Excited to be a part of the Inaugural Songbird Festival at Finlay Park in Columbia SC!
This lineup contains quite a few musical heroes of ours, and we’re grateful to David Stringer and Trae Judy for having us on this crazy lineup.
Make plans and join us!
Tix: etix.com/ticket/v/37945/finlay-park
Website: songbirdcola.com
@scenesc@songbirdcola@jeff.gregory.dude@oiled.and.diffused@ccbigcookie@maestromo32@beau_reaux #songbirdcola
Meet your Songbird 26 Bands: @thedonovantwins
🎟️ Link in Bio
Meet The Donovan Twins: Aidan and Bennett Donovan, Columbia’s talented up-and-coming folk-rock duo. With soulful harmonies and standout singles like ‘10-4,’ they blend heartfelt lyrics with polished musicianship.
The Donovan Twins made quite an impression on the Finlay Park crowd during the Day Two Festival back in November, and will be making their second appearance at a major event in the park at Songbird 26.
Catch the Donovan Twins on the Greenway Stage at Songbird 26 on Saturday, May 30.
#Songbird26
Columbia, your new favorite tradition starts NOW. Songbird Festival is taking over @finlayparkcola on May 30 and 31, live performances, good vibes and a whole lot of family fun. This is the inaugural one, which means you get to say you were there first.
📍 Finlay Park
🗓️ May 30 & 31
🎟️ Visit @songbirdcola for tickets
Ross Swinson’s memories of Hunter-Gatherer go back to the Columbia he came up in as a teenager and to his earliest days playing music.
It was where he played the first album release show for his first band, and where he saw shows that stretched “from instrumental metal to jazz.”
“Before the big brewery boom of the 2010s I always felt like it was cool that there was a spot in Columbia that had been brewing beer for the love of the game for decades at that point,” Swinson says. “It felt like a staple in the community.”
Swinson says he’s glad Hunter-Gatherer still has its Hangar location, even if the South Main Street space is now part of memory. “I’m happy that they still have the hangar but sad I’ll never set foot back in the south Main location,” he says.
His connection to Aaron Graves, Those Lavender Whales, and Fork and Spoon Records runs through that same sense of community. As a teenager in Columbia in the 2000s, Swinson says that circle meant a lot to him and the community around those people and bands was something he hopes continues in Columbia and the surrounding areas.
For this session, Swinson performed “Learning to Fall” by Flower Shopping, from the 2024 EP Going Anywhere. He chose it because it shares themes he absorbed from that community, including growing and taking care of each other.
Catch @shopping4flowers live at @artbarsc on Saturday, May 23 at 9 p.m. with @midstheband , @burrito.wolf , and @midimarcum .
Meet your Songbird 26 Bands: @jackfortunemusic
🎟️ Link in Bio
Jack Fortune is a singer-songwriter born and raised outside of Boston, Massachusetts, now based in Charleston, South Carolina. After moving to Charleston in 2020 to pursue music, he quickly immersed himself in the local scene, opening for artists like Caiola, Sam Burchfield, Stop Light Observations, and Mo Lowda & The Humble.
His sound is stripped-down and raw, built around carefully crafted lyrics delivered with a soulful, sometimes gritty edge. On stage, Fortune leans into storytelling as much as the songs themselves, mixing humor and honesty while pulling from real-life experiences that resonate long after the set ends.
Catch Jack Fortune on the Main Stage at Songbird 26 on Sunday, May 31.
#Songbird26
“The first time I went to the Hunter Gatherer was on a Sunday, and it was technically closed,” Jessica Oliver writes.
She had only been in Columbia a few months when she and her friend Adam Cullum rode past the brewery on their bikes and noticed something happening inside. They parked, stuck their heads in, and found a party.
“The room was full of this buzzing energy,” Oliver writes. “People were yelling, music was playing, and there was a hotdog eating contest going on.”
That accidental visit became one of those memories that gained traction over time because so many connections came from it. It was the day Oliver first saw Henry Thomas, who worked at Hunter-Gatherer and would eventually join People Person, along with “lots of other faces who would over time become dear and familiar to me, and who make of the fabric of the community I now happily call my home.”
