SING THE STATES #08: South Carolina

South Carolina joined the Union is 1788, and I think they may have my favorite flag of all the 50 states. Designed by Col. William Moultrie for the South Carolina troops in 1775, he chose a blue that matched their uniforms and a crescent like the silver emblem they wore on the front of their caps. The palmetto tree came later, in honor of Col. Moutlrie's defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island against the attack of the British fleet in 1776. And that's the history behind my favorite state flag.

South Carolina's a beautiful state, but musically they haven't produced much that I've listened to. Most notably, South Carolina's home to Iron & Wine and Dizzy Gillespie (arguably one of the best jazz trumpeters that ever lived). Unfortunately, Wikipedia cites Hootie & The Blowfish as SC's most successful rock group to date - so all I can say there is, please step it up musicians of South Carolina.

There's a myriad of songs about plain old Carolina, without specifying whether they mean "North" or "South", and for our track today I've actually gone with one of those, since South Carolina was, at least at one point, a part of the Province of plain-old Carolina. The song is Ben Gibbard's off of the HOME Vol. 5 EP he split with Andrew Kenny in 2003. If you haven't heard that EP, put it on a list and scratch it off soon. Because it's that good.

Also considered: Archers of Loaf - South Carolina; M. Ward - Carolina

Ben Gibbard - Carolina
from the EP HOME Vol. 5 (Amazon)


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