“I’ve been a pain in the ass for a long time,” declares poet Sam Hamill, “and it’s not going to change.” First Lady Laura Bush no doubt wishes she’d known more about that aspect of Hamill’s personality back in January — before she included him on the guest list for her polite little tete-a-tete, Poetry […]

The Middle Ages were rife with disease and death, war and poverty. But the Mountain Renaissance Adventure Faire, notes its co-director, Jan Love, offers escape to the storybook side of that troubled epoch. The local event, now in its third year, allows people to indulge in ideals that have remained attractive for almost five centuries: […]

Most of us have seen it: A man berating a woman in a parking lot. An angry boyfriend slapping or shoving a woman in front of a crowd of people. The majority of the time, nobody intervenes. Local singer Laura Blackley once tried. During a set break at a Johnson City, Tenn., club, her band […]

Have that landmark album be refused as patently noncommercial by your major record label, allowing a smaller company to instead release it, and again, they will come. Outrun the music style you helped create such that a key band member quits on you, and still, they will come. Finally, book a show at The Orange […]

There are ghosts in her singing. When Linda Thompson’s wine-dark alto dips and feathers and swoons and swells, souls long snared by time’s winnowing tide seem to have found voice once more, seeping like new blood through her own. Lately, one of those ghosts is Thompson herself. Until last year, her own voice was, effectively, […]

Among the definitions of “intimate” in The Oxford American Dictionary is “having a sexual relationship with a person, especially outside marriage.” The word, then, is a collection of syllables fraught with tension and innuendo — as is the Asheville Art Museum’s current exhibit, Self and Soul: The Architecture of Intimacy. Ann Batchelder curated the show […]

A well-oiled old-timer at Smokey Tavern, presented with the name Bob Dylan recently, responded, “So?” So. On the very same night at Vincent’s Ear (and up against the same set of circumstances), a longhaired bartender with eccentric facial hair declared, “That moldy old bastard needs to stay the hell out of this town!” Moldy. Old. […]

WARNING: The following story contains dirty words. In fact, there are a s••tload of them. There are references to things illegal. Mentions of doing the nasty. Mockeries made of institutions considered bedrocks of society. Get over it. Or else don’t read any further. The following story is about rock ‘n’ roll. Loafs and Fishers Around […]

Camp Ton-A-Wandah’s rustic, cozy Little Rec Hall helps distinguish the Flat Rock Music Festival from its flourishing competition this time of year. The cabin’s coffeehouse setting and sweet acoustics are perfect for musicians who aspire to play in the heartfelt, gritty style of late country legend Hank Williams Sr. Finalists will put their best tune […]

“I think too many people write down their own experiences and just think they’re going to be fascinating for everybody.” Suzanne Vega What section in the record store would Suzanne Vega shelve herself in? “Under the regular section,” she says pleasantly from her home in New York City. “I think sort of just in that […]

You can’t say “pickin’ and grinnin’” in Russian. “It’s just not possible,” Alexander “Sasha” Ostrovsky noted by phone recently. At 22, the handsome musician has already witnessed his share of the impossible. Bering Strait, his Music City-based band, have been playing Nashville-style country and spirited bluegrass professionally since before some members were even in their […]