A year or so later, Can’t Kids played Hunter-Gatherer with Neapolitan Children, the band of Oliver’s now-husband, Joe Chang. More nights followed on that block, along with many more memories.
“I locked my keys inside my car on numerous occasions and sat inside talking to Marty and Erica and the other staff while waiting on the locksmith,” she writes.
Around that same time, Cullum introduced her to Aaron Graves and the wider Fork and Spoon family through the potlucks that became central to so many friendships and memories.
“Aaron and the Whales crew taught many of us about community,” Oliver writes. “We bonded over music, food, and shared joy.”
For her I Love My Friends session, Oliver chose “Looking American” by The Choir Quit, written by one of her favorite Columbia musicians, William Starr Busbee.
“I’ve loved ‘Looking American’ and every version of it since I first heard it,” she writes. “It’s smart, a little despondent, comically grandiose, and a total bop.”
Meet your Songbird 26 Bands: @vancegapband
🎟️ Link in Bio
Vance Gap is a band built on long friendships, shared history, and a deep love for making music together.
Led by singer and songwriter Ashley Wright, the band brings songs to life that are honest, reflective, and rooted in real life. Ashley writes the lyrics and most of the melodies, while her husband Travis Wright composes much of the music and plays guitar. The band is rounded out by Dan Gibbs on electric guitar from Athens, Georgia, Chad Rochester on bass from Columbia, South Carolina, and Gavin Brown on drums from Blythewood, South Carolina.
All of the members have known each other and played music together for years.
“We are parents, professionals, and longtime friends, with eight kids between us. Family and careers come first, but music has always been a passion we return to.
Vance Gap exists to capture a snapshot of life in our 30s and 40s. These songs tell the story of this season, something meaningful we can leave behind for our kids and for ourselves. Making music with friends is the joy, and sharing it is the hope.”
Catch A.P. Rodgers on the Greenway Stage at Songbird 26 on Saturday, May 30.
#Songbird26
For this installment of the “I Love My Friends” sessions, William Starr Busbee performs “Inch by Inch! The Garden Song.”
Busbee’s connection to the Fork and Spoon family goes back to College Rock II, his 2015 release on the label.
“I’d really just like to say how lucky I feel just to be included in this project and in the Fork and Spoon family in general,” Busbee says. “I really don’t feel deserving of it and just feel lucky to be included.”
He remembers Aaron Graves as “a fella that really knew what family was all about” and Hunter-Gatherer as special place where he was glad to have “one last little show.”
At its core, Busbee’s takeaway is simple: “I guess the whole take away from this is the importance of friends and family… but that’s really all we’ve got.”
When Brett Nash (Secret Guest, Band of Horses) first moved to the College of Charleston, one of the first shows he saw was Beaks and Claws and a solo Those Lavender Whales set at the Communications Museum on campus.
“I remember how beautifully Aaron was able to combine silly themes and very earnest themes simultaneously — all into one beautiful ball,” Nash says.
That introduction eventually turned into something closer. Through Fork and Spoon, Aaron Graves and that circle helped release an EP from Nash’s earlier band, Southern Femisphere.
“They were so generous with their time and efforts — just making sure that everybody’s visions were fully realized. They’re just the most genuine people,” he says. “They kind of set the bar super high for my first rendezvous with the ‘music industry’ and what it should be.”
For this installment of the I Love My Friends sessions, Nash performs “Dalmatian Rock,” a song he co-wrote with Dylan Dickerson and Marshall Brown for Shows, filmed in front of the mural at the former Hunter-Gatherer building on South Main Street.
“The song I chose was an attempt to escape from the usually very cynical songs I’m used to writing,” he says. “It was somewhat of an ode to the positive influences in my life that zap me with a defibrillator of life force and make me appreciate the world. Aaron was definitely one of those positive influences.”
“I only ever got to play Hunter Gatherer once, but I had my fair share of post‑show hangs at that lovely spot, which always felt like a Columbia staple despite my infrequent visits.”
