In praise of Savannah’s “Music March”

I’m taking a break from writing my next Man About Town column for Thursday’s Do. I know, it seems funny to non-writers that I should be taking a break from writing by writing . . .

The column is going to be taking a look back at the Savannah Music Festival’s first 10 days — a stellar mix of performers and genres and experiences.

And I can’t help thinking about the entire month of March, which also featured the Savannah Stopover’s 4-day serving of indie rock and a variety of other great shows from acts that just happened to be coming through town.

Just a few years ago, Savannah’s March was pretty much completely dominated by St. Patrick’s Day — a great festival and huge party. That’s a bigger event than most cities of our size ever host, but Savannah’s March has taken on a very different meaning for music lovers.

In no particular order, and with apologies to all the bands I’m not mentioning while mixing the famous and the not-yet-famous, I saw shows here in Savannah by all of the following in March:

• Oberhofer (who then played Letterman) (Stopover)
• The War on Drugs (Stopover)
• The Black Lips (wild Atlanta-based band with over 75,000 fans on Facebook) (tour at The Jinx)
• Sanders Bohlke (Stopover)

• Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt (SMF)
• B.J. Barham of American Aquarium, one of my favorite performers who comes through Savannah regularly (tour at The Jinx)
• Pink Martini (SMF)
• New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band with the Del McCoury Band (SMF)
• Bela Fleck and the original lineup of the Flecktones (SMF)
• Chelsea Crowell (granddaughter of Johnny Cash) (Stopover)
• Pujol (Stopover)
• The Love Language (Stopover)
• The Train Wrecks, a great Savannah band (Stopover)
• The Jimmy Bosch Orchestra (SMF)
• Country Mice
• Damon & the Shitkickers, another great Savannah band (at regular Saturday happy hour gigs at The Jinx and at Saddlebags the day before St. Patrick’s Day)
• Triathalon, a stunningly good up and coming Savannah band (Stopover)

Seriously, I’d stack that list of shows up against any music fan’s list from any city for the last month.

There was a time when it was routine — almost mandatory it seemed — for Savannahians to complain about “nothing going on.” Hard to make that argument anymore.

Yes, I went out a lot, lost a lot of sleep, and spent a lot of money — but no regrets about any of that. Seize the day, seize the night, seize the month.