In this roundup, there are two touring acts — one of that writes and plays classic guitar pop, another creating modern psych-folk — and two local acts, one serving up glam rock, the other featuring a woman who plays the spoons. Who says Asheville doesn’t have it all?
The Downtown Marshall Association and the Tourism Development Authority of Madison County are calling all to sport their best pirate, mermaid or sea creature costumes and attend the eighth annual Mermaids in Marshall festival today, June 5.
Each month concert photographer David Simchock of music news and reviews blog Front Row Focus shares some of his favorite images, captured on stages in and around Asheville.
Irene “Jenny” Pickens is a mother, a city employee and an Asheville artist looking to inspire.
The final installment of this season’s West End Reading Series is set for Saturday, June 13, at 7 p.m. The prose and poetry readings are held (and the event’s name hints) at the West End Bakery and feature storyteller David Novak, poets Katherine Soniat and Luke Hankins and series hostess and curator Lockie Hunter.
American Folk hosts an exhibit of folk-art pieces utilizing the polka dot from Thursday, June 4, at 10 a.m. through Wednesday, June 24, with an opening reception on Friday, June 5
The three players of Haas Kowert Tice met at various music festivals as college students and found they liked jamming and hanging out. The friendship endured even as they moved in various directions careerwise. Bassist Paul Kowert now plays with The Punch Brothers, fiddler Brittany Haas with Crooked Still and guitarist Jordan Tice with Tony Trischka. Reconvening in Nashville, and sharing equally in the creation of new material, “everything comes off of our individual instruments more,” says Tice.
The exhibit by mother-and-son artists Cher Shaffer and Gabriel Shaffer runs through Sunday, July 12 at The Satellite Gallery, with an opening on Friday, June 5, 7-9 p.m.
The Growlers perform in support of its 2014 album, Chinese Fountain, at New Mountain on Wednesday, June 10 with opening acts Broncho and The Nude Party.
In her landmark 1955 book, The French Broad, Asheville author Wilma Dykeman said the river was “above all, a region of life, with all the richness and paradox of life.” She described a watershed rich in flora and fauna, ranging from the “fertile fields and gentle fall” through Transylvania and Henderson counties to the sudden “plunge between steep mountains” around Asheville, “strewn with jagged boulders.”
Thanks to leaders like Kiran Sirah, even the originally tradition-heavy International Storytelling Festival is Jonesborough, Tenn. is moving to include slam poetry and buskers. The modern iteration of the age-old artform, an important part of Western North Carolina’s heritage, includes story slams and open mic nights.
Find storytelling classes, performances, workshops, gatherings and retreats in and around Western North Carolina.
Storytellers, an exhibition at upstairs [artspace] in Tryon, features narrative paintings by Arden B. Cone, Margaret Curtis, Dawn Hunter and Anna Jensen.
As a title, It’s About Time — Ruby Velle & the Soulphonic’s 2012 debut — is polysemantic: an announcement of the band as a sharp young voice and an acknowledgement of good timing.
The party, with eats by Pho Ya Belly food truck, kicks off at The Bywater on Friday, June 5, with feisty rock band Red Honey starting at 9 p.m. and DJ Biig Poppa taking over at 11 p.m.
Michael Kane Studio is where Kane creates his clothes by using the Japanese dyeing technique Shibori, a method of binding and/or stitching a fabric so that the restricted areas absorb the dye to make irregular patterns and shapes.
Crowdfunding platforms make it possible for individuals and organizations of any size to harness social networks and raise startup capital for projects that might otherwise fail due to lack of funding. Each week, Xpress highlights notable Western North Carolina crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd.
“This Brooklyn-based duo by way of Tel Aviv Israel and Melbourne Australia are the coalescence of rock without guitars and pop without synthesizers,” says the bio for Hank & Cupcakes.
If Tarocco lacks in story, it overwhelms in sensory stimulation. There is color and light and music – and truly staggering accomplishments of mechanical know-how and finely trained muscles. Tarocco is, above all else, a visual feast.
Low Cut Connie returns to Asheville on Thursday, June 4, for a show at Tiger Mountain. The band — Adam Weiner and Daniel Finnemore (from New Jersey and Birmingham, U.K., respectively) — is currently on tour in support of Hi Honey.
While musicians with alter egos are nothing new, a full-band alter ego is. We’re not talking stage names here, but rather a made-up booking agent: “He’s British. He wears a three-piece suit. He wears a monocle.”
