“All the people [in film school] were assholes.” There are a few things you should know about Asheville filmmaker Rod Murphy: He’s pale. He’s funny. He’s loud. He was born in Boston, raised in Southbridge, and thinks Grady Little should have pulled the hook on Pedro Martinez in Game 7. He loves Asheville. He hates […]

“We haven’t done anything to promote the [group] except to tell our friends,” insists drummer Bill Smith, founder of Asheville’s Firecracker Jazz Band. “We haven’t called club owners to book gigs — they’ve called us.” Smith is just as surprised by his band’s sudden popularity as is anyone. He’s also quite grateful, as are Firecracker’s […]

The large painting now in Blue Spiral 1’s front window sings into the street, its lyrical colors flowing with vibrant energy. The painting is something of a window itself into the life of its intriguing creator, an example of a lifelong dream made manifest. “Joyance,” an abstract, is the work of Mary Charles Griffin, who […]

The urge to step inside another band’s skin is far more than a local phenomenon, of course. Quite a few groups nationwide have made successful careers not just in choosing a set list heavy on “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” but by immersing themselves into some star group’s whole gestalt, from vocal inflections […]

The Andrews Sisters never sang about getting a Brazilian wax. Sure, they urged us to not sit under the apple tree with anyone else but them, and they put the boogie-woogie to that cute bugle boy from Company C. Yet the wartime sibling warblers never once mentioned that saucy South American salon technique — where […]

Listen up, girls. Whether you’re single or “involved” with Mr./Ms. Right — or with a random Mr./Ms. Right Now — the following titles are sure to put a little fizzle in your snizzle. Read on! • How to Be Popular, by Jennifer McKnight-Trontz. Get into the swim, cat! Some of these tips from the 1960s […]

I was introduced to the subdudes by my childhood friend Josh in 1990 — the year he discovered he was dying. The band had just released their self-titled debut album on Atlantic Records, and we played it over and over in our tiny apartment on San Francisco’s Haight Street. More than the specific songs, I […]

In the dried-up summer of ’78, I sat in a chilly three-screen theater in a baking Carolina town, peering up wolfishly at Olivia Newton-John’s modest backside contoured in skin-tight, shiny-black leather. My companion, also then age 12, resoundingly agreed that the petite, doe-eyed Aussie pop singer was, like, the ultimate, y’know, I’d bang her, well, […]

Right now, my feet are cold. And Lou Rawls is in the Bahamas. These two facts are actually more connected than they might seem. To begin with, the three-time Grammy winner’s late-booked gig in the sunny, rum-soaked Caribbean usurped our scheduled phone time. And on this blustery winter day, so far removed from white-sand beaches […]