirk, Official Photographer for the event.  That was fun and we enjoyed chatting with some of the other performers who were also there.  For those who might be interested, Dana's extensive coverage of the CBMA functions can be found here:  Event Photos.

The Awards show was fabulous.  We found ourselves once again absolutely marveling at the professionalism of the organization and presentation of the program.  Performances by top flight groups and individuals constituted the vast majority of the 3+ hour show with comparatively little time consumed by announcements of nominees and winners in the various award categories, and the subsequent acceptance speeches.

King Tyrone & The Graveyard Ramblers (otherwise known as Jim Quick and The Coastline Band) did a terrific presentation, including some improvisation, of their Mama's Drinking Liquor Again.  And, as many thought would be the case, they won more than a few of the award categories for which they had been nominated.  Butch Barnes, Dino Fair and Molly Askins of Sea-Cruz delivered one of their famously high energy performances that the audience loved and Craig Woolard who won Male Vocalist of the Year and the CWB were absolutely outstanding.  But then so were the performances given by Rhonda McDaniel, Mark Roberts and The Breeze Band, Tommy Black and Blooz, Clifford Curry, The Magnificents and far too many others to iterate here.  And we must mention the wonderful dance routine performed by the National Shag Team.  It was so beautifully choreographed and flawlessly executed it was enough to bring a tear to the eye of an old timer like Ed who has observed the evolution of this unique dance form over a span of 50 years.  Little could he have imagined at age 13 watching people in OD dance to the music from a jukebox that he would be enjoying such a wonderful afternoon celebrating our beloved Carolina Beach Music and the Shag, and all the people who keep it alive and growing for us.

For those of you who were unable to attend the show and, of course, for those who did and would like to relive the moments, we would suggest you consider acquiring the DVD.  We purchased the one for the 2007 show as soon as it was released and thoroughly enjoyed it - lots of nice memories apart from being entertaining.  And we'll be doing the same for the 2008 one when we see on the Cammy website that it's available.

The Carolina Beach Music Academy

We thought it would be appropriate to recognize this organization that operates under the administration and direction of Cammy Awards Inc. for which Peter Carpenter is the President.  The Cammy Awards Inc. group is also responsible for the overall organization of all the other Carolina Beach Music Awards related activities including the shows, club venues and more.

It's the Academy that determines the nominees and winners of the various annual Carolina Beach Music Awards. Full Academy memberships are available to those who are considered "Industry Professionals" in Carolina Beach Music and such members are allowed both to nominate and vote for the awards.  Associate memberships are available to anyone and Associate members can vote for nominees in addition to receiving other benefits.  More information can be found here and we do encourage those who enjoy and would like to support the preservation and promotion of Carolina Beach Music to join the Academy