Common Chords

Bob & Casey O'Connor,Father and Son

Common Chords By Randall Hill

Bob and Casey O’Connor

Murrells Inlet resident Bob O’Connor doesn’t see music as the sole reason for the close relationship he has with his son Casey; he sees it as just the latest in a long list of activities they’ve done together to bond their relationship over the years. “We’ve always been very close,” said O’Connor about his son who was born with Down syndrome in 1987. “Music has just been in the last two or three years. It’s a new thing for us to do together.”

For Christmas a few years back, O’Connor bought a Horner “Blues Harp” harmonica for his son and since that day Casey has taken to the idea of music and being in a band. “He picked it up fairly quickly and we’ve started letting him play music in our band.”

Since the mid 1980s, Bob O’Connor has been in the Myrtle Beach area band called “The Mullets.” This year, the band celebrates its 25th anniversary of playing music together in the bars and club along the Grand Strand.

“Now that Casey is 21 and all and can get into the clubs that I play with The Mullets, he’s on stage and playing with us as a part of the band.”

After speaking with Bob for a few moments, he likes to point out how much a “natural” Casey is to music and how little time the two take to its study. As he speaks of his son’s talent, one must realize how far the young man has come in his life.

“When he was born we knew we had a lot to prepare for,” O’Connor said as he sat recently in a chair in the family’s music room. A well-worn Guild guitar, cherished by the musician, leans against another chair to his left. Casey’s growing harp collection is nearby in the chair’s seat. “When he was 6-hours-old he had major surgery and six weeks later we were able to bring him home from the hospital.”

The early news and doctors’ reports about his son’s condition were not good. “Things that the doctors told us many years ago that he would never do have now turned out to be a bunch of nonsense,” said O’Connor. “Anybody that sees him now knows he’s a pretty together guy,” he said proudly. “He works hard at his job, is a Special Olympic champion golfer, plays blues harp in a band, so I’d say he’s pretty well-rounded.

“I feel really excited about what’s in my heart and the feel of this music,” said Casey about his newfound love of music. “I think that music is the way to go with the style and how I learned how to play.”

This fall, Casey will take his talents to the next level. Coastal Carolina University has accepted him as a freshman in its new Life Program. The program allows full inclusion within the campus community and is a four-year post-secondary education program for students with disabilities.

After playing the Bob Dylan song “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’’ and the Grateful Dead classic “Friend Of The Devil” during this jam session in the music room, Casey talked about how he feels when he plays music.

“It makes me want to play more music with my dad,” he said after a short pause and an affirming fist tap with his father. “He’s one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitar players that I’ve known.”


Listen to audio clips of Bob & Casey O'Connor performing songs together.

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere


Kansas City Blues


Friend of the Devil


posted by 
Randall Hill

Rev. Cheryl Moore Adamson,Devotion Through Music

Common Chords By Randall Hill

Rev. Cheryl Moore Adamson

The late afternoon sky scattered warm, colored light through a large living room window as the Rev. Cheryl Moore Adamson played her childhood piano on a recent summer day at her country home outside of Conway.

“This was my first instrument,” said the 57-year-old Conway native as a large grin stretched across her face. Her hands rested tenderly across the well-maintained keys of her Baldwin Acrosonic. “I was supposed to pay my parents back for this piano, but I never did,” she said with a childlike giggle. “ I guess I stole it from them.”

Music and this piano became Adamson’s solace through her childhood and as a young teenager making her way through the struggles of integration at Conway High School in the late 1960s.

And to this day, after achieving advanced degrees from the University of South Carolina, The University of Maryland and most recently her master of divinity from Duke University, she still goes to her coveted piano to show her praise and thanks.

Currently Adamson is doing double duty as pastor and minister of music at Palmetto Missionary Baptist Church in Conway. She started the church two and a half years ago and walks from the pulpit to a music balcony several times during a service.

“I think that ministering with words is different from ministering with music,” she said after playing several of her favorite songs from a well-worn copy of the African American Heritage Hymnal on the piano’s music desk. “Ministering with words is very current; it’s really like food. With songs and music they really invoke memories, and I think music plays such a critical role in people’s lives because they really tie the past and the present and lead to the future.”

Now Adamson is looking to give the gift of music to children in Conway through her Palmetto Kids Music and Arts Academy. The program had its kickoff recently at the Huckabee Heights community center with registrations for the summer pilot program. Through a grant from the national office of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Adamson’s goal is to bring music lessons to the children in the area who normally couldn’t afford them.

“We know that there are so many children in our community, because of their level of poverty, who may never have a chance to do enriching activities such as take music or dance or guitar or drumming. We wanted to be able to offer that to children. We know so much about the difference that it makes in a child’s life to have the kind of discipline that music brings and to the academic rigors that it infuses into their life to learn music. We really wanted to be a part of that.” 

Listen to audio clips of Rev. Adamson performing songs on her Baldwin Acrosonic

Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters

Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters (Music Only)

We won't leave here like we came

posted by 

Randall Hill