Weekend Ticket: ‘Cue the train cars, food, tunes, technology and spooky stories | News

Saturday only is the absolutely free and family-friendly iMAGINE Lakelands STEAM festival. It explores how fields such as art and engineering intersect, with lots of hands-on fun.

Later, Saturday evening is Humane Society of Greenwood’s Wag & Jam concert at Uptown Market. Tickets at eventbrite.com.

Abbeville’s Hogs and Hens festival is Friday and Saturday. Admission is free.

Also Friday and Saturday is the fourth annual Greenwood Ghost Walk in Uptown. To check availability of walk reservations/tickets, text or call 864-321-2695.

If singer-songwriters are your jam, give Greenville-based Darby Wilcox and her Peep Show bandmates some Greenwood love during Saturday’s highly anticipated Wag & Jam. It’s a ticketed benefit concert supporting Humane Society of Greenwood.

Darby Wilcox and The Peep Show, plus Susto of Charleston are going to be cranking it up at the Uptown Market for this outdoor concert. It’s sure to be a great night for indie music in Uptown.

Wilcox, now 35, has been part of the Greenville music scene since age 18, when she first started performing at open mic nights.

Her current band has evolved during the past six or seven years and even has a Greenwood connection in musician Steven Cathcart on pedal steel. Wilcox and The Peep Show have also been recording new songs at Cathcart’s studio.

Wilcox’ soulful vocals and unflinchingly honest songwriting have garnered her fans and nods from the likes of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

“My music is very raw and emotional,” Wilcox explains. “I’ve been in music my whole life, growing up in classical and church music. But, I taught myself to play guitar when I was 12 or 13 and started writing songs around then.”

Listen out during the show for four brand-new songs, eventually to be on a new EP that’s promising to be a little “more electric” than Wilcox has done before, including her 2018 LP, 11:11.

“The band really started solidifying in 2016,” Wilcox said. “My music is like time stamps.”

Among the four new tracks is “Ten Ways to Cope.”

“It’s about leaving a partner who wanted me to be there, but at the time, I couldn’t even be there for myself,” Wilcox said. “... It’s about coping, not in the healthiest ways. ... A lot of the songs are like life lessons for myself.”

Wilcox said the pandemic has given her much-needed time to focus on important things, including her own struggles with addiction and sobriety.

“I’ve been sober since May 2020,” Wilcox said. “I used the quiet of the pandemic to gain consistency and to get into an established routine. I was playing 15 to 21 shows a month before that, working all the time. ... The field that I’m in revolves around being in a bar. I appreciate where I am right now. Perspective and honesty is what my core is.”

But, wait, there’s more!

Local musician and Sunny 103.5 FM radio host Austin Landers keeps us in the know about who is playing live in and around the Lakelands each weekend. Be sure to check out:

Both at 6 p.m. today, Landers plays Good Times Brewing, and Granger and Nic play Howard’s on Main. Also today, Matt Buckland plays TW Boons at 8 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m. Friday, Lola Grace plays Flynn’s on Maxwell. At 8 p.m., Justin Anderson plays Howard’s on Main.

At 6 p.m. Saturday, Surrender Cobra plays Howard’s on Main. Also at 6 p.m., gates open for Susto, with special guests Darby Wilcox and The Peep Show, playing HSOG’s Wag & Jam at Uptown Market.

Have fun. Stay safe out there this weekend.