The Black Twig Pickers w/ Elsa Howell
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE THE BLACK TWIG PICKERS The Black Twig Pickers are a group defined by their forward thinking approach to a type of music most often associated with times gone by. Over the course of eight full-length records, including collaborative releases with Jack Rose and Charlie Parr, a split LP with Glenn Jones, and numerous EPs and singles, the group has established itself as a collection of dedicated practioners of old time music re-cast and shaped by their appreciation of modern improvisation, drone, and punk. While not at odds with the experimental scene that has fostered them or the old time circles they travel in, The Black Twig Pickers thrive in the in-betweenness of those two worlds, proving that the exploration of the outmost bounds of sound and the exploration of decades old tradition and community aren’t as different as one might think. The group’s repertoire is constantly growing as they turn to first-person sources, older musicians that were brought up in the old time scene and in some cases the children and families of deceased respected practitioners, and unreleased archival recordings passed among musicians. And while local and regional history is ever present in the music The Black Twig Pickers play, they turn songs that are many decades old into living artifacts, released from the restrictions of era by the personal convictions of the musicians. This spirit of ecstatic abandon is conveyed through the percussive elements of The Black Twig Pickers’ music and more importantly, through a spontaneity and an unrehearsedness the band wears as a badge of pride. As Gangloff explains, “It’s not the melody, it’s the moss.” The sharp twang of the banjo, a spontaneous holler, a foot stomping along in time, and other seemingly incidental sounds become all important. Like the band’s previous Thrill Jockey full-length Ironto Special, Rough Carpenters was recorded with absolutely no overdubs and in as few takes as possible. The Black Twig Pickers are indeed rough carpenters, building unpolished but finely crafted records that embody the spirit of a timeless old-time scene. ELSA HOWELL Elsa Howell took an early interest in old Appalachian ballads, a tradition rich with wild stories and haunting melodies. Her voice and attention to musical detail have won her ribbons at folk song competitions in the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina, and her native Virginia. She spent more than a year learning the style from ballad master Elizabeth LaPrelle through the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, and Elsa has been featured at the Richmond Folk Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art, the Floyd Country Store, on the Inside Appalachia podcast/radio show, and she was a resident artist at the 2024 MidMountain Festival, which was devoted to examining and reinventing murder ballads. She has also carved her own path as an acoustic guitarist and songwriter, writing personal songs that meld with her more traditional material. She recorded and released Eyes Wide, her EP of mostly original material, in 2024.
Bella White
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY BELLA WHITE The third album from Bella White, A Sign In The Weather is a body of work steeped in the life-altering magic of its origins. While touring in support of her widely lauded sophomore LP Among Other Things (and sharing bills with the likes of Dierks Bentley, Tyler Childers, and The Red Clay Strays), the Calgary-born singer/songwriter left her home on Vancouver Island and moved to New Orleans, where she soon became happily enmeshed in the city’s vibrant indie-rock scene. As she immersed herself in the unfettered and open-hearted creativity of her newfound musical community, the 25-year-old lifelong musician began assembling a suite of songs that stretch far beyond her bluegrass roots and arrive at a moodier and more audacious breed of folk/Americana. Made with her close-knit circle of collaborators, A Sign In The Weather both echoes the homespun nature of its creation and signals a powerful evolution in her one-of-a-kind artistry. Co-produced by White and Ross Farbe (a New Orleans-based producer/songwriter/musician who’s also worked with Esther Rose and Drugdealer), A Sign In The Weather marks a departure from the more lavish scale of Among Other Things—a 2023 release produced by Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty) and recorded with esteemed musicians like Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek. This time around, White joined forces with her longtime bandmate Patrick M’Gonigle (on fiddle) and local musicians like drummer Sam Gelband, bassist Gina Leslie, guitarist Nick Corson, and vocalist Maddy Kirgo, dreaming up a nuanced yet potent sound that spotlights the singular character of her enchanting vocals and graceful guitar work. Also featuring contributions from Farbe (on guitar, percussion, organ, and synth), pianist Duncan Troast, and Nashville-based pedal-steel player Nikolai Shveitser, A Sign In The Weather ultimately brings a bold new energy to the sophisticated musicality White first cultivated by taking up guitar at age eight (thanks in part to the influence of her father, a Virginia-born bluegrass musician who raised her on classic country and old-time music). The latest installment in a catalog that began with her 2021 debut album Just Like Leaving, A Sign In The Weather also uncovers new layers of White’s soul-searching songwriting—an element praised by major outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR (who stated that “Sometimes the minute you hear a voice, you know it’s for the ages”). “New Orleans is such a musical city, and the experience of being around a lot of songwriters in particular has been so inspiring to me,” she notes. With its subtle interplay of poetic introspection and stream-of-consciousness outpouring, the album embodies a raw urgency that stems from White’s real-time processing of a period of intense change. To that end, A Sign In The Weather takes its title from one of the first songs written for LP: “Without Making A Sound,” an in-the-moment reflection on the painful confusion of letting go and moving on. “Right around when I decided to move I also ended a relationship—it felt like a chapter of my life was closing, and I was experiencing a lot of sadness and guilt and other big feelings,” White recalls. “When I wrote that song I was traveling somewhere that’s usually very warm, but it was like the gray gloominess of the Pacific Northwest had followed me there. It felt like it brought everything full circle to make that the album title, especially because making the choice to shake up my life really opened the floodgates for all the songs to come.”
