Aaron Lee Tasjan
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY AARON LEE TASJAN Aaron Lee Tasjan was experiencing the worst bout of imposter syndrome of his career when he sat down and wrote Todd Snider a vulnerable email asking for advice. Tasjan, despite writing and recording some of the most astute Americana rock songs of the last decade and being nominated for a Grammy, just didn’t see a future for an independent singer, songwriter, and guitarist like himself. Snider read Tasjan’s email and immediately replied: “I think I have some ideas. I’ll write you back tomorrow.” The next morning, Tasjan awoke to a signature Todd Snider missive for how to move forward as an artist. It was a novel-length email that read like the battle plans for the Invasion of Normandy. Do this, Snider wrote. Then this. But never that. The specifics don’t matter — besides, that’d be giving away the secret — but Tasjan devoured his mentor’s words and took them to heart. He began writing feverishly, unbothered by expectations and immune to any pressure to match his acclaimed albums like In the Blazes, Karma for Cheap, or his most recent, 2024’s Stellar Evolution. When he was through, Tasjan had Get Over It, Underdog, his most inspiring LP to date. Produced by Tasjan and his longtime sound engineer Mark Miller, the album is a celebration of the power of songwriting, the unbreakable bond of friendship, and the determination of the dark horse. “I went to the ultimate oasis for a singer, songwriter, and troubadour: Todd Snider. And he said, in very Todd fashion, ‘You can find your path forward by going backwards,’” Tasjan says with a laugh. “But he was right. I set aside my ego, played shows solo without my band, and wrote a lot of songs. In that process, I found my confidence again.” Tragically, however, he lost his mentor. Snider died shortly after Get Over It, Underdog, was finished, leaving a void in the folk-rock scene that will prove nearly impossible to fill. But Tasjan is committed to carrying on Snider’s unbridled spirit and lifting up underdogs everywhere. Over 11 tracks, Tasjan’s new album kills sacred cows and pokes holes in the dam, while leaning hard into the idea of perseverance. In the talking-blues of “Science Friction,” he tells an abridged origin story of civilization that culminates with humankind editing itself out of its own picture. “Man made machines/putting man out of business,” he sings with a knowing wink. “Lost & Alone,” meanwhile, finds him feeling like a “stranger in this town.” It’s a compact blast of indie-rock with a sing-along chorus that underscores Tasjan’s gift for writing infectious hooks. Tasjan took pains to make sure that each song on Get Over It, Underdog was as concise and potent as it could be. Often, he’d run them by Snider for critiques, who shared stories of how the American songwriting treasure John Prine did likewise for him early in his career. The goal in writing was always to find the “emotional rock to stand on” of each song. Once Tasjan had that, he learned from Snider, he had something personal.
The White Buffalo
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY THE WHITE BUFFALO For The White Buffalo – aka singer / songwriter / guitarist Jake Smith, Oregon-born, Southern California-raised – it was time to take the less travelled path; to assemble notions for studio album Number 8, the follow-up to ‘On The Widow’s Walk’ (Snakefarm, 2020), and embark on a voyage of discovery. Out with the old, the organic, the expected, the tried; in with the new – new producer, new studio, new location, no distractions, no looking back… Enter ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’… “You think we’re a country band? A folk band? Americana? Rock? What the fuck are you gonna say now?!” laughs Jake. “With this album, I wanted something outside of what I’ve ever done. I wanted to open up. Do something dangerous. I’m hard to put into a singular genre as it is, but now I really wanted to take away any kind of preconception or pigeon-holing. “And don’t ask me, cos I don’t know what it is! It’s a genre-bending thing – there’s elements and influences from ELO, Daniel Lanois, Tom Waits, The Boss, circus, pirate music, yacht rock, and I’m driving and pushing some of these numbers in a way I’ve never done before. “At the top of the pandemic, I put the acoustic guitar on its stand, got a synthesizer and began writing on it, not really knowing how to play keys, just exploring the different sounds and landscapes. In the not knowing, it allowed me to expand my vocal melodies and compositions in ways the guitar had possibly limited.” When Jake, flanked by regular touring / recording compadres, bassist / keyboard player / guitarist Christopher Hoffee and drummer Matt Lynott, crossed the threshold of East Nashville’s Neon Cross Studio, a converted Southern Baptist Church, he wasn’t chapter an’ verse prepared, as usual. The time before recording had been a crazy one, so there were a bunch of loose ends to be tied (“I’m a perpetual procrastinator” – Jake), plus only three of the 12 songs had been completely written. Jake had maps in his head, but most were mere bones of compositions with only a few key lyrics penned. This allowed producer / studio owner Jay Joyce – plus trusted assistant, Jason Hall – the wiggle room to really get involved, to guide and explore new frontiers … He’s a Grammy Award-winning Producer of the Year (2018), has 4 CMA and 5 ACM Awards, and when it comes to making music, the Ohio native is never one to take the obvious route – perfect for an album featuring a dozen musical vignettes, individual yet constant in flow; an album loosely based around the shifting of the seasons and the shifting of a relationship; an album showing off the complete scope of Jake’s song-writing craft, from the stripped back to the fully loaded…
Matt Heckler
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE MATT HECKLER Matt Heckler is the fiddle player you wish still existed. Hailing from the Catskill Mtns, a physiographic subrange to the Appalachian chain, Heckler has been embraced by mountain music and culture from early on. Self-taught on fiddle, banjo and guitar, he can weave together a night of songs from all over the world. Swaying from an acapella Irish ballad to a rowdy Romani fiddle tune, Heckler has taken on a style of writing that sounds timeless, rustic and entirely his own. Touring solo for a decade, Heckler made a name for himself opening for the likes of Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band, Flogging Molly and Devil Makes Three, playing many of the biggest theatres and venues in the country. After having two album simultaneously on the Billboard Bluegrass charts (Blood, Water, Coal at #3 & Magnolia Sessions at #9) Heckler has started a band of his own to tour and record with.
