More Than Rhythm closes season 3 with The Psycodelics

Free concert and conversation on September 6

The Columbia Museum of Art presents More Than Rhythm: A Black Music Series Featuring The Psycodelics, the funktified season three finale of the popular free concert and conversation program, on Friday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. Hosted by ethnomusicologist Dr. Birgitta Johnson, the series takes attendees on a musical journey through multiple eras of Black musical expressions with live performances and intimate educational opportunities.

In celebration of the multigenerational influence of funk, the evening features Charleston-based musical artists The Psycodelics, who sit down with Dr. Johnson for a conversation followed by an outdoor concert on Boyd Plaza.

“Conceived in the ’60s and birthed in the ’70s, funk represents the intersections of soul, jazz, and rock drenched in psychedelic grooves,” says Dr. Johnson. “Funk uplifts as it helps people to get down. Funk harnesses the Black musical genius of the past and forever pushes towards imagined futures. The mother of disco and the father of hip-hop, funk is still a deep well for modern Black music of all genres.”

Awarded Charleston City Paper’s 2021 Soul / R&B Act of the Year, The Psycodelics’ flavor of Black American music has blended foundations of blues, jazz, and disco with fresh funk rock.

“From OutKast and Kendrick Lamar to Kamasi Washington and Trombone Shorty, funk’s ability to straddle or break stylistic barriers while giving powerful messages of unity, freedom, and self-expression is why More Than Rhythm: A Black Music Series is ending its third season with Charleston-based group The Psycodelics!” continues Dr. Johnson. “The legacy of funk is alive and well in the hands of this seven-piece band who serves heavy, uncut funk everywhere they go.”

Birgitta J. Johnson, Ph.D., is a jointly appointed associate professor of ethnomusicology in the School of Music and African American Studies Department at the University of South Carolina. Her research interests include music in African American churches, musical change and identity in Black popular music, and community archiving. She has published articles in the Black Music Research Journal, Ethnomusicology Forum, Liturgy, Oxford Bibliographies in African American Studies, and the Grove Dictionary of American Music.

Dr. Johnson’s more recent publications include a chapter about 21st-century gospel archiving in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation, a chapter about gospel remixes of Beyoncé songs in Beyoncé in the World: Making Meaning with Queen Bey in Troubled Times, and sacred themes in the music of Outkast in An OutKast Reader: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Postmodern South. She has been quoted or featured in media and news outlets such as Rolling Stone Magazine, PBS, NPR, Vox, Public Radio International, and South Carolina ETV.

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Dr. Johnson has performed professionally and/or recorded with artists and ensembles from a variety of genres including the Southeast Symphony Orchestra of Metropolitan Los Angeles, the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Francisco Aguabella’s AfroCuban Folkloric Group, and at the ESPY Awards with Justin Timberlake, The O’Jays, Yolanda Adams, Talib Kweli, and BeBe Winans. At USC she teaches courses on world music, hip-hop, the blues, African music, Black sacred music, Beyoncé, and the history of ethnomusicology.

More Than Rhythm: A Black Music Series Featuring The Psycodelics
Friday, September 6
Galleries and bar open at 6:00 p.m.
Conversation at 7:00 p.m.
Concert at 8:00 p.m.
Free admission. Registration preferred.
Cash bar
Food available for purchase

Presented by the Baker and Baker Foundation. A grant from the Knight Foundation Fund at Central Carolina Community Foundation supported this project.