Onstage With Drink Small: 90th Birthday Celebration

The Blues Doctor is a title familiar to folks throughout the Carolinas, and it belongs to the one and only Drink Small. Born in Bishopville, where his family sharecropped, he taught himself to play guitar on his uncle’s one string by age 7. Beginning as a gospel performer, he first recorded with “The Spiritualaires” in 1956 on Vee Jay Records. He later toured with The Staples Singers and Sam Cooke. By 1959 he turned his focus to blues, becoming famous for his basso profondo voice, his Piedmont style guitar, and his stage banter referred to as “Drink-isms.”

Small was named a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow in 2015. Drink Small continues to perform today at age 89.

Join us Onstage at the Koger Center for the Arts as we celebrate Drink Small’s 90th Birthday.

This celebration concert will be filmed and recorded for SCETV and SC Public Radio and will include performances by:
Brittany Turnipseed
Randy Lucas Trio
The SC State University Choir
and, of course, Drink Small himself.

Special thanks to Morganelli’s Party Store for sponsoring this concert.