While Asheville has a high per capita resident-to-music-festival ratio, there's always room on the calendar for one more. And the inaugural Asheville Improvisational Music Festival won't just be something new, festival-wise: It will bring innovative sounds, compositions and collaborations to the stage at The Magnetic Field. “Improvisation, while often thought of as an exclusively jazz […]

While it's advisable to keep your reading and hiking/gardening/outdoor adventuring separate, The North Carolina Arboretum has cleverly combined boots and books into a two-day indoor-outdoor event in celebration of the Arboretum's 25th anniversary. Presenters include author Peter Loewer (“The Wild Gardener"), writer/naturalist/historian George Ellison, garden/interior designer James Farmer and Patricia Moore-Pastides, First Lady of the […]

Just because it's winter (sort of) doesn't mean it's not hula-hooping season in Asheville. Melanie MacNeil of Asheville Hoops announces two fun-filled hooping events (and even if you can't keep a hoop airborne, you can still get in on these). First, The Hooper's Ball (a benefit for Leaf in the Schools and Streets) takes place […]

Touring company Aquila Theatre brings a double dose of antics — both comedic and dramatic — to the Diana Wortham stage. On Friday, Feb. 3, the troupe performs Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, a dizzy romantic romp that makes the most of double entendres and witty repartee. The next evening, it's Shakespeare’s Macbeth, […]

Musician (and ceramist) Akira Satake grew up in Osaka, Japan where he discovered the banjo through recordings of Appalachian musicians Flatt and Scruggs. A world away, Asheville native Duncan Wickel discovered Irish ballads. The recent Berklee College of Music grad is equally adept at fiddling country tunes, old time, bluegrass and jazz. The two performers […]

Pretty much the least likely person to ever go on a "Thugs Tour" would be Savannah, Ga.-based indie-folk artist Dare Dukes. And yet he is. In support of his newest album, Thugs and China Dolls — on which he explores abstractions of suburbia, the decay of the American landscape and nerd-sexy romance. Banjos meet hits […]

Local pop-noir act Sunshine & The Bad Things joins a lineup of bands all performing to benefit Trips For Kids WNC. The organization, founded in 2010, provides "mountain bike outings and environmental education for kids who would not otherwise be exposed to such activities." The Friday, Jan. 27 show takes place at The Boiler Room […]

Not that you thought that theater was boring, but for those of you who prefer to be entertained from the edge of your seat there's Fight Girl Battle World, set in a "futuristic universe where the human race is on the brink of extinction." It's there that E-V, "the last human female in all the […]

Knoxville-based singer-songwriter Erick Baker knows his way around a love song (he also writes and sings about hope, fear and loss). Xpress has been following his career since he debuted in 2008 with It's Getting Too Late To Say It's Early and opened for James Blunt at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. It's taken Baker awhile […]

Singer/songwriter Silas Durocher (known for his own band Everybody Knows, group project Soulgrass Rebellion and cryptic quotes like, "There are many mansions in the house of music") returns with a new endeavor: the Lovestruck Suckers. The quartet is Durocher (singing soulful songs) backed by Opal String Quartet members Amy Lovinger (violin), Kara Poorbaugh (viola) and […]

Since it's probably a safe bet that you know who bluesman B.B. King is (his classics include "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Everyday I Have The Blues"), how about introducing his guitar, Lucille? According to a press release, King's current Gibson ax takes its name from a $30 acoustic guitar that, in the 1950s, he […]

Billed as "a volatile black comedy for the darkest night of the year," John Crutchfield's latest play, Solstice, promises (according to the playwright), "Fisticuffs! Bad cell reception! Strange noises! A wooden sword! A Darth Vader mask! The return of the repressed! An attractive girl wearing an apron and little else!" It stars Glenn Reed, Scott […]