Murder By Death
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYMURDER BY DEATHAs trailblazers of the early 2000s indie-Americana style, the Louisville, KY-based quintet finds a way of taking tried & true rock-and-roll and knocking it slightly off axis, into tottering revolutions of something eerie, emotional, immediate, lush, and uniquely theirs. On the surface, Murder By Death is a Louisville, KY sextet with a wry, ominous name. But behind the geography and moniker is a band of meticulous and literary songwriters matched by a specific brand of brooding, anthem-riding balladry and orchestral indie rock. Murder By Death’s path began in the early 2000s as most Midwestern college-town groups do, by playing to small crowds at ratty venues and frenzied house parties. While many of their formative-year scene-mates failed to make it much further than campustown’s borders, Murder By Death translated their anonymous beginnings into a 20+ year career founded on a bedrock of eight full-length albums, tireless D.I.Y. touring and performing ethics, and, most importantly, a dedicated, cult-like fanbase. J RODDY WALSTON
PATIO: The Whiskey Charmers
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVETHE WHISKEY CHARMERSDusty Americana duo The Whiskey Charmers, are returning to the Grey Eagle on the heels of their fifth album release (set for May 2024). Their captivating Spaghetti Western sound evokes imagery of a lonesome desert highway. William P Davis (Former Deputy Director of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville) says of the band “I’ve heard a lot of good musicians. The Whiskey Charmers remind me of no one – and to me, that is one of the best compliments an act can receive.” Check out The Whiskey Charmers music on all streaming platforms. More info at www.thewhiskeycharmers.com
SCYTHIAN
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY SCYTHIANWashington DC-based Scythian (sith-ee-yin) began over 12 years ago as a bunch of college buddies playing Celtic music in the streets and has grown to be a headliner on the US Celtic Festival Circuit as well as a name in the Bluegrass/Americana Festival Circuit. They found that their brand of high-energy folk music found a resonance that led The Washington Post to state: “Scythian’s enthusiasm is contagious, and shows seem to end with everyone dancing, jumping around or hoisting glasses.”For over 12 years they have found success as an independent band and have played over 1,300 shows all over the united states, Europe, Canada and as far aways as Australia.Founded by brothers Alexander and Danylo Fedoryka who are first-generation sons of Ukrainian immigrants, Scythian from the start has been a search and love for the “old time, good time music” of many cultures. They were inspired by a tale told by their 92-year-old grandmother of a roving fiddler who came into her farming village every six months or so. Once he was spotted, messengers were sent to all the outlying fields and mills and worked ceased; everyone gathered in the barn where they danced all night and danced their cares away. This spirit is what has motivated Scythian from its inception and their success as an independent band is due largely to their finding a resonance of soul amongst kindred spirits that span all ages and races. This spirit took them from the streets to playing for the US president on St. Patrick’s Day and its the enthusiastic response they receive that has made each of their 1,300+ shows unique. THE calling card of Scythian is their ability to engage their audience no matter the venue or circumstance and truly every Scythian shows ends with people dancing, smiling and covered with sweat. This is best summed up by The Camel-City Dispatch (Winston-Salem, North Carolina): “[Scythian gives] no quarter in their quest to entertain and bring a joy to their music that gives it an irony-free, wide open feel of manic possibility. The playing is technically brilliant, but it is the energy that carries the day.”STRANGER AND PILGRIM WYATT FLORES Wyatt Flores was raised on the outskirts of a small Oklahoma college town with a rich music history spanning from the likes of Garth Brooks, All American Rejects, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Colour Music and The Great Divide. There’s something unique about growing up in a town riddled with musical giants. Wyatt’s sound is somewhere between Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson and Caamp — he tells his stories in his own way and craves authenticity in his lyrics, collaboration and sound. This wide-ranging field of influences captivates listeners of multiple genres, as his fans have tallied up more than 3-million total streams across platforms. Having dedicated the past few months to transforming new lived experiences into songs, Wyatt is in the process of recording his first full album, planned for a September 2023 release: “Losing Sleep, the album, is a time and place in my heart. I learned that sometimes not everyone can be loved. It’s homegrown and Oklahoma made and I hope folks see the originality behind it. I hope this project helps people get through the rough times in their life” Be good to one another. See you soon. — WF
Pony Bradshaw
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYPONY BRADSHAWOn his new album North Georgia Rounder , Pony Bradshaw leads the listener on an exploration of the woods, rivers, and mountains of Appalachia, more specifically, the area for which the album is named and he’s called home for the past 15 years. “It’s got its hooks in me,” Bradshaw says of North Georgia, and it shows, with songs that quickly establish a setting, much like the one he initiated with the album’s predecessor, Calico Jim . The sonic excursion includes stops along the Conasauga River, visits to the holler, and a few diversions—nearby Knoxville plays a supporting role, as do Louisiana and Arkansas. It’s an impressionistic journey of introspection and connection all at once.Will Stewart’s tastefully-understated guitar leads and Philippe Bronchtein’s atmospheric pedal steel provide the perfect backdrop for Bradshaw’s impassioned vocals in lead-off track “Foxfire Wine.” Its swampy, bluesy intro makes way for an interesting amalgamation of Sturgill Simpson and The Grateful Dead, serving as the perfect aperitif for “a hell of a heaven and a hell of a show.” From that point on till the album wraps with the aptly titled “Notes on a River Town,” not only do you see and hear North Georgia, you even smell and taste it.Take, for example, “Safe in the Arms of Vernacular,” a pensive, melancholy track that delights all the senses and is reminiscent of Ray Lamontagne’s mellow side. When Bradshaw sings of the “bonafide gas mask” his Dad brought back from Desert Storm and describes the Saudi Arabian sand as turning to “glass sharp as a sultan’s sword,” one can almost see it. As quickly as it sets the ever-vivid stage, the track shifts its focus to a waitress downtown. “Draped in Bedouin gown, smoking Kent cigarettes in the underground” in an attempt to “escape all those voices,” she naturally drinks white wine—”Riesling room temp from a coffee cup,” to be exact.A voracious reader, Bradshaw credits his talent for expressing such rich details in his songs not so much to other songwriters but instead to books, fiction