Often mentioned in the same breath as Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker and Robert Earl Keen, Ray Wylie Hubbard's latest offering is the gritty, humorous, seductive and Intelligent Snake Farm. A collection of commanding songs that represent the best of both worlds, juxtaposing impeccable lyrics with dirty, primal grooves. The distinct imprint of uber-roots producer/guitarist Gurf Morlix is apparent in the record's authentic texture and sonic superiority. Morlix has helmed pivotal efforts by standard-setting artists, including Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen and the riveting newcomer Mary Gauthier, whose brilliant CD Mercy Now is due, in part, to musical mid-wifing by Ray Wylie Hubbard.
Friday, May 14, 2010. 9pm. $13 advance / $15 day of show.
This show is completely sold out. We will not be releasing anymore tickets for this show. Thank you Gillian Welch and Asheville!! If you are a ticket holder, the show begins at 8pm and the doors open at 7pm. This is a general admission, standing room only event.
Corinne West - At age 15, Corinne grabbed her guitar and left home to live in a converted old yellow school-bus occupied by nomadic artists and activists. Nothing in particular was wrong at home but she felt things might be really right somewhere else. Corinne was on and off that bus for a few years, ending up back in California in a remote mountain town, making her home in a cabin that had been built by her great grandfather. She has been carrying her guitar ever since.
Depending on the listener, Corinne's music might get called "roots," "Americana", or even "progressive folk". There are echoes of rural towns, honky-tonks, roads traveled, and roads less traveled. Listen more closely and there are traces of Appalachia and Ireland, the Opry and the Apollo, and somehow the pure elements of a starry night.
Kelly Joe Phelps - After a decade and a half of traveling the world - occasionally with a band, but usually alone with a guitar - Kelly Joe Phelps' rear view might have fallen off the windshield. Western Bell, his eighth full-length album, could be the soundtrack to his first mirror-cleaning sit-down in a long while. Some stuff winds up on the mantle (the photo of the Montana ranch where he helped herd cattle); some stuff winds up tattooed on his arms (a whole lot of names, or the pirate that says, "Be Kind").
There are only a handful of truly seminal solo guitar recordings in circulation, ones that forever transport both audience and genre. Add one more to the list. Here is Kelly Joe Phelps' Western Bell.
8pm. $10 advance / $12 day of show. Tuesday, April 20, 2010
John Doyle's gifts as a guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and producer have played an essential role in the ongoing renaissance of Irish traditional music.
As a member of Irish-American supergroup Solas - and a highly sought-after session player - Doyle pioneered a rhythmic, sophisticated approach to Irish guitar accompaniment, setting a new standard for the instrument. When the original members of Solas parted ways, Doyle embarked on a solo career, producing albums for other artists and touring as a sideman as well as recording his own material. Preserving the tasteful simplicity of tradition, Doyle nonetheless adds a contemporary edge, finding fresh life in even the most well-worn of tunes. His playing encompasses hard-driving strumming, inventive chord voicings, precise single-note runs, and powerful rhythmic effects borrowed from traditional instruments such as the bodhran and fiddle.
Wayward Son, Doyle's second solo release, showcases the guitarist's genius for arrangement. While the material is primarily traditional, the record is sprinkled with Doyle originals, which prove difficult to pick out from the time-tested numbers that precede and follow them. Three sets of tunes balance the primarily vocal album, and the traditional American murder ballad Little Sadie pays homage to Doyle's chosen home of Asheville, North Carolina, adding a New World presence to the collection of Old World melodies. Musicians include Doyle's former Solas band mates Seamus Egan and John Williams as well as Alison Brown, John R. Burr, Liz Carroll, Stuart Duncan, Kenny Malone, John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick, Tim O'Brien, Kate Rusby, Danny Thompson, Linda Thompson, and Garry West.
Now an accomplished producer as well, Doyle has worked with such artists as Liz Carroll and Heidi Talbot. While with Solas, the guitarist also shared stages and studios with Frank McCourt, Linda Thompson, Kate Rusby, Mick Moloney, Brian Conway, Joannie Madden, James Keane, Karan Casey, and Cathie Ryan. He continues to innovate, finding the seeds of his contemporary approach within the tradition itself.
8pm. $15 advance / $17 day of show. Sunday, April 11th, 2010.