Ron Pope
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY RON POPE Fiercely independent, Nashville-based recording artist, Ron Pope, carved his niche in the digital era’s early days with his breakout hit, “A Drop in the Ocean,” which has amassed over 1 billion streams, earning platinum status in the US, alongside double platinum status in Sweden. His prolific songwriting is a natural fit for Music City’s Americana, roots, and country communities, garnering praise from publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, CMT, Relix, and The Tennessean. With each release, including his most recent album, American Man, American Music, released in February 2025, Pope continues to captivate audiences with his raw authenticity and profound storytelling, soul-stirring melodies, and introspective lyricism. Beyond his own musical endeavors, Pope writes and produces for other artists, and serves as a guiding light for aspiring musicians navigating the ever-changing landscape of today’s music industry.
PATIO SHOW: Holland Negative & The Bog w/ Doug Mcelvy
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVE HOLLAND NEGATIVE & THE BOG W/ SPECIAL GUEST DOUG MCELVY Leaning heavily on Southern-gothic themes and with an all-star of local musicians, Holland Negative draws on his experiences growing up in WNC to shape his songwriting. His debut EP Live! Uninvited! was released in 2025 and his second, Break Even, was released in 2026.
PATIO SHOW: Wheelwright
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEWHEELWRIGHT Wheelwright makes music for late nights and early mornings, for dive bars bonfires and house parties, the highs and the lows. a Southwestern inspired blend of country folk and grunge that reflects his life growing up in the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona. None of his songs are idealistic. No light without darkness, no laughter without atleast some suffering, no thoughtfulness without some recklessness. With a Devil-May-Care spirit, and a message of hope, frustration, and love; Wheelwright’s music contrasts between worlds of wandering existentialism, the strife of modern relationships, and shreds of hope that can be found in the darkest and most broken places of ourselves. Songs of acceptance, hard luck, and love without all the kumbaya bullshit, but rather the idea that we are all beautiful and flawed, stuck here together whether we like it or not. His songs are self-admitting and allow listeners to meet him where they truthfully are. It’s brash and it’s honest. In his words, “Everybody has things about themselves that they don’t like, they have things that they would change about themselves, but they also have spirits, and hopes, and dreams and light inside of themselves despite the darkness that seems to have over us as we march into the uncertainty of what’s next.”
PATIO SHOW: Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEERIC BRACE & THOMM JUTZ Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz made their separate ways to Nashville two decades ago, each with a musical career well underway. Now a formidable duo, their partnership is an extraordinary sum of its parts.The duo’s second album, Circle and Square, arrived in January, 2026, and is a gorgeous rumination on creativity, art, beauty, love, and friendship in an age of destruction and hatred. Their last album, Simple Motion, hit #1 on the Folk DJ chart (FAI) in March, 2024. Both are out on Eric’s East Nashville label, Red Beet Records. Eric moved to Nashville twenty years ago from Washington D.C., where he was leading his acclaimed roots-rock band Last Train Home, named D.C.’s “Artist of the Year” in 2003 by the Washington Area Music Association. Thomm grew up in Germany, where as an eleven-year-old boy he saw “Outlaw” legend Bobby Bare sing on a television show. It was a bolt out of the blue, and right then Thomm knew that his future was in Nashville. In 2002, twenty years after that epiphany, Thomm moved to Music City and immediately became an indispensable sideman to the likes of Nanci Griffith, Mary Gauthier, David Olney, Kim Richey, and others, while also building a studio and a reputation as a producer and songwriter. Eric, after a leaving his career as a music writer for The Washington Post, built Last Train Home into a powerful touring unit. Moving to Nashville in 2004, he launched Red Beet Records, a label with an eye on all the talent in his East Nashville neighborhood. One neighbor was journalist and songwriter Peter Cooper, whose debut album Eric released on Red Beet. Eric and Peter’s friendship evolved into a duo. Over more than a decade they released four albums, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Children’s Record after making I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow. After recording two albums at Thomm’s studio, Eric and Peter realized that they were just better with Thomm joining in on the fun, and the Brace/Cooper/Jutz trio was born. Two powerful albums ensued: Profiles in Courage, Frailty & Discomfort, and Riverland. On those albums, songs by Brace and Cooper are side by side with those of Thomm, who won “Songwriter of the Year” at the 2021 IBMA bluegrass awards. His songs have been recorded by dozens of artists (Billy Strings, Tim O’Brien, the SteelDrivers, and many more), and he teaches songwriting at Belmont University. Thomm’s solo album To Live in Two Worlds was nominated for a bluegrass Grammy award in 2020, and he was featured in an “American Currents” exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. The tragic death of Peter Cooper in December, 2022, led Eric and Thomm to reassess their musical path, but one thing emerged with clarity: They would continue to make music together.Their fluid acoustic guitar interplay and warm vocal harmonies will continue to be heard, all in service to the songs. Songs from the heart, songs about insomniacs, mill workers, train whistles, astronauts, lovers, painters, writers, sailors and soldiers, songs about everyday struggles, heartbreak, and triumph.In a time of division, Eric and Thomm seek — and find — connection.
