Next we were movin’ on

Asheville is a town of steel-drum jam jazz, dirty-tonk and “Appalachian chamber music.” (Try searching those ones on iTunes.) In fact, Asheville has embraced its eclecticism to the point of eschewing anything smacking of Top 40. Duking it out for Asheville audiences: Indie pop diva and stephaniesid frontwoman Stephanie Morgan and alt-country roots-rocker Brian McGee […]

Green thumb

Usually it’s the main band that makes it big while the side projects soldier on in the wings, an outlet for more out-there inclinations. Usually a band with multiple leaders either implodes (Fleetwood Mac) or splits (Uncle Tupelo into Son Volt/Wilco). Usually once a band manages any sort of national recognition it’s too busy being […]

SoundTrack

How many artists, besides the late Johnny Cash, open with a prison song? Roots and blues musician Woody Pines probably found himself in an exclusive club when he started off a recent Orange Peel set with the song “99 Years.” The thing about Pines (whose band borrows its front man’s stage name) is that he’s […]

Welcome to A&E

Prodigies of cool: Teen sensations Skinny Legs and All. There have always been upstarts, like high school kid-turned-Rolling Stone-writer Cameron Crowe, and skatepunk-turned-bluesman Jonny Lang. Asheville’s answer to those prodigies of cool has to be Skinny Legs and All. The quintet, ages 12-17, started as a music club at Evergreen Community Charter School. But these […]

Larger than life

“Each project is like an expedition,” says Christo. “This is why it’s so exciting.” Really, every aspect of the shared life of husband and wife artist team Christo and Jeanne-Claude reads like an adventure, from their identical birthdates to their fated meeting (Christo was hired to paint a portrait of Jeanne-Claude’s mother). Artists Jeanne-Claude and […]