Pete Seeger first heard the five-string banjo played at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville in 1936, forever changing the course of his life — and the future of American music. Fast forward to 2004. Award-winning bluegrass guitarist/vocalist and public-radio personality Nick Forster is coming to Asheville to host a fund-raiser for the […]
Search Results for: stronger together
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Dear voters
Xpress asked the candidates to submit letters to our readers addressing one specific local issue that they plan to address as council members. We asked them to explain why the issue is important and to offer a concrete explanation of how they would proceed. Terry Bellamy When it comes to specific challenges that Asheville faces […]
You’ll like them when they’re angry
Phil Anselmo’s history is littered with hard, unforgiving music. That said, the ex Pantera leader’s latest project, Superjoint Ritual, finds him fronting a retro act that includes country scion Hank Williams III on bass. But don’t expect twang and heartache; this is nostalgia with fangs — and without confines. “It’s like Neanderthal rock,” Anselmo gruffly […]
Random acts
Front-row reviews What: GFE w/Ironfist Where: The Orange Peel When: Monday, March 3 Until recently, I considered GFE one of the most overrated acts in town. I found their music unnecessarily jammy, their mind-expanding rhymes awkward. So if you’d have told me I’d eventually have a near-complete change of heart, I would have asked you […]
Rally redux
photos by Heather Erson Where else in America could you have two rallies espousing fundamentally differing viewpoints while ostensibly promoting the same concept (support for U.S. soldiers), staged simultaneously within 100 yards of each other — a formula fraught with the potential for ugly confrontation — and have the whole day come off without a […]
Farewell cheers and plenty of beers
After their final show, after the worn-out Town Pump crowd had left and just before the various pieces of musical gear were loaded back into cars and trucks to be taken away, I sat and had a few final words with The Unholy Trio. The melancholy of off-stage reality had begun to settle in around […]
Ready to believe
Just like people, music has a soul. It’s what makes us enjoy what we hear. And some of us can take this simple theory and make a life out of it. What began as an adventure for six young men in Athens, Ga., known as Widespread Panic has become a way of life for legions […]
Notepad
A conference on global justice A free symposium titled “Examining Global Justice: A Consideration of Ethical Economics” will bring together activists, students, environmentalists and others for a daylong look at globalization issues and the global-justice movement. The conference — which will include a series of workshops plus formal presentations by a variety of speakers — […]
Notepad
Canary Coalition picks up steam by Lisa Watters The Canary Coalition — formed last October to address the region’s deteriorating air quality — is quickly developing into a broad-based grassroots movement. A number of other organizations have either joined or endorsed the coalition’s efforts, including the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, the Jackson County Travel […]
Milne fields
Where the worlds of jazz and hip-hop meet, yielding free-flowing improvisation and hard-hitting rhythmic edges — that’s where you’ll find Andy Milne. The Canadian-born pianist has spent the majority of his 33 years perfecting his craft, to the point of being called a likely heir to pianists like Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner. Through his […]
Across a broad spectrum
We met in coffeehouses, offices, back porches and living rooms. Some wore ties, and some wore T-shirts. Some answers were succinct, and some were rambling. But in interviewing the five candidates for state Senate District 28 (encompassing Madison, Yancy, McDowell and parts of Buncombe and Burke counties), one common thread emerged: passion. All five candidates […]
Keeping watch
Forget the destination — Vigilantes of Love leader Bill Mallonee savors the journey. He’s sung about it on major record labels — and on his own, credit-card-financed label. And he lives it, performing his passionate, personal music close to 200 nights a year — and that’s for almost 10 years now. Today, he’s on the […]
The cruellest month
Volatile April has always figured conspicuously in the world of poetry. It’s the month that Chaucer’s pilgrims set off on their way to Canterbury, and the month that Paul Revere made his fateful midnight ride (immortalized by Longfellow in verse). T.S. Eliot — in “The Waste Land” — offered a pessimistic echo of Chaucer, calling […]
After the swarm
When cold winds dip down from the north, hinting that food will soon become scarce, the Indiana bat leaves its summer roost and heads to the mountains to hibernate. Outside its chosen grotto, the bat joins others, swarming into the air from dusk to dawn as it seeks a mate and feeds on insects to […]
Tripping the light fantastic
Al Schnier’s young son is on the phone. Sort of. Every few moments, the little boy lifts his head off his father’s shoulder and gurgles baby talk into the receiver pressed to his old man’s ear. It’s as if he’s trying to help his pop answer a question. Suddenly, the kid shrieks with excitement: Elmo’s […]
The Score
DeNiro! Brando! Edward Norton! Take three powerhouse actors — one a bona fide legend and one virtually a legend — and put them in a film directed by … Frank Oz? Oz is a competent-enough director with a string of moderately successful, but decidedly undistinguished, films to his credit. And if The Score is his […]
Hometown jam
“We’re kind of a slow, hard-working, nonglorious beast of some sort,” offers Asheville’s favorite hometown-boy-made-good, Warren Haynes, talking about the appropriateness of his band’s name, Gov’t Mule. Others beg to differ with the modest, supernaturally talented musician (he’s considered one of the world’s premier guitarists). “This is bone-crushing power rock!” exclaimed the usually staid Wall […]
Letters to the editor
Cut the ridicule and discuss the forest There has been a rash of letters [and commentaries], flying between members of the local timber industry and conservation leaders [Xpress, June 16, June 30, July 7, July 14]. Steve Henson and Tom Thrash have written in, stating that the conservation community is promoting an extreme agenda for […]
Gourmet grazing
At swank Chinese restaurants in New York, patrons pick their fish — live — from an aquarium. At Highland Lake Inn (outside Hendersonville), you pick your own edible flowers. “Feel free to nibble on the day-lily buds,” Highland head gardener Pat Battle told a dozen visitors, who had come to savor that evening’s Harvest Celebration. […]
Letters to the editor
Health care is not a right in a just society The letters section of your July 1 issue was so filled with greed, selfishness and contempt [“Readers respond to Andrew Cline’s health care commentary”] that I would appreciate the opportunity to respond. The subject was health care and whether access to this and other basic […]
Letters to the editor
Let city run cable system At its June 23 meeting, City Council came within seconds of voting on the cable-TV-franchise agreement between the city and Intermedia. [The vote was postponed until July 7, because of Mayor Sitnick’s nosebleed.] Viewed in its best light, we have to say that television is the most powerful communications (propaganda) […]