Beer Scout can’t cover every event in print, so here’s a handy guide to some upcoming beer- and cider-related happenings. Want your event listed here? Email beer@mountainx.com with your upcoming events, bottle releases and new taps.
Smart bets: Pokey LaFarge
Nashville duo Escondido opens for LaFarge at the Grey Eagle on Friday, Sept. 18, at 9 p.m.
Justin Ray shares first DVD and vocal album at The Altamont Theatre
Justin Ray performs a diverse two-set offering Friday, Sept. 18 at The Altamont Theatre. The evening begins with Ray’s half-hour-long ensemble jazz composition, “Casanova and Cleopatra,” which hasn’t been performed live in nearly three years. The show also serves as a release of the album Evil Man Blues, Ray’s first foray into vocals.
Smart bets: Earphunk
Earphunk’s May The Phunk Be With You tour, which also features performances by The Main Squeeze, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe and Modern Measure, stops at New Mountain Asheville on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 6-11 p.m.
The Lone Bellow makes its Orange Peel debut
Less than eight months after the release of the band’s acclaimed Aaron Dessner-produced album, The Lone Bellow plays Sunday, Sept. 20, at The Orange Peel.
Asheville emcee Sk, the Novelist calls for social change in new single “Ugly Jazz”
Local rapper John Wilson, known as Sk, the Novelist onstage, calls Asheville’s hip hop community “loaded with talent” and hopes that his work — including recent single “Ugly Jazz” — will help lead to more national recognition of the scene.
Smart bets: The Suffers
Local band Holy Ghost Tent Revival opens for the Suffers at Downtown After 5 — a free street festival held on Lexington Avenue — on Friday, Sept. 18, at 5 p.m.
Smart bets: Thomas Wolfe mystery dinner theater
Lex 18 hosts an immersive historical dinner experience featuring Thomas Wolfe and other period characters on Sunday, Sept. 20.
Faces in the crowd: WNC crowdfunding initiatives
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features the second edition of Appalachian Trail-inspired board game Thru Hike plus nonprofit literary press Orison Books’ fundraising efforts for three new spiritually-inclined books.
Five (or more) questions with Eilen Jewell
Singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell grew up in Boise but lived in Santa Fe, L.A. and Boston, and toured the Canada, Europe and Australia before settling back in Idaho. Her new album, Sundown Over Ghost Town, was largely inspired by that return. Jewell and her band play The Grey Eagle on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
Acoustic Asheville: Bobby Long
The latest edition of Acoustic Asheville features New York-based singer-songwriter Bobby Long, who was at The Grey Eagle recently to promote his latest record, Ode to Thinking. Long played two songs exclusively for Xpress including the title track.
Theater review: “Art” by Actor’s Center of Asheville
The Actor’s Center of Asheville make a stunning debut with the Tony-winning play, Art, by Yasmina Reza, onstage at 35 Below. It was a smash hit in the late 1990s, attracting major stars like Alfred Molina, Victor Garber, Alan Alda, Stacey Keach, Judd Hirsch, George Wendt and others to play the three male friends whose lives are changed when one of them buys an expensive work of modern art.
Smart bets: Callaghan
Nashville-by-way-of-Atlanta-by-way-of-London singer-songwriter Callaghan returns to The Altamont Theatre on Friday, Sept. 11.
Watkins Family Hour takes its casual, intimate vibe on tour
Sean and Sara Watkins, the brother-and-sister duo who rose to fame as youngsters in acoustic trio Nickel Creek, alongside virtuoso mandolin player Chris Thile, started the Watkins Family Hour as a monthly residency in Los Angeles over a decade ago. It was a way to play music in an informal setting. That show comes to The Grey Eagle for two nights, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11 and 12.
Smart bets: Jim Bizer and Jan Krist
The duo opens Mountain Spirit Coffehouse’s eleventh season at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 7 p.m.
The Revelers bring eclectic, danceable Louisiana music back to Asheville
Less genre-specific than the bands out of which it rose, The Revelers fold healthy amounts of country, rock ‘n’ roll, blues, and Western swing into their Cajun musical stew. The band hopes that people will move tables out of the way and dance show off their moves at the Isis Restaurant and Music Hall Friday, Sept. 11.
Fruit Bats return with new songs, new tour
Eric D. Johnson was last in Asheville just about a year ago — performing as EDJ, in support of his solo album of the same name — as part of Harvest Records’ Transfigurations II festival lineup. He and the regrouped Fruit Bats take the stage at The Mothlight on Friday, Sept. 11, as part of a mini-Southeast tour shoehorned in between an appearance at Savannah, Ga.’s Revival Fest and a string of West Coast dates opening for My Morning Jacket.
Theater review: “The Shape of Things” by Different Strokes
Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective’s daring new show — Neil Labute’s The Shape Of Things — is made all the more stunning by the innovation of two different casts of actors taking on the same script.
Smart bets: Back South
Back South’s danceable, Appalachian-crafted and blues-inspired rock set takes place at the Bywater on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 5 p.m.
Asheville native Chance the Artist headlines Goombay’s Sunday gospel celebration
Gospel-rapper Chance the Artist, an Asheville native currently based in Atlanta, headlines the Goombay on Sunday, Sept. 13. After turning his life around an devoting himself to positive rhymes, Chance finds himself on the cusp of some potentially major turning points, including the forthcoming debut of an official website, a DJ to enhance his live shows and a team to assist him on the business side.
Smart bets: Peggy Ratusz covering Bonnie Raitt
Isis Restaurant and Music Hall hosts the soul and blues cover show on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 9 p.m.