FREE PATIO SHOW: Reed Turchi Album Release Show
– FREE SHOW – ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVE REED TURCHI Reed Turchi is a musician, poet, and producer from Swannanoa, North Carolina, now living in Brooklyn. His debut poetry collection Dancing With Poets was selected by Victoria Chang for the 2026 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and will be published in November 2026. He has won a GRAMMY Award and received an EMMY Nomination, and has been featured in Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, No Depression, The Oxford American, Living Blues, and many more. His poetry has been published in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Narrative Magazine, and The Los Angeles Review, among others. He earned his MFA from Warren Wilson College, where he was awarded the Ellen Bryant Voigt Scholarship. Turchi is the owner/operator of Second Take Sound and co-editor of The Swannanoa Review.
Silverada
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY SILVERADA Evolution. It’s what keeps the best bands afloat — song after song, show after show, record after record. Mike Harmeier was still in his early 20s when he formed Mike and the Moonpies. From the start, they were the definition of a workingman’s country band, cutting their teeth with five-hour sets on Austin’s dancehall circuit before spreading their music to the rest of America. By the early 2020s, they’d become global ambassadors of homegrown Texas music, flying their flag everywhere from Abbey Road Studios (where they recorded 2019’s Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold with help from the London Symphony Orchestra) to the Grand Ole Opry. The growth was remarkable, but all that momentum left Harmeier and his four bandmates — drummer Taylor Englert, guitarist Catlin Rutherford, bassist Omar Oyoque, and steel guitarist Zachary Moulton — looking for something new. After all, their music had decidedly changed. Why shouldn’t their name do the same? Silverada marks a new chapter in the band’s history. It’s not just the title of the boldest release of the group’s critically-acclaimed career; it’s also the name of the reinvigorated band itself. “Back in the day, all we wanted to do was play the Broken Spoke,” says Harmeier, nodding to the hometown honky-tonk in Austin, TX, where Silverada began sowing the seeds for a sound that mixed timeless twang with modern-day dynamics. “We had different aspirations back then. We were still figuring out what kind of band we were gonna be, and that took a lot of time and a lot of records. A lot of records, indeed. Silverada marks the group’s ninth release, and it balances the strengths they’ve accumulated along the way — sharp, detailed songwriting that bounces between autobiographical sketches and character studies; gorgeous swells of pedal steel that drift through the songs like weather; a rhythm section capable of country shuffles, hard-charging rock & roll tempos, and everything in between — with a willingness to break old rules and open new doors. “Radio Wave” is a roots-rock anthem for the highway and the heartland, peppered with Springsteen-worthy hooks and War On Drugs-inspired atmospherics. “Eagle Rare” launches the band into outer space during its explosive middle section, which the band improvised in the recording studio. “Stay By My Side” showcases Silverada’s road-warrior credentials — the band recorded the track live during a tour across the American Southeast, capturing it in a single take at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Georgia — while “Wallflower” blends the organic with the otherworldly, finding room for harmonized guitar solos, driving disco beats, and 808 percussion. “Going into the studio, everybody in the band felt inspired to do something bigger than what they’d done before,” Harmeier explains. “We all knew we were at a precipice, and we wanted to jump. I brought in some songs that were metaphorical and not always straightforward, and that showed the guys that I wanted to take this music somewhere new… so they threw their own rulebooks out the window, too.”
Nick Shoulders
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY NICK SHOULDERS Refugia Blues, the fifth album from songwriter Nick Shoulders, is a record of big ideas and small, intimate moments. Rooted in the acoustic stylings of Southern traditional music, it finds the Arkansas native turning off his amp and stepping up to a ribbon microphone as a solo performer, singing in a voice that’s equal parts country croon, Appalachian yodel, and high-lonesome field holler. Shoulders’ interpretation of American roots music has always been more progressive and punky than the trucks-and-beers conservatism that passes for modern-day country, and Refugia Blues offers songs about climate collapse, radical anthropology, and generative disruption. It balances the macro with the micro, too, making room for love songs and personal topics, packaging humor alongside heavy insights. At once academic and accessible, Refugia Blues isn’t just a deep dive into southernness, but also into Shoulders himself. This is a raw, resolute version of American country music, stacked high with songs that go down easy but linger in the minds of those willing to invest the time.
