New Westobou venue was welcome change

Because my full-time job has involved overseeing the marketing of the 2011 Westobou Festival, I have been very careful to keep any references to it and the acts that participated out of this column. I knew that any attempts at objectivity, of maintaining the distance required for any true critical discourse, would be impossible.

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So I didn’t talk about the shows, nor will I. I did not talk about the festival, nor will I. I did not talk about any of the hundreds of little things that happened during the week, nor will I.

I will, however, talk about a venue.

For years, a relatively large piece of downtown real estate has been ignored, not only by the arts community but by the community at large. Known as the Parade Grounds at the Old Academy of Richmond County, this field of dreams was transformed during Westobou Week into an outdoor concert venue capable of holding a few thousand music fans.

Load in for acts is easy. There are dressing room facilities. When the building, trees and stage are lit, it’s a truly spectacular setting.

My hope is that the Westobou events held there will draw attention to the Parade Grounds. The festival, after all, doesn’t hold the lease on the land (that would be the trustees of the Academy of Richmond County) nor does it enjoy exclusive rights. That property has been forgotten and fallow for far too long. It’s time to breathe some new life into the property, and setting up an occasional stage so Augusta music fans can enjoy music under the stars seems like an incredibly attractive way to do that.

CHECKING THE CHARTS. I wasn’t surprised to see the Augusta area represented on the Nielsen SoundScan Singles Chart last week. Lady Antebellum has, after all, made sales success something of a habit. What I was surprised to see, however, was another local act staking a claim to a spot in the Top 20.

Jemani, the funky rock-rap act, has been slowly (like 10 years slowly) building a faithful fan base, and evidently the work has begun to pay off. The band’s country-tinged party anthem Glitterbone was ranked 18th on the SoundScan Chart.

It does seem to have fallen out of the top 20 this week, but if this talented act can get a song in there once, there’s no reason to believe it can’t happen again.

NEW RELEASES. Congratu­lations to both Mazes and Monsters and False Flag. Both Augusta acts have new releases – Mazes and Monsters’ is titled The Spaces in Between and False Flag’s is One Size Fits Most. I haven’t had an opportunity to hear either yet, but check this space for reviews in the near future.