Ryan Montbleau (solo)
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE RYAN MONTBLEAU A relentless road warrior and masterful wordsmith, Ryan Montbleau has spent the better part of thirty years cultivating a devoted audience on the strength of his ecstatic live shows and exhilarating sonic versatility. He’s collaborated with artists as diverse as Trombone Shorty, Galactic, Steel Pulse, Tall Heights, Martin Sexton, Anders Osborne, and George Porter, Jr; shared bills with the likes of Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ani DiFranco, Todd Snider, The Wood Brothers, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Mavis Staples; and racked up more than 150 million streams on Spotify alone. NPR’s Mountain Stage compared his “eloquent, soulful songwriting” to Bill Withers and James Taylor, while Relix celebrated his “poetic Americana,” and The Boston Herald raved that “he’s made a career of confident, danceable positivity.” Montbleau’s freewheeling new album finds him exploring the full spectrum of his influences like never before, touching on folk, rock, funk, soul, hip-hop, and reggae, all with a preternatural ease that belies the intensely focused craftsmanship behind it. The songs are sprawling and unpredictable, grappling with a modern world perpetually teetering on the edge of chaos, but the performances are relentlessly optimistic, insisting on hope and joy in the face of it all. The result is Montbleau’s most vulnerable and cathartic work yet, an album that acknowledges the inevitability of doubt and pain while at the same time celebrating our limitless capacity for growth and love.
An Evening With Patterson Hood (of Drive-By Truckers)
ALL AGES FULLY SEATED SHOW LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE PATTERSON HOOD Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood’s fourth solo album and first in over 12 years, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams sees the veteran singer, guitarist, and songwriter exploring his youth and young manhood in a collection unlike anything in his ever-evolving catalogue. A baroque American song cycle spanning the time between early childhood and leaving his rural hometown in search of his musical dreams, the album gathers songs that have amassed over the remarkably prolific songwriter’s career, many of which provided him with distraction and creative sustenance during lockdown, others which have resided among his notebooks for years. “This record has all these kinds of unintended themes,” Hood says. “It’s all subconscious, because I didn’t really set out with an agenda, writing-wise. It really just kind of occurred to me when I was actually putting it all together, just how much it seems to have a theme to it.” The dozen years since his last extracurricular outing, 2012’s Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, had seen Hood accumulate a cache of material which did not quite fit into the Drive-By Truckers canon, songs which he set aside for “if and when” he got around to another solo project. Kept off the road during the 2020 lockdown, he found himself recording demos in his Portland, OR attic, without a clear plan but thinking “maybe this might be worth pursuing at some point.” Hood had moved to Portland with his family in 2013 and swiftly found a place among the Rose City’s thriving music scene, including a friendship forged with producer/musician Chris Funk (The Decemberists). Having long discussed collaborating, in 2023 the two artists’ typically stacked calendars finally allowed them the opportunity to team up and they set to work recording what Hood intended to be “a bigger departure” from Drive-By Truckers and his previous solo efforts than ever before. “The band has been in such a good place that I hadn’t really thought in terms of doing anything outside of the Truckers anytime soon,” Hood says. “I decided if I ever was going to do another solo record, I wanted it to be pretty different than the band, as different as it can be.” Hood further took the occasion to explore sounds outside the boundaries and obligations of his day job, deviating from Drive-By Truckers’ traditionally guitar-driven palette to craft richly textured arrangements marked by the inclusion of strings, woodwinds, and vintage analog synthesizers. With its powerful textural clarity and Hood’s literary strengths at the fore, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams emerges as a staggering investigation into how time can shed light on the recesses of memory, revealing this exceptionally gifted songwriter’s resolute inclination to look back through the golden haze to grapple with the darkness and secret truths that perhaps weren’t understood or reckoned with at the time. As he has throughout his career – from Drive-By Truckers’ ceaseless investigation into American values and culture to his solo body of work’s autobiographical meditations – Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams sees Patterson Hood once again stripping away the facade of things to get to the core, lifting up life’s rock to see what lies underneath.
