Xpress launches its monthly literary column with a review of two books and a lineup of local literary highlights, courtesy of Asheville resident Bill Brooks, the author of 10 novels. Readers are encouraged to give us their input as to what they’d like to see covered each month — i.e., author interviews, new books, events. […]

Go almost anywhere in Western North Carolina between June and August, and you’ll find that the hills are more than alive with the sound of music — they’re positively echoing! From hoedowns in the hollers to square dances in the streets, the abundance of mountain-music festivals seems to leave little room on the summer calendar […]

Back in 1992, when Elaine Ciampi walked into the ballroom of what was to become the Skyland Arts Cinema in downtown Hendersonville, she had one thing on her mind — foreign films (make that great foreign films). Jim Northington, who was renovating the old Skyland Hotel ballroom with the intention of turning it into a […]

[Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from The Underground Asheville Guidebook (Whisper Press, 2000), written by Tom Kerr (and other contributors) with photographs by Gail Forsyth-Kerr. This handy reference source plumbs the heights and depths of our city with a mix of wry insight and reverent aplomb. Available at local bookstores beginning in mid-June, the […]

So many high-profile music events these days seem to be little more than the festival equivalent of a billboard. The purported goal of these celebrations — bringing people together in the spirit of music — is obscured behind omnipresent advertising techniques. At the 1999 Woodstock reunion, for example, even drinking water was sold under the […]

When he’s not out touring, rising zydeco star J.J. Caillier can be found working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. At night, he tries out new material on the crew. “I bring my accordions offshore and practice,” he revealed during our recent interview. “[I spend] 14 days in the middle of the […]

They’re gonna put me in the movies/ They’re gonna make a big star outta me/ We’ll make a film about a man that’s sad and lonely/ And all I gotta do is act naturally. — The Beatles Have you ever, while inhaling popcorn in a darkened theater, and after paying the better part of 10 […]

Before any festival is staged, unforeseen crises and blind acts of faith are often the order of the day. And the Black Mountain Music Festival is certainly no exception. But the question of whether or not the gates will open this weekend on the BMMF’s spring festival is still begging a definitive answer. After a […]

“Out of all the bands we’ve heard in Asheville in the last eight months, we’d rate them in the top three, absolutely,” declares a Texas transplant, from the depths of one of the high-backed wooden booths hugging the walls of Biltmore Avenue’s Hannah Flanagan’s Pub. It’s almost 11 p.m. on a Friday night, and the […]

The Lake Eden Arts Festival is well known for the alternative attractions it offers — such as spiritual/healing-arts workshops, drum circles, cooking, poetry, dancing, crafting and a kids’ adventure land — but there’s always a solid and eclectic roster of performers on hand, to make sure the music doesn’t take a back seat. Expect the […]