Though the cover of Tyler Ramsey's third solo album features a single deer on a lonely outcropping (the image was taken by Band of Horses' photographer Christopher Wilson in a park in Montana), birds are the fauna that most inhabit this collection of songs. "I kept seeing crows in my backyard," says local singer/songwriter Ramsey, […]

Josh Ritter is no stranger to war — at least as subject matter. He wrote "Girl In The War" on the 2006 album The Animal Years; the song "The Temptation of Adam" is set in the Army on 2007's The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. And it was a song idea that couldn't fit onto […]

Pride in Asheville — we're not talking your run-of-the-mill civic pride (which is great too), but LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning), Pride — has evolved over the years. There were colorful parades, performers in Pritchard Park, countless parties and after-parties. Last year's gathering on Lexington Avenue was a well-attended and celebratory affair with […]

"My brother where do you intend to go tonight? I heard that you missed your connecting flight, to the Blue Ridge Mountains, over near Tennessee." So begins the song "Blue Ridge Mountains" from Fleet Foxes' 2008 self-titled debut. The song is set close to Asheville, and while singer/songwriter/Fleet Foxes-frontman Robin Pecknold doesn't like to discuss […]