Play, listen, learn

LEAF highlights and info Friday • Papa Grows Funk, 6:30-7:45 p.m., Lakeside stage • Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, 8-9 p.m., Roots Family stage • Ben Sollee, 8-9:30 p.m., the Barn • Mavis Staples, 8:30-10 p.m., Lakeside stage • Orgone, 10:45 p.m.-12:15 a.m., Lakeside stage • DJ Molly Parti, 1-1:45 a.m., Eden Hall Saturday • The Mean Lids contra dance with caller Diane […]

Photos: Moog’s Ice Cream Social

Moog Music hosted an ice cream social — complete with the local band Ice Cream — at their factory on Broadway Wednesday night to celebrate Bob Moog’s induction to the Inventor’s Hall of Fame. With ice cream made to Moog specs by The Hop and free beer from Pisgah Brewing, the event drew a crowd which filled the manufacturer’s retail space.

Smart Bets: Wallflower­s

Is it a coincidence that Jakob Dylan's band, The Wallflowers, plays The Orange Peel the day after his father plays The U.S. Cellular Center? Probably. The important point here is the Wallflowers are not only back in Asheville, but back in general, following a seven-year break. Last fall, they released Glad All Over, with which […]

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo Secret Agent 23 Skidoo is a Grammy award-winning "kid-hop" artist, former Asheville resident and longtime advocate for children's music education. He's also a celebrated adult performer and founding member of the famed Asheville collective GFE. Last year, Skidoo relocated to the West Coast where he currently lives with his wife and […]

Downtown After Five timeline

1988 — DTA5 begins as Moonlight Over Downtown 1989 — First Moonlight Over Downtown 5K occurs through downtown parking garages 1991 — Bela Fleck and the Flecktones kicks off the DTA5 season; are still the top attended concert with nearly 10,000 1992 — DTA5 settles moves to the former Pack Square (around the Vance Monument) […]

Dancing in the streets

2013 Downtown After 5 Schedule All concerts take place on the third Friday of the month, on North Lexington Avenue (between Hiawassee and the I-240 overpass). 5-9 p.m., free. Charitable organizations that benefit from the proceeds of wristband sales are listed for each month, below. May 17: Big Sam’s Funky Nation (new Orleans funk) with […]

So much to do in the world

Listening to Snake Oil Medicine Show now, about 19 years into the band’s career, it seems inevitable that the group would have landed in Asheville. Founded when the once-married Caroline Pond (fiddle) and George Pond (guitar) joined George’s brother, Andy Pond (banjo) in Boone where he was enrolled at Appalachian State University, Snake Oil coined […]

Smart Bets: Wordfest

“April is the cruelest month for poetry,” Charles Berstein wrote in his essay/polemic, “Against National Poetry Month As Such.” “National Poetry Month is about making poetry safe for readers by promoting examples of the art form at its most bland and its most morally ‘positive.’” Asheville Wordfest, started in 2007 by Laura Hope-Gill, was not […]

Celebratin­g art and each other

Spring is blooming, and that means event season is kicking off. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the smaller-town art events that offer further incentive to explore the region’s art communities.  Black Mountain and parts East: Blue to Black Art Weekend May 2-5 (also Oct. 11-13) Thursday night opens a weekend combining a walking […]

Two beat up drums and two old guitars

The past year has been a busy one for Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst. The husband-and-wife duo released O' Be Joyful to great reception from an eager fanbase. Relentless touring has helped propel their single, "Birmingham." Appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman and opening for Dave Matthews Band, Jack White and Dawes […]

Smart Bets: Tedeschi-Trucks Band

It seems like blues-rock mega-outfit Tedeschi-Trucks Band, 11 members strong, must have played in Asheville before. And, in a way they have. Husband and wife duo Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi have, between them, made appearances at Bele Chere, Christmas Jam and various venues (dating back to when Trucks was a teen). But they've never […]

Smart Bets: Leon Redbone

"Though Leon Redbone's iconic guise of white fedora, jacket and sunglasses has been thoroughly satirized (anybody remember the “Leon Redbone workout” Far Side cartoon?), it’s easy to overlook what a genuinely gifted artist he remains — a role he inevitably tries to downplay," says press for Redbone's Saturday, May performance at The Altamont Theatre. The […]

Smart Bets: Brown Bird at Isis

One reviewer described Rhode Island-based Brown Bird as "‘30s-era Ellington flirting with Cuban and Middle Eastern tropes in a proverbially dusty middle-America barn." The duo is David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, and their newly-released album, Fits of Reason is a continuation of the band's quest for innovation paired with literary savvy and esoteric musings. Brown […]

State of the Arts

L.A.A.F.F. — Love Asheville Arts and Fun Festival. Though the event will stay on the eclectic thoroughfare that gave LAAFF its original name, “Lexington Avenue” has been officially dropped from the festival’s title. Once a fundraiser for the nonprofit Arts2People and its programs, the festival lost enough money last fall to put its future in […]