Not too long ago, eco-minded attire consisted of shapeless pieces of clothing in uninspired shades of clay, putty and oatmeal. To the fashion conscious, earth-friendly clothes held all the appeal of a gunnysack (and not in the sense of Jessica McClintock’s Gunne Sax collection). Hat trick: Reversible wool cap ($55-$150) by Oosss Designs. Luckily, as […]

There’s a small town nestled somewhere in the mountains that’s known for its pristine forests, its great skiing and its charming culture. The town’s web site proudly proclaims it to be a great place to escape the heat in the summer, and it’s easy to imagine the smiling face of Mayor Terry Bellamy overlooking a […]

If you like art museums with gimmicky or trendy exhibitions, this is not a good time to go to the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University. There are three exhibitions on display, and all offer serious examples of artistic achievement. Norm Schulman’s “The Ruler,” an engobepainted work in salt-glazed porcelain from 1985. The main […]

In a time when the music festival has turned into big business, the Flat Rock Music Festival has slowly but surely built its name around a casual, front-porch feel. For the past 12 years, the festival has built a reputation of providing some of the best music around, with beards and down-home attitudes included at […]

It’s possible that Asheville-based singer/songwriter Eliza Lynn took the lyric “good things come to those who wait, not to those who wait too late, we got to go for all we know” to heart. Not that her sometimes gritty, sometimes sweet songs bear much resemblance to those of Bill Withers (except for the surprising soul […]

In the topsy-turvy world of rock ‘n’ roll there is little room for peace. For every peace-love-dope-laden refrain of “Smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love somebody right now” there is a Johnny Rotten spewing “Destroy” into the microphone. Long ago, the leaders of record labels realized that nihilism and manufactured anger […]

The 11th annual Great Smokies Craft Brewers Brewgrass Festival returns to its original location at Martin Luther King Jr. Park this Saturday, and you and 3,499 of your beer-loving friends are invited. The brains behind the brews: Doug Beatty, originator and organizer of the Brewgrass Festival, in the upstairs bar of Barley’s Taproom. Beatty recently […]

“People always ask things like, ‘How did you meet?’” says Simone Pace, speaking on the phone with Xpress from his home in Brooklyn. “But that was so long ago, you know, who cares?” (Non)blonde on (non)blonde: Fitting name or not, Blonde Redhead have spent the last dozen years crafting a sound that’s all their own. […]

If variety is the spice of life, the Upstairs Artspace in Tryon has, as Emeril would say, “kicked it up a notch” with three exhibitions, each containing very different kinds of art. The shows have long, descriptive titles, but the work is not the least bit tedious. Don’t Fake Chicken Blood by Margie Labadie. The […]

• A big congratulations to DeWayne Barton for his win at the 22nd annual Indoor/Outdoor Sculpture Celebration exhibition in Broyhill Park in Lenoir earlier this month. His “Sleeping Justice” took the Caldwell Arts Council Merit Award and a $2,000 prize. • If you didn’t live in Asheville in the 1980s, you can get an overview […]