Hootie's Old Practice Shed Shuts Out Music
Sometimes I wonder where singers get their start. Not the town, but specifically where they are. In their basement? Garage? Bedroom? I'm just kind of curious where one would go to hone their vocals without driving the neighbors crazy. And I've just discovered where Darius Rucker got his start: in a storage shed. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal talked about how the Sumter Street Self-Storage units near the University of South Carolina are legendary to local musicians. And that Rucker's band, Hootie & the Blowfish, first started playing and practicing there in the early '90s. But now, a local activist made it his mission to shut down the Sheds and got a zoning board and the fire marshal to stop the music. Hootie drummer Jim "Soni" Sonefeld said, "The best thing about Sumter Street Storage was you could make noise. That's where you hone your craft. If you don't have anywhere to practice, how you going to get good?"
©2008 Country Music Television, Inc., a Viacom company. A division of