Just before Thanksgiving we sent one of our team members to a South Carolina house show presented by SceneSC. The venue had been dubbed the “House of Softcore,” but that didn’t stop Rejectioneers from rocking out or Austin Crane from cranking his amp up to 11.

As more and more people began to show up at the house, the party started to get louder and louder. When Phil Windsor, lead vocalist of Ghosts of the Great Highway, picked up his guitar and began to sing, a hush fell over the crowd. He kept the everyone in rapt silence for his entire set.

Rejectioneers set was delayed after a drunk driver side-swiped two cars in front of the house. Several of the band members were held up talking to the police. However, the band’s frontman Ben Walker was ready to go and played a couple songs alone on his acoustic guitar to keep the crowd entertained mesmerized. When Ben’s band mates finally arrived, the “softcore” was dropped as the drums kicked in and lead guitarist Christian Tyler started playing footsie with his pedal board. (watch Rejectioneers play show)

Headliner Austin Crane had originally planned on this show being a Valley Maker one, however, illness and other urgent matters kept his backup band from attending. Nonetheless, he played about five songs from that project, a few from Place at the Table, and two new songs (watch him play one of the new songs). Crane’s powerful voice and compelling lyrics can easily stand alone and he had everyone silent and contemplative through each song that he played.

A huge thank you to each of the artists and to SceneSC for letting The Blue Indian hang out with them for a phenomenal show!

Interesting hearing more from these and other South Carolina musicians? Check out SceneSC’s 20ten Sampler!