These days we like to do it ourselves. At Country Workshops, a school for traditional woodworking in Madison County, you can do just that. Edged against a forest of tulip poplar, oak and maple, Drew and Louise Langsner’s 100-acre homestead provides respite from the busy world, and a place to experience “slow craft” at its […]

“I haven't shown it to my father yet,” director David Kabler tells Xpress. “I don't want to upset my father, because it's definitely a story about fathers.” A dark fantasy: The film is part gory horror flick, part art film, part Grimm’s fairy tale and part allegory. The story in question is Wanderlost, Kabler's recently […]

"This could really be a Ricky Skaggs odyssey," the musician tells Xpress by phone. Skaggs (who started his career as an elementary-schooler when bluegrass legend Bill Monroe called him up on stage and placed his own mandolin around Skaggs' neck) could classify most of his half-century in music as an odyssey. He was still a […]

When Freddy Cole sits down at the piano, he carries listeners away with the story of his song. Whether it’s one person on his piano bench or 3,000 listeners at a festival, he’s got a tale to spin with his smoky baritone voice and deft fingers. While he never had the pop stardom of his […]

The Suspect:  Tommy Emmanuel Born in 1955, this Australian guitarist has been playing professionally since the age of nine. As a child, he heard Chet Atkins on the radio. “Travis picking,” that is, playing bass with the thumb and melody parts with the first two or three fingers at the same time, became the basis […]

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Monday, September 6 with a free concert in Pack Square Park.