“I’ve had enough of being a backup musician,” declared Tyler Ramsey — everyone’s favorite backup musician — during a recent interview. Which is not to say that the award-winning multi-instrumentalist won’t still sit in with friends or jump on board a promising project. But these days, Ramsey is ready to make his own material a […]
Author: Alli Marshall
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Portrait of the artist as a rebel
“In classical ballet, in Swan Lake, when you see the swan, you see a woman,” Nelson Reyes mused during a recent interview. “I’m thinking: Why? Why no men?” The Cuban-born dancer pauses, then takes a leap: “I think Frida [was] thinking the same way.” Reyes is guessing the mind of the once-obscure, now pop-pasteurized late […]
Give ‘em the (Free) Bird
“Creative people struggle with demons, and try to deal with them on certain levels,” suggests Mark Kemp, author of the just-published rock ‘n’ roll memoir Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race and New Beginnings in a New South. “Based on conversations I’ve had with musicians, alcoholics, drug addicts and recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, […]
Tales from the cryptic
“When I think of the 1980s, when I think of skinny ties and big hair, when I think of many, many sweatbands and teal pants with white drawstrings, I think of Queen.” So writes Daniel Nester, author and diehard fan, in his new book God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On (Soft […]
Attack on high fashion
“There’s something very fashionista, very dry and cold, about the fashion world,” muses R. Brooke Priddy. And no matter what Calvin Klein, Vera Wang — or even “friendlier” designers like Betsey Johnson — would have you believe (and buy), that’s not a good thing. “Paul [Olszewski], Kelledy [Francis] and I are repelled by that,” Priddy […]
Letting their freak flags fly
“The loonies are in Asheville now,” declares Kitty Love. “We need to give them a reason to stay.” Putting it in slightly more eloquent terms, the co-founder of the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival notes that the annual event “will help to stimulate and propagate the kind of culture we would enjoy living in.” […]
Making great strides
Zohar Israel not only trains young musicians and dancers, he hires them to perform in his troupe — which will be putting in an appearance at this year’s Goombay! Festival. “I’m the one healing the wounds,” said the director of the New Orleans-based Free Spirit African Drummers, Dancers and Stilt Walkers in a recent interview. […]
Round and round (and round)
The Redundant Theatre Company Theatre may be repetitive in name, but the local group can surely claim first rights for its original concept. “The name is a joke because people keep saying there’s already too much theater in this town,” explains Willie Repoley, co-creator of the company, which is on the verge of staging its […]
Junkyard demagogues
On the official Web site of Ming + FS, you’ll find a prominently displayed link for a national youth-voting campaign — and that sort of thing is pretty common these days. But the quadruple-turntable-toting duo also promises that if you enroll as a Democrat, you’re entitled to a hug from the musicians, redeemable at any […]
Where the beef isn’t
OK, I admit it: I’m not the best person to tell anyone which locally made veggie burger could convert a carnivore, because I’ve never been a meat eater (though I do know all the words to that 1980s-era Whopper theme song). So you quarter-pounder fanatics can do what you like, but keep this in mind: […]
Don’t tell her how to feel
No matter how vast the range of country artists — and there’s a great deal of variety here, from the driving snarl of early Johnny Cash to the friendly, folksy bar banter of KT Oslin; from the heart-wrenching twang of Patsy Cline to the pop-savvy trill of Shania Twain — they always seem to meet […]
Hoop dreams—and demons
The nasty word “rape” has a way of permanently attaching itself to all who come in contact with the act it describes. Yet sports stars, buoyed by a fame that often includes a bubble of bad-boy charisma, seem magically able to dodge its taint. Accused rapist and L.A. Lakers celebrity Kobe Bryant is, of course, […]
Valley of the dolls
“When I was a kid, I made a puppet show with my Raggedy Andy doll,” reveals Chicago-based theater director Blair Thomas. “There wasn’t a movie theater or anything in the town I grew up in,” he slyly adds. To be fair, most kids pick up a puppet at some point, no matter where they happen […]
Getting Punchy
Who can talk about puppetry for any age group without drifting to that most delightfully acerbic of all marionettes, that comical ne’er-do-well Punch? Not that the hook-nosed buffoon has ever, by any means, offered “family-friendly” entertainment. In fact, with his spew of curses, Punch surely embodies an early foray into adult entertainment, especially when joined […]
Rebels without a recipe
Introducing tourists to authentic New Orleans cooking probably makes downtown restaurateur Chris Jones pretty happy. However: “If we have Vassar Clements jamming on a Parliament tune by the end of the [BlueBrass finale show], I’ll be really happy!” declares the Thibodaux Jones Creole Kitchen co-owner and head instigator of the BlueBrass Project. Veteran fiddler Clements […]
Fooling around with folk
Ceramic artist Liz Sparks, one of the artists-in-residence at the Energy Xchange in Burnsville, is also a newly appointed member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. “To me, folk pottery is what’s made in Seagrove,” she continued during a recent interview. Seagrove, the North Carolina piedmont town famous for its large population of potters, is […]
The feet of nations
Attending Folkmoot USA is like getting to tour the globe without fear of jet lag or parasitic giardia. It’s like Walt Disney’s dream for the “It’s a Small World” theme ride — only with way more authenticity. Now in its 21st season, Folkmoot — the Waynesville-based international-dance event — is still striving to bring the […]
Lives of the rich and fictitious
“He’d had affairs with Bianca Jagger, the princess of Savoia and some runway model turned singer named Annie Lennox,” announces name-dropper Lucia Sanchez, a character in Valerie Ann Leff’s debut novel. Leff, a local writer, set her Better Homes and Husbands in New York’s Upper East Side, at fictional 980 Park Ave. — a pre-war […]
Swimming against the current
In 1956, two years after Brown v. Board of Education had helped launch the postwar civil-rights movement, Eleanor Roosevelt agreed to speak in Western North Carolina — but only if she could address a racially mixed audience. The venue for the former First Lady’s talk was the Asheville YWCA — an emerging leader in the […]
Which Y?
They share three letters in common — three words, in fact — “Young,” “Christian” and “Association.” They each have a gym, a pool and an after-school program. Even their fees are pretty comparable ($58 a month for a family membership at the YM, $50 at the YW). But their mission statements move in decidedly different […]
Not so obvious
“You can ask any old friend of mine: I’m a f••ing comedian, a fun guy, and that’s what most people thought I’d become; not Old Misery Guts,” British singer/songwriter Beth Orton recently confessed to Believer magazine. It’s true that every interviewer claims the 6-foot-tall musician is almost punchy, always cracking jokes and telling crazy stories. […]