Looking back to 1995 when The Goodies moved from Atlanta to Asheville, frontman Holiday Childress recalls a time of cheap rent, three restaurants and just as many bands. The first local entertainers to explore vaudeville and cabaret rock, the group made its mark on a slowly rejuvenating town. In the process, the band’s lead guitarist and vocalist […]
Back in the day — 2005, to be precise — Josh “J2K” Young and Curt “Autobot” Cameruci began DJing parties under the name Flosstradamus. Armed with four turntables and two mixers, they packed out a tiny Grateful Dead bar in the Boystown neighborhood of Chicago with genre-blending, mash-up heavy sets. In the subsequent decade, the […]
When eight years passes between a musician’s albums, it’s natural to wonder what he’s been up to during that time. For Asheville songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chris Rosser, however, it’s almost easier to diagram what he hasn’t been doing. On top of steady solo gigs and collaborations, Rosser has stayed busy with percussionist River Guerguerian and […]
Two local buyers clubs have launched in the Asheville metro area with an eye to helping small businesses, families and individuals. For both, the initiatives are about community building. For over 20 years, Vickilynn Haycraft has ordered quality bulk and natural foods from Azure Standard, a Dufur, Ore.-based company that gives her an alternative to traditional grocery […]
By all accounts, husband-and-wife duo Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion are happy in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, their home since moving from Columbia, S.C. The two draw songwriting inspiration from the area’s major seasonal changes and the ghosts of Henry David Thoreau and Robert Frost. But they do occasionally miss aspects of the South.
Steve “Big Daddy” McMurry has plenty to be thankful for this year. High on the list for the Acoustic Syndicate singer/guitarist are his wife, Jerrianne, his family and his Cleveland County farm, in which he and his cousin/bandmate Bryon McMurry (banjo, electric guitar) are partners. And then there are Acoustic Syndicate’s loyal fans, without whom […]
In writing music for families or adults, as a solo artist or with his band, Billy Jonas keeps a certain set of queries in mind: “Why is the world the way that it is? What can I or anybody do to move it in a beautiful direction or to help it change? How can we […]
Were it not for a roving pack of wild Mexican dogs terrorizing the cats, chickens and goats outside Waynesville, one of Asheville’s premier sketch comedy troupes would have been called either Kumquat or Footskin Follies. Instead, Tommy Calloway overheard a friend’s account of these strange savage attacks and promptly dubbed his group The Feral Chihuahuas. […]
Throughout his years of restaurant work, Dan Sobalsky saw the advantage of plating each dish. Carefully arranging the components for optimal presentation, when the food went out to the customer, there was no question how it would look. Now as the food service director at Katuah Market, that control is out of his hands in […]
The New Pornographers’ Together was one of 2010’s standout albums, but compared with Vampire Weekend’s Contra, Sufjan Stevens’ The Age of Adz and Broken Bells’ self-titled debut — all of which successfully incorporated electronic elements into their creators’ indie sounds — its string-aided rock was a bit of an outlier. Four years later, arpeggiators and […]
Southern rock is alive and well. And to make sure it stays that way, The Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman, Joan Osborne (best known for her hit song “One of Us”) and Jackie Greene (Weir, Robinson & Greene Acoustic Trio; Phil Lesh & Friends; Jackie Greene Band) joined forces to form Trigger Hippy. The power-packed […]
By now, Jim Klingel is accustomed to the misconceptions that the name Oyster House Brewing Co. yields. On a regular basis, the restaurant’s chef hears that his brother Billy’s brewpub is owned by The Lobster Trap (it’s not, though its roots began there), that all of the beers are made with oysters (only the stouts […]
A curious cartoon by Charles Addams appeared in The New Yorker on April 6, 1938. In the single-panel drawing, a witchy woman in a low-cut, Gothic black dress and a tall butler resembling a Cro-Magnon man listened to a traveling vacuum salesman’s pitch in a crumbling, cobwebbed house. Over the years, Addams grew the cast […]
Blue Ridge Pride’s Yvonne Cook-Riley estimates that 35-40 percent of attendees at Pack Square Park for the organization’s festival on Saturday, Oct. 4, will be straight allies. That is, people who identify as heterosexual but back their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning friends and family. What accounts for such strong support of […]
The past year has been an especially successful one for the Asheville Area Arts Council. In addition to receiving record funding from the city of Asheville and Buncombe County, the AAAC was assigned the county’s disseminator of arts programming funds through the state’s Grassroots Arts Program, helping to further its mission as the collective local […]
Three of hip-hop culture’s four pillars — MCing, DJing and graffiti writing — are alive and well in Asheville. As for B-boying, while it has flourished in Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and even Fayetteville, the fourth pillar is largely absent on the local scene. “It just hasn’t soaked in so much,” says Brett Rock, a local […]
For the follow-up to their 2013 EP, Shake, the members of Asheville’s The Get Right Band knew their goals were bigger than what their checking accounts would allow. “Our vision for the record was to do something big, something bold and powerful and unique,” says guitarist/vocalist Silas Durocher. “We felt like the songs we had […]
A label-defying spirit will be in full effect Friday, Aug. 29, at Isis Restaurant & Music Hall with the celebration of new albums by The Secret B-Sides, Reed, HoveyKraft and Slo_Gold. All four acts will perform original sets, as will legendary singer Sidney Barnes.
As Sunday, Aug. 24, approaches, don’t be alarmed if you see two people at Pack Square Park taking tape measures to sidewalks and other structures. It’s just Big Love Festival co-organizers Brandy Bourne and Justin Rabuck ensuring that their event is meeting safety and venue guidelines. Now in its fourth year, Big Love evolved out of […]
A half-century into his musical career, Baby Gramps has plenty of highlights from which to choose. Ask him to name a few, however, and he points to a pair of recent opportunities that arose from his inclusion the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest companion album Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys. Gramps’ […]
Wondering what comedic qualities make the best fit for the Asheville audience? Los Angeles television developer and live event businessman Charlie Gerencer has the answer. “We do our best to find famous comedians who also play a banjo, brew their own beer and build furniture out of sticks from the woods while waiting for their […]
