Beatific happening

Layne Redmond Primary Instrument: Frame drums What She’s All About: As both a player and a historian, Redmond is considered one of the foremost authorities on frame drums — essentially…

In the eyes of River Guerguerian, there are few problems that can’t be solved by percussion. He sees the musical component as medicine for the world, an element that is…

Author Khaled Hosseini says his just-released novel, And the Mountains Echoed, began with a perfectly clear and vivid picture in his head. “It was this man walking across the desert,…

Don’t call it a dive bar. Although the Odditorium occupies the same cozy building on Haywood Road that once housed the Get Down, owners Amy Marshall and Tamy Kuper have…

Crafts are going online in a big way, and local artists are taking advantage of the trend. Sales on the hugely popular online site Etsy (a craft, handmade and vintage…

Nashville-based Night Beds recently released Country Sleep, the band's debut full-length. Singer-songwriter Winston Yellen says it's the group’s first album out on a label but, “It doesn't put a stamp…

The May-to-December album collaboration is far more interesting than the May-to-December romance. Though, like the latter, the former tends to spawn something unexpected and thought-provoking and not necessarily long-lasting. Think…

The second in this summer's RiverLink RiverMusic free concert series is set for Friday, June 14, beginning at 5 p.m. High-energy Americana act The David Mayfield Parade headlines. Mayfield last…

The Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce puts on what some say is the most popular barbecue festival in the U.S. And while that claim (like all things to do with…

Siblings Jens (banjo, harmony vocals) and Uwe Kruger (guitar, lead and harmony vocals) began their musical career in their homeland of Switzerland, but since it was American folk music (specifically…

Border collies, bagpipes, Irish dance, kilts and plenty of microbrew: The WNC Highlands Celtic Festival returns for the fourth year. Celtic food and vendors, pipes and drums and plenty of…

Ahleuchatistas’ music is something akin to sonic parkour, a race of immense speed and skill, physical prowess, mental fortitude and ninja-like reflexes. It's also about the onstage symbiosis of Shane…

Last year Xpress did an audio profile of Patrick Littlejohn, a formerly homeless composer who used music to pull himself out of poverty. The Practical Schillinger School of Music, an…

The Haywood Road brewery opens for the first time today at 3 p.m. Oyster House launches with 12 beers on tap, three of which are originals.

Updates from One Love Jamaican, Dough, Pizza Pura and more.

Get kung pao cauliflower and decked out toasts for about $10 after 10 p.m.

Recently Opened: Lookout Brewing Address: 103 S. Ridgeway Ave., Black Mountain As Oyster House moves up from a nano-sized brewing system, another small-batch system has just come online out in…

Organic demands The old economic theory of supply and demand is at the core of the organic food movement. When consumers seek out organic produce, they fuel the local food…

When Julia Bramsen diagnosed herself with autism three years ago while living in Missouri, she soon learned how deep the misunderstandings run and how meager services are, especially for those…

Standing at the pull-off on a gravel road near an unmarked trail in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, geologist Rick Wooten tightens his black webbed utility belt — which holds…

If there’s a word that every Mountain BizWorks investor uses to describe why he or she invests in Mountain BizWorks, it’s “local.” According to Stanley and Colette Corwin, “We invested…

Openings Honour Stewart Gallery, 1 Page Ave., Suite 124 in the Grove Arcade. http://www.honourstewartgallery.com. 232-4260. (Pictured, “Citizen,” by Douglas Stewart, on view at the gallery.) Sugar & Snow Gelato food…

Visit Sugar & Snow Gelato near the Grove Arcade and Blue Blaze Soda at the French Broad Food Co-op tailgate market.

Billed as “the world’s first-ever Autism Pride week,” a quintessentially Asheville event honors “the autistic as subject, not object.” Held Sunday, June 16, through Saturday, June 22, at a variety…

Between 1998 and 2012, home and business foreclosures in Western North Carolina increased by 89.4 percent — a rate more than 30 percent higher than the statewide increase of 53.8…

As the deadline to finalize the county budget approaches, Buncombe commissioners huddled with staff June 4 to make decisions on two new Asheville city school buildings. The most recent estimated…

For cities and towns across North Carolina, it hasn’t been an easy budget season. A tax overhaul by the GOP-dominated General Assembly may leave many municipalities with reduced revenue, and…

Buncombe County commissioners held a June 4 public hearing on their $337 million budget proposal, but they didn’t hear much from the public. Only a few residents stood up to…

It’s 7 a.m. and you’re stuck behind a school bus sputtering enough diesel exhaust to make you cough. These fumes are wrought with microscopic soot known as particulate matter (PM),…

New food truck makes debut downtown

For the May 30 cover story, Xpress reporters David Forbes and Jake Frankel used the East Chestnut Street neighborhood on the cusp of downtown and north Asheville to examine the…

I read Norman Plombe’s letter, “Why on Earth Are You Waving at Me?” in the June 5 Xpress. … Why on earth would he want to project [his] grouchy jerkiness…

I have been an avid reader of Mountain Xpress (and Green Line before it) since the beginning. I have watched your staff struggle with issues of journalistic ethics. While I…

What kind of mentality does it require for the N.C. Senate to pass a law restricting alternative means of transportation, legislation that could improve our physical and environmental health? Shouldn't…

The Wyvern's Tale on Merrimon Avenue is an awesome gaming store. The A.C. Reynolds High School Gaming club would like to thank the Wyvern's Tale for sponsoring our club in…

We are blessed to be able to pick up two great gospel stations in the asheville area: WKJV (1380 AM) and WGCR (720 AM). I urge you all to try…