Word
of Mouth Productions WOMP is a non-profit corporation registered with the IRS and the SC Secretary of State office. All donations are tax deductible.
Diachronic Research Foundation
|
 Celebrating 10 years of music Word of
Mouth Productions, (WOMP), began in the fall of 1991 after years of
discussion about the lack of diverse live music in the City of Columbia.
Born of a love for folk music of all origins, we began with small, one
or two-man show and featured a variety of blues and Celtic acts in small
clubs around Columbia. In 1992, we staged five performances that
culminated in a free concert produced for the Columbia Museum of Art
featuring the legendary Nappy Brown. The State newspaper, in an article
“Underground Movement in it for the Music, Not the Money,” Michael
Miller wrote, “They’re at it again this week when an appropriately
named promotion team called ‘Word of Mouth Productions’ presents
English folk singer Pete Morton at Rockafella’s Sunday, followed by
the return of Chris Smither to the Five Points club Monday. Shows
usually start at a decent hour, because like we said, these folks have
day jobs.” Two
very important concerts were produced by WOMP in 1993. First, we brought
two of Ireland’s most honored musicians – Len Graham and Cathal
McConnel to a sold out crowd at the State Museum followed by a British
folk Christmas show at the University of South Carolina’s Drayton Hall
by England’s Waterson family. In
1994, we produced several shows including a performance by Martin Carthy
and Dave Swarbrick, formerly of Fairport Convention at the State Museum
and a show by The Subdudes and two time Grammy award winning Keb
“Mo,” who recently cleaned up at blues most prestigious Handy
Awards, winning three awards. By 1994, we had begun to build a devoted
following who came because of our involvement in a show rather than a
familiarity with the musicians. In
recent years, besides producing Columbia’s Annual Blues Festival, we
brought England’s The House Band and blues man Corey Harris to sold
out shows at Workshop Theatre. Our biggest event to date was “Live on
Main,” a free street concert in downtown Columbia at the corner of
Main and Hampton in front of the new Columbia Museum of Art. The show
featured Duke Robillard, Nappy Brown, Griff and The Crude Earles. This
even was made possible by sponsorship of the City of Columbia, First
Union Bank, The State newspaper, and Time Warner Cable. Many of our
shows, including “Live On Main,” have been featured on the cover of
“The Weekend Section” in The State newspaper, South
Carolina’s largest newspaper. In
1994, we became involved with Columbia’s First Blues Festival as we
were hoping to broaden our horizons and the size of our audiences. This
was also an opportunity to offer a free concert to the citizens of this
town and our visitors. The spirit of our effort was summed up nicely in
an article in The State written by Dawn Hinshaw on October 18, 1997
entitled, “Friends just love bringing the blues home.” Since
the inception of Columbia’s Annual Blues Festival, we have worked
diligently to offer this festival as an annual event with all volunteer
labor including ourselves. We have built a network of volunteers –
family, friends and new friends who have expertise in fund raising,
sound and light engineering, stage production, computer generated art
and graphics, television and many other areas that allows us to be so
successful in what we do. Word of Mouth Productions was viewed as a
positive feature of a bleak landscape in an article entitled, “Passed
over: Columbia’s ailing concert scene” by Dan Cook, music editor of
Free Times (June 10-16, 1998). Cook interviewed Manifest Records Owner
Carl Singmaster and wrote, “As a local example of all of the elements
of good promoting coming together, Singmaster points to Word of Mouth
Productions staging blues artist Corey Harris at a local theatre.
Harris, who records for Alligator Records, is by no means a household
name, but by providing a comfortable atmosphere, with good promotion
targeted a the right audience, the concert sold out. With the right
environment, people were begging to get in at $10.” Along
the way, we joined hands with the Diachronic Research Foundation, a
local non-profit corporation also begun in 1991, dedicated to the study
of cultural phenomena that span time. Designed for anthropological and
archaeological pursuits, we felt that our efforts to share our ethno
musicological research in folk music with a wider audience fit right in
with the educational spirit of Diachronic. This also allows financial
contributors to make tax-deductible donations, which are the bread and
butter of Word of Mouth Productions.
|
