Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival returns for the seventh year and, as press for the event boasts, "neo-Burlesque is only getting bigger." The Friday-Sunday, May 24-26 weekend-long extravaganza is dedicated to empowerment, innovation and information. There are also shopping opportunities, sideshow acts and a Friday Night Speakeasy (at The Grey Eagle, 8 and 10:30 p.m., […]

James McCartney took his time building his own recording career. He's currently in the midst of a 47-date U.S. tour in support of his new album, Me. The record is McCartney's first full-length, though he has previously released two digital-only EPs, Available Light and Close At Hand. But he's not exactly new to music: he […]

If you like your bluegrass a little bit rough around the edges, this Friday, May 17, brings a double bill of exactly that sort of sound. Love Canon, from Charlottesville, Va. describes its picking style as if “Rocky IV, Cyndi Lauper, ZZ Top, Aha and Dire Straits played with banjo, mandolin and high lonesome vocals.” […]

WNC-raised author Wiley Cash is the honoree at this year's Blue Ridge Bookfest. His 2012 novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, was mentioned in O Magazine's “10 titles to pick up.” Other authors appearing at the festival for readers and writers are 2013 Chautauqua Prize finalist John Wood, Greenville pastor Matt Matthews and award-winning […]

NPR listed Black Twig Pickers' Rough Carpenters as one of its most-anticipated releases for 2013, which is a pretty good way to start a year. But the Appalachian old-time band, whose members come from Virginia and West Virginia, has also been keeping busy touring in and out of the U.S., as well as playing and […]

The first time that Kelsey Kopecky and Gabe Simon played together, they were barely more than strangers and yet, "it felt like we’d known each other forever," says the Kopecky Family Band's website. And while the familial relations are spiritual rather than biological, the Nashville-based sextet claims strong ties to one another, along with a […]

The cello is kind of a secret weapon. It's smooth and orchestral, but effectively emotive and surprisingly versatile. Think: Ben Sollee, Pearl and the Beard and Rasputina. And add Asheville's own Polly Panic to that list — the cello rock band's show has been described as "an assaulting tenderness entangled with dark, odd metered theater." […]

Local indie-psychedelic outfit Warm the Bell (Sean Robbins, Vickie Burick, Sam Brinkley and Rick Shore) has been busily working on debut, You Are the Sun. The album was recorded at Collapseable Studios; an early listen reveals hints of Americana, '60s rock, tight percussion and bright slashes of steel guitar through fuzzed-out melodies. Tracks are both […]

Is it a coincidence that Jakob Dylan's band, The Wallflowers, plays The Orange Peel the day after his father plays The U.S. Cellular Center? Probably. The important point here is the Wallflowers are not only back in Asheville, but back in general, following a seven-year break. Last fall, they released Glad All Over, with which […]

“April is the cruelest month for poetry,” Charles Berstein wrote in his essay/polemic, “Against National Poetry Month As Such.” “National Poetry Month is about making poetry safe for readers by promoting examples of the art form at its most bland and its most morally ‘positive.’” Asheville Wordfest, started in 2007 by Laura Hope-Gill, was not […]

It seems like blues-rock mega-outfit Tedeschi-Trucks Band, 11 members strong, must have played in Asheville before. And, in a way they have. Husband and wife duo Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi have, between them, made appearances at Bele Chere, Christmas Jam and various venues (dating back to when Trucks was a teen). But they've never […]

One reviewer described Rhode Island-based Brown Bird as "‘30s-era Ellington flirting with Cuban and Middle Eastern tropes in a proverbially dusty middle-America barn." The duo is David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, and their newly-released album, Fits of Reason is a continuation of the band's quest for innovation paired with literary savvy and esoteric musings. Brown […]

"Though Leon Redbone's iconic guise of white fedora, jacket and sunglasses has been thoroughly satirized (anybody remember the “Leon Redbone workout” Far Side cartoon?), it’s easy to overlook what a genuinely gifted artist he remains — a role he inevitably tries to downplay," says press for Redbone's Saturday, May performance at The Altamont Theatre. The […]

Friday, May 3 is a big night for Asheville’s progressive arts scene. Satellite Gallery (55 Broadway St.) hosts the opening of Apopalypse, featuring new work from Peter Parpan, Alli Good, Andy Herod, Joti Marra Ramsey and Nick Turkette, “five artists working in a similar pop culture influenced style,” for a show that “attempts to speak […]

You know Shakespeare's Hamlet, right? At least more or less. But what about Hamlet reimagined through the lens of Victorian-era steampunk? "Themes of indecision, revenge and retribution, deception, ambition, loyalty and fate make Hamlet timeless," says press for the show, produced by the A-B Tech Drama Club, and staring A-B Tech alumna Hayley Karbowski as […]

Pioneering musician Dick Dale was born in Boston, but when, as a teen, he moved to California's Orange County with his family, he got into surfing and then music. Dale learned drums, ukulele, trumpet and finally guitar. But he didn't stop there. Inspired by his Lebanese heritage, he drew on Arabic sounds, which ultimately led […]

Local artist collective Clan Destiny Circus performs a "show for the child, for the moonstruck lovers, for our elders with a taste for life.” According to a press release, the troupe's members each have specific talents that they bring together for six-to-10 person acrobatic dance routines. They'll team up with Big Ben and the Clock […]

Devotional chant and yoga teacher (and Oprah Winfrey fave) Snatam Kaur leads both a workshop and an evening of kirtan, sacred music and songs of India. The concert is at at the UNCA Kimmel Arena on Friday, April 26, 7:30 p.m. $45/$22. The workshop is on Saturday, April 27, 1-5 p.m. at the UNCA Sherrill […]

Bob Dylan has always done things his own way, and sometimes he misses but mostly he hits. Most recently, the legendary folk/rock musician released 50th Anniversary Collection, a four-CD set with 86 live tracks and studio outtakes recorded in 1962 and '63. But only 100 copies were pressed and sent to specialty record collector shops […]