South Carolina names new amphitheater after soul music icon Sharon Jones
To the delight of officials and residents alike, the North Augusta City Council voted unanimously Monday to name the new amphitheater in Riverside Village after local music icon Sharon Jones.
Jones was a renowned soul and funk singer with her longtime backing band the Dap Kings. The Greater North Augusta Chamber of Commerce said she was baptized at North Augusta Baptist Church and had her first singing role as an angel in a Christmas play before moving to New York with her mother at age 3.
Though she performed everywhere, she still spent much of her life in North Augusta. Her album “Give the People What They Want” was nominated for the best R&B album Grammy in 2014, and she was the subject of the documentary “Miss Sharon Jones!”
Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013 and died at age 60 on Nov. 18, 2016.
The chamber honored Jones posthumously in 2017 as North Augusta’s 2016 Citizen of the Year, saying, “In those 60 years she lived a life that only most of us can dream of: jet-setting, performing on stages around the world and starring in movies, but she never forgot her hometown, her beloved North Augusta.”
The city council’s decision drew applause from residents like Ryan Abel and Don Rhodes, a longtime friend and music columnist for The Augusta Chronicle.
“Her impact in music, not only locally but worldwide is unmatched by anyone from North Augusta, and probably only second to James Brown in the area,” Abel said.
“I think it’s going to be a wonderful thing, and I think that y’all are going to see, it’s going to bring so much attention to North Augusta,” Rhodes said.
Mayor Pro Tem David McGhee said he is very excited for this opportunity and that this will recognize the African American community in a matter unlike any other in the city. McGhee is the only African American member of the city council.
The Imperial Theater stage in Augusta is also named after Jones.
More: H.E.R., Yolanda Adams, Rico Love among the leaders of Recording Academy's Black Music Collective