Carolina Studios and Mark Bryan give children a musical outlet

Mark Bryan, known best as the lead guitarist of Hootie and the Blowfish, didn't stop contributing to the progress of modern music after the release of Hootie's "Fairweather Johnson" in 1996.

He's been working for 10 years with his nonprofit organization, Carolina Studios, to help underprivileged kids, ages 8-18, write, produce and record their own music.

Carolina Studios provides a place for kids to go after school for a few hours to hone their skills on digital recording and production equipment. The downtown branch, held in the Boys and Girls Club on Mary Street, has been open for almost four years. There is also a smaller program set-up in West Ashley that opened last fall.

Mark's friend, Lane Cyphers, was the brainchild behind the idea. Bryan got invited to the original fundraising meeting in 2001 and immediately hopped on board.

"At the time, Hootie and the Blowfish was doing Junior Golf clubs around the state, which we still do," Bryan said. "We were funding these golf courses for kids anyway, and it was the same idea, except with music."

Bryan achieved nonprofit status for the organization with the help of Sam Singleton, who is closely linked to helping several different Boys and Girls Club locations.

"He helped us make it official, obtained our nonprofit status. We've had that for about three or four years now. We've got a full board, although Lane and Sam are no longer on the board."

Carolina Studios has recently been asked to take part in the 2010 Afterschool Alliance conference in Washington, D.C.

Terry Peterson, dubbed "the king of the after-school," is the chairman of the board for the alliance and uses this organization to help fund and sustain after-school programs.

His wife is the program director of the arts management department at the College of Charleston, where Mark teaches a class in music business. After hearing about his efforts with Carolina Studios, they asked him to take part in this year's conference from April 19-21.

"They offered to bring me, our executive director and two of our students up for the conference, and we're going to speak and perform at this year's Afterschool Alliance," Mark said. "It's an amazing honor. It's the only national thing that we've been involved with for this program. It's the biggest thing like this that this program has ever been involved with. "

Both the downtown and West Ashley branches of Carolina Studios held a competition to see which two students would get to accompany Mark and executive director Johnnie Mitchell to the nation's capital.

Jevion Crawford, 13, and Tahlia Eberhart, 11, were chosen for the trip based on performances of songs they individually wrote, recorded and produced.

Together, they will perform after Mark on the last day of the conference. The song that they are performing at the Afterschool alliance is a collaboration between them, and serves as a dedication song to chairman Terry Peterson for helping to promote programs such as Carolina Studios.

"Jevion and Tahlia got picked because they've shown the most progress in the program and their performances were confident and solid. It's an example of what this program can do for a kid and how it can help a kid who maybe isn't an athlete, or isn't into other things after school, but that's into music and technology. It can help a kid grow in those fields and we feel like they're both a good example of that."