May 23 Party Music: Dillon Brown & Company set to open Chinquapin Concert Season 5.4.2026
- Rusty Hampton
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
The return of the Chinquapin Summer Concert Series marks the return of Dillon Brown & Company to Chinquapin and an even more meaningful return for Dillon Brown himself.
In a YouTube video he posted to Facebook recently, Dillon excitedly exclaims, “I just want to make an announcement that I am wonderfully back! Thank the Lord and thank everybody and everything that helped me get here.”
By here, he means able to sing again.
Partially Paralyzed Vocal Cord
Where he was for more than six months was a bad place, an aspiring singer/songwriter/band leader with a partially paralyzed vocal cord. “I sounded like a machine shop that had lost electricity,” he said, trying to explain the raspy sounds he would produce.
After six months of weekly 10-hour round-trip drives from his home in Salem, SC, to the Duke Voice Care and Otolaryngology Center in Raleigh, NC, Dillon has reclaimed his voice and says he and his band are beyond excited for a return trip to Chinquapin.
The May 23 party at the Outpost kicks off the Memorial Day Weekend and marks the start of the “busy season” for Chinquapin owners and the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau. Dillon Brown & Company will play from 6 pm to 9 pm. You might hear a few originals, but mostly they will cover a wide range of country, rock, and rhythm and blues artists. “From Bill Withers to Stevie Ray Vaughn to Eric Clapton and Blake Shelton,” Dillon explained. “New, old, and a bit of everything under the sun. We don’t stick to just one genre.”
Dillon, 28, is the lead singer and plays guitar. Randall Martin plays lead guitar, John David “JD” Long is the drummer, and Brian Faulkenberry rounds out the sound on bass guitar. The quartet has played together for three years and had grown so tight that last spring Dillon quit his day job as a supervisor at Fannings Appliances in Easley, SC.
“That first month of full-time music, I doubled my income,” he exclaimed.
Making Music is a Family Tradition
But soon came the vocal cord issue and a humbling shutdown that made him realize how important music is to him. “It’s in the family,” he said, explaining he learned to play guitar at age 10 while watching his grandfather “front-porch pickin’,” his banjo while his mom played guitar and sang into the night at their Scaly Mountain farm.
His mom played in Nashville for four years. “She never hit it big,” he offered, “but she had enough success to pay for her equipment and put some money in the bank, so that was cool.”
And now Dillon wants to see how far he and his band can go.
It starts with gigs like Chinquapin. “These kinds of events are much more fun,” he said. “It’s so much more personable. We sit down and share a meal together, get to know everybody that we can.”
So, introduce yourself. Say hello, and don’t be surprised if the tall man with the long beard offers up a large laugh and bigger grin.
“I’m back to singing,” he said. “I’m doing shows. I’m gigging, and I’m glad to be back!”
