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Don’t call it a comeback. Sterlin Colvin’s been here for years.
“I remember the first night I was playing on the island, Sylvester Stallone was at Big Rocco’s for the Monday Night Jam session — a lot of stars came to the island and were there just to kick back,” Colvin said, reminiscing about the island’s mid-’90s music scene. “The local musicians here were riding the crest.”
Since Colvin and his wife, Shuvette, have been garnering rave reviews recently for their regular performances at The Electric Piano Bar and other venues, they might seem like relative newcomers to some. There’s a reason for this; while the couple ruled the roost during the ’90s, the 00s proved less successful.
“Everything changed on 9/11. Very few planes were landing, very few people were playing golf, and the whole vibe changed,” Colvin said.
The island’s music scene languished, and with it went Colvin’s workload. For a man who used to live on the road sharing stages with stars such as Whitney Houston, Earth, Wind & Fire, and the late R&B singer Gerald Levert, being out of work was a completely unexpected and unwelcomed experience. Then, things went from bad to worse.
“Add in the economic recession and a double injury to my legs, and it was like someone just turned off the whole sound system,” he said.
The first half of the double injury occurred in 2008 when one of his right leg’s quadricep muscles detached from his bone. He was unemployed and uninsured. Two weeks into nursing that injury, Colvin’s crutches got stuck in the sidewalk payment. That tumble ripped the same muscle from its bone on the other leg.
“It was like lightening striking twice,” Colvin said. “What were the odds?”
That’s when this star of the local music scene crossed paths with what he describes as the “superstars” of the island’s social services.
Colvin said Volunteers in Medicine’s Kristin Malchak fought to get him
the surgery he needed through the Medical University of South Carolina and navigate his way through all the paperwork.
He got his surgery in Nov. 2008, and it’s been a slow dance back to his performing days.
“I am a performer, and I like to put on a show for the people,” Colvin said. “Now, I have to sit.”
Colvin said while his wheelchair-bound years are over, his recovery isn’t. He said he can walk now but doesn’t “have his swag back.”
He does, though, have his groove back, and Sterlin and Shuvette are ready to put on a show as a tribute to all the help they received during this tumultuous time in their lives. The show, dubbed “The Hilton Head Honors,” will honor Malchak along with Dr. Joseph Hickey of the Hickey Wellness Center and Pastor Michael Carr of Central Church of Hilton Head Island.
Joining Sterlin and Shuvette onstage will be screen legend Judy Roland and local stars such as Reggie Deaz, Bobby Ryder, Bob Masteller, Ken Cox and the Praise Team of Central Church. Colvin said he and his musical counterparts will try to bring down the house to raise money for Volunteers in Medicine, Deep Well and Bluffton Self Help.
“If I were any other place in the world, I would probably still be in a wheelchair,” Colvin said. “What happened to me can happen to anyone... . I want to continue blessing others as people in these organizations have blessed me.”
Mark your calendars for March 6 at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina from 8 – 10 p.m. Tickets are $75 and are available through the Arts Center’s box office.
Photo by Rob Kaufman
