For over a decade, Justin Osborne has been the driving creative force and vocals behind SUSTO, the beloved Charleston alternative country band. After five albums with SUSTO, Osborne has reimagined his band by creating Susto Stringband following a hiatus in Asheville during which he worked with Asheville’s Holler Choir.
While the original SUSTO still exists, Susto Stringband, slated to perform at The Windjammer on Sept. 27, has become an entirely separate project focused on bluegrass and Appalachian music. Composed of six members, Osborne has established a true old-time band with guitarist Clint Roberts, Jackson Grimm playing the mandolin, Helena Rose on banjo, Joey Brown playing upright bass and Julian Pinelli on the fiddle.
“I was living in AVL [Asheville] for a short time after COVID, and that’s when I met them [the band members]. We met at an open mic night and immediately hit it off. They went on the road with us opening some shows, and along the way we started putting together some oldtime, bluegrassy versions of my songs,” he shared.
Together they have released two albums and toured several places. One thing that remains true to both bands is the name, Susto. Osborne said he learned the Spanish word “susto,” meaning “fright,” in an anthropology class at the College of Charleston. The literal translation of susto is “soul loss,” but Osborne’s anthropology class presented the term as describing the state of the spirit that can follow traumatic events when the soul is separated from the body. At the time, he “was going through a lot of major life shifts and events,” and he felt the name echoed with the songs he was writing, mostly about those difficult life experiences.
For Osborne, Charleston is home despite not being currently based here.
“I’m not sure my musical career would exist if it hadn’t been for the experiences I had living there, and the support given to me by the music scene. It’s very important to me, and I maintain close connections in town even now, and visit often,” he conveyed.
Performing songs like “Friends, Lovers, Ex-Lovers: Whatever,” “Hard Drugs” and “Get Down” in Charleston is special to Osborne because they represent experiences he had while living in the city.
Osborne described Susto Stringband as “borrowing songs and spirit from the SUSTO catalog while completely reimagining the genre and bringing new tunes into the fold in the process.” Through Osborne’s experience in the music scene he has learned “that you can build your own communities when needed, and that folks love to come together through shared experience and art.”
He added, “I’ve learned that life without community can be very empty, and life with community can be very, very full and fruitful.”
At the end of a show, Osborne hopes for one thing: that the audience appreciates and connects with the artistic conveyance of hard topics paired with pure instrumental talent. Now a father of three, Osborne anticipates that touring will be less frequent, but assured the production will be ongoing. As he said, “the music will continue.”
By Ella Duane
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