Let's go ahead and get the obligatory bio out of the way: Justin Townes Earle is the son of notorious country-rock bad boy Steve Earle, named for his father's mentor, iconic cult songwriter Townes Van Zandt. And while that makes for a good story, Earle's music speaks for itself. Understated, sincere and timeless, his ultra-traditional […]

By now, anyone who's been to a Monotonix show — or has at least heard the lore — is familiar with the scene that ensues when the band hits the stage. For the Tel Aviv trio, now on its umpteenth visit to the states since 2006, "hitting the stage" is a bit of a misnomer […]

Redefining notions of the singular artist The drawings and paintings that comprise Lisa Nance's solo show, Hanging Caverns and Plants, are the deconstructed forms, contours and characters for which Nance is known. Using thrift-store finds and re-salvaged materials, Nance challenges traditional forms of the painting by working over popular art reproductions or constructing frames out […]

At a recent show at Club 828, A.D. (Akamai Drone) performed a set of arena-worthy electro-industrial art-rock that far outmatched the small crowd lucky enough to bear witness. The brainchild of local musician/singer/producer extraordinaire Christian Imes (formerly a member of oddSTAR), the band has been operating under the local radar for a couple years now, […]

Fusing elements of vaudeville, theater, dance, music and spoken-word poetry, the Asheville Fringe Festival is an all-you-can-experience buffet of strange and stimulating performance art. Featuring living art installations, soundscapes and singing puppeteers, the festival's only uniting element is the testing and exploration of boundaries. Come get the Fringe party started Come celebrate the wildness of […]

In the battle to stop mountaintop removal in Appalachia, Grammy Award-winning singer Kathy Mattea is firmly entrenched in the center of the dialogue. Answering the call: While "singing is like breathing," the challenges of advocacy and activism are "much more involved," says Mattea. Photo by James Minchin. "I'm living in the question of how we […]

Jill Andrews, formerly the female voice of melancholy folk-country outfit The Everybodyfields, recently opened for Willie Nelson at Knoxville's Tennessee Theatre. "I did that for the experience, but mostly just so I could see Willie Nelson," she admits. One is not the loneliest number: Jill Andrews comes into her own. Of the venue itself Andrews […]

It would be Django Reinhardt's 100th birthday on Saturday, Jan. 23. To celebrate the life of the jazz great, a group of local musicians who've been supremely inspired by him are having a show. Members of the Django-esque group One Leg Up will host the event, the always ebullient Firecracker Jazz Band will perform, and […]