DOWN THE ROAD: The Myrtle Beach Songwriter Festival this weekend, Nov. 13-14
Melissa Joiner has been going to songwriter festivals since before she could walk. After years of facilitating singer-songwriter nights in Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, Joiner is watching her own festival come to fruition.
“I’ve been sneaking original music into places it hasn’t traditionally belonged,” Joiner explains. “When we were filling up bars on Monday nights with songwriters, I thought, wow, it’s time to take this to the next level.”
The Myrtle Beach Songwriter Festival is a two-day live music event happening November 13-14 that spans a number of walkable bars and venues in downtown Myrtle Beach, featuring more than 50 local and touring songwriters and poets. Funded by friends, fans, sponsors and supporters of live original music, Joiner says it’s a “festival for artists, by artists” with nearly 300 submissions going through a rigorous rubric and rating system by the festival’s board to decide on the inaugural line-up.
“I think you are going to see people at our festival that will be signed in the next few years," Joiner continues, "and you’ll be able to say you saw them here before they got there. I wanted to make sure we had a lot of local representation, and I want Myrtle Beach to be a destination for original music.”
Taking on a multi-day festival that carves out space for original music in a tourist town may seem like a tall order, but that’s just the beginning for Joiner, who always knew she wanted to create something bigger than herself. The Myrtle Beach Songwriter Festival proceeds go to Backpack Buddies, a program of Help 4 Kids of Myrtle Beach, which supports 3,000 children weekly by providing meals, clothing, and school supplies. Additionally, the festival is hosted by Joiner’s own non profit, Songs that Save.
“Musicians are always the first to show up when people need help, but who shows up for the musicians?” After watching friends struggle with addiction, mental health and other issues, and going on a therapy journey herself, Joiner knew she had finally found her purpose. From resources to educational classes, Songs that Save aims for a holistic approach when it comes to creatives. Joiner explains her mission is built on three pillars: Hunger, Hope and Health.
“We want to feed the entire person; their souls, their dreams, their bellies, their businesses,” she says. “That makes it easy for me to make decisions- does it make the person full?”
For the festival weekend, Joiner hopes that musicians, attendees and venues all come away with that sense of fullness. “I want the local businesses to really benefit,” Joiner says. “For the listeners, I want to invite them to hold space for original music, to find their new favorite song and see there is a world around them they might not even know about. For the musicians, if I can change an individual person’s world, and make them feel seen and believed in, I can die happy. I’m trying to create that world I wanted to live in as a child. If I can create that and it rubs off on every single person around me, I feel like I’m doing exactly what I was put on this earth for.”
Tickets for The Myrtle Beach Songwriter Festival are available at myrtlebeachsongwritersfestival.com, along with full details about participating venues and musician line-ups.
You can also catch Melissa Joiner in December here in Wilmington playing her own songs at the original songwriting showcase Tempo Tonight on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at Tempo 33.