Randall Bramblett Band
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE RANDALL BRAMBLETT BAND Randall Bramblett is a lifer. For decades, he’s explored the deep explored the deep corners and outer orbits of American roots music, creating a southern sound that’s every bit as eclectic as its maker. Bramblett’s talent earned him the respect of rock’s finest. Highlights – he toured in the Gregg Allman Band, joined Sea Level with Chuck Leavell, spent 16 years in Steve Winwood’s band. His songs were covered by Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Delbert McClinton, and more. He’s been the horn leader for Widespread Panic, and also tours in Marc Cohn’s band. It’s a huge tribute to his songwriting to have soul/blues icon Bettye LaVette release an entire album of his songs in 2023, and have that album nominated for a Grammy. Super-producer Steve Jordan brought in Steve Winwood, John Mayer, Jon Batiste, Larry Campbell and more to play on it. But it’s Bramblett’s own career as frontman where his artistry is truly on full display as an original, respected talent. His catalog reaches a new milestone with Paradise Breakdown, his thirteenth record, a unique sound he calls Modern Roots Music. WNCW listeners voted it #10 Top album for 2024! Living in Athens, and inducted into the Athens Walk of Fame, Bramblett’s talents are repeatedly praised by musicians, critics, DJs and fans.
Paul McDonald & The Mourning Doves
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY PAUL McDONALD Born in Alabama and baptized in the dive bars of the southeast, Paul McDonald first made noise with the Grand Magnolias, a roots-rock outfit, before catching fire in the public eye during American Idol’s 2011 run. When the bright lights blurred and the cameras turned, the man behind the voice slipped into the shadows where he did what real artists do: he lived, he lost, and he wrote. Retreating to Nashville, that holy city of reinvention, Paul stitched himself back together with worn boots, hard songs, and a new band called the Mourning Doves. Now, the giant has stirred with the release of So Long to the Dark Side–a gospel-tinged reckoning wrapped in cosmic Americana and lit with songs that sound like they were scribbled on the edge of a breakdown and sung back from the brink. Raised on Petty, Parsons, and pain, Paul McDonald is not chasing trends; he’s conjuring something older and truer. His live performances are equal parts revival and rock séance. In a breakthrough moment, Paul McDonald & the Mourning Doves brought the songs of So Long to the Dark Side and more to the headline stage at the 17th Annual 30A Songwriters Festival in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd that followed him to a couple of evening performances over the weekend and established him as the 2026 Festival buzz band. Throughout 2026, Paul will tour every market in the U.S. in support of the new record.
Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE MARTHA SCANLAN AND JON NEUFELD While Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld’s collective accolades are impressive- they have shared the stage and collaborated with artists as diverse as Levon Helm, Jim James, Emmy Lou Harris and Peter Buck, and played festivals from Merlefest to Bonnaroo- it is their unique alchemy, a sense of adventure and improvisation on stage and in the studio, that most characterizes their work together and what has earned them a loyal cult following world wide. The 2024 release Save it For Later, their fourth album together, was listed among the year’s best albums by No Depression Magazine. They are currently at work on a new collection of original songs, traveling back and forth between Neufeld’s home in Portland, Oregon where he works as a mixing and mastering engineer and Scanlan’s in Western Montana. Scanlan’s songs have appeared in works by celebrated American authors Joyce Carol Oates and Rick Bass and have been covered by Sarah Jarosz, Solas, and Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse. Her song Higher Rock is featured on Robert Plant’s latest release, Saving Grace.
Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY Genre-defying Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones have been categorized as many things: Indie Alternative, Folk Rock, Dark Country, and Pop Americana, to name a few. Their music forms itself around Emerson’s songwriting, and the raw lyrics and visual storytelling pull listeners in from all walks of musical appreciation. Her songs are often a collage of autobiographical and completely fantastical elements, creating a unique space that is so relatably human while also seeming otherworldly and cinematic. The band has been capturing attention in the indie music space since the release of their debut EP Not a Good Woman, and they’ve certainly managed to keep it with their recent release Too Easy to Kill, featuring Thia Kane. Since taking the leap into full-time music, Emerson Woolf & the Wishbones have released several well-received records, including their debut full-length album “Everything Must Go,” which earned them the 2023 Makin Waves Best New Artist Award. Their catalog features notable songs like “Not a Good Woman,” “Wouldn’t it Be Funny,” and “Like Louisiana Sky,” showcasing their evolving sound and emotional depth. The band’s passionate approach and connection with their audience continue to build their reputation as rising stars in the indie and Americana music scenes.
George Terry & The Zealots: Album Release Show + Bob Dylan 85th Birthday Tribute set!
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW GEORGE TERRY & THE ZEALOTS George Terry AKA George Trouble sings with carefully crafted phrases and melodies. The songs speak of populist, mythic, historical and personal stories. They weave an imaginative lyrical landscape with a wide palette, ranging from folk, punk, rock, rockabilly, reggae and ska, to surf and honest country blues. Featuring Aaron Price’s deft musicianship The Zealots offer an exquisite distillation of the American songbook. GT is releasing two records in 2026. His band, The Zealots, is proud to release their fifth record- “Entanglement”, this spring on Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday at The Grey Eagle. The band will play a set of Dylan and the new record as well. George’s second solo album is primarily acoustic and features “Dirty Side of Helene”, a folk lament in the wake of the disaster. GT returns to touring in ’26 with a deeper conviction to sharing the narratives of all who navigate the recovery from Hurricane Helene.
Cristina Vane
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY CRISTINA VANE More than a mere practitioner of her craft, Cristina Vane has a breadth and depth of serious musical skill compiled from countless miles across all kinds of geography. On her third studio album ‘Hear My Call,’ the pairing of a lifetime pursuit and growing treasure trove of songs makes for a record that demands to be heard. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, her sound reflects and amalgam of experiences; born at the foothills of the alps in Italy and raised between Italy, England and France, Cristina’s half American – half Guatemalan heritage is as unique as her sound. She unapologetically blends her rock roots with her passion for pre war blues, old time banjo, country and bluegrass. Since her time busking on the Venice Beach Boardwalk and working at McCabe’s guitar shop, this deft multi instrumentalist has sharpened her fingerstyle/ slide guitar and clawhammer banjo skills and merged it with crystalline vocals, captivating songwriting, and an entrancing stage presence to make for a truly exciting act. Cristina has an extensive touring history and has provided direct support for: Molly Tuttle, Bob Weir, Jerry Douglas, Wynonna Judd, Sam Bush, Nikki Lane, Town Mountain, Duane Betts Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Arlo McKinley, and Willi Carlisle. She has been mentioned in Rolling Stone Country and NPR, and was featured in the Bank of America ad for Ken Burns’ “Country Music” documentary. She was an invited guest for Billy Strings’ String the Halls 3, has appeared on Travis Book’s (Infamous Stringdusters) Happy Hour and at Portland Blues Festival, Under the Big Sky, Four Corners Folk Festival, and Roosterwalk.
