Spartanburg Music Trail

About the Tour

Front Cover Sign Photo

Start The Tour

The Spartanburg Music Trail honors musicians from Spartanburg who have made a national or international impact in the world of music. The stops highlight artists in such genres as country, gospel, soul, rock 'n' roll and more. Ultimately the trail will circle the downtown as new inductees are added.

As publisher of the book Hub City Music Makers: One Southern Town's Popular Music Legacy, the nonprofit Hub City Writers Project took the lead in organizing the Spartanburg Music Trail. The initial honorees were chosen because they represent a wide variety of music styles, a broad demographic of our county, and almost 200 years of music-making history. The Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau has partnered with Hub City Writers Project, the City of Spartanburg, and the Spartanburg Philharmonic to produce this version of the tour.

You can walk this trail in about 30 minutes. The Music Trail begins in the Grain District at the corner of Main and South Daniel Morgan Avenue and ends at the Chapman Cultural Center. Drop in at Hub City Books, 186 West Main Street, to pick up a walking tour brochure.

Use your GPS enabled smartphone for narration, songs samples, and side trips.

Narration of the Music Trail by Peter Cooper

The voice you hear on the Music Trail is Spartanburg's own Peter Cooper. Peter is the reigning authority on Spartanburg music history as the author of Hub City Music Makers: One Southern Town's Popular Music History (Hub City Press, 1996). He is a former reporter for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal newspaper and a former editor of Creative Loafing in the Upstate. 

Cooper now lives in Nashville where music fans have named him best music writer eight years running. In addition to his regular job as the senior music writer at The Tennessean, he also teaches country music at Vanderbilt University, occasionally appears as a commentator on Country Music TV, and is a fine singer-songwriter himself, performing internationally.

Cooper was named one of Nashville’s “10 Most Interesting People,” alongside the Kings of Leon and American Idol’s Mandisa, by Nashville Arts & Entertainment Magazine.