• News

• All

Nov 05, 2020 By Joey Arnone Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

On Monday, the North Augusta City Council voted unanimously to rename the 600-seat North Augusta amphitheater to the Sharon Jones Amphitheater in honor of the legendary soul singer Sharon Jones (of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings), who passed away four years ago at the age of 60 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jones resided in North Augusta for the first few years of her life and would return to the city in the years before her passing.

“I’m just so excited about this opportunity to recognize Ms. Jones in this manner and I think that the city is honored to be able to do this and hopefully the family members will appreciate it,” says City Council member David McGhee, as reported by The North Augusta Star. “The African American community is now going to be recognized in a manner unlike any other in the city of North Augusta. This is going to be worldwide recognition so I believe that this is an important thing for the whole community in general.”

The Dap-Kings recently put out a previously unreleased covers album, Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In), on Daptone. It features covers Jones recorded with the band over the years. The final full on Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings album, Soul of a Woman, recorded in the months before she passed, was released in 2017 via Daptone.

We last interviewed Jones in 2016, just a few months before her passing, and you can read that article here. And here is the tribute we wrote to Jones when she passed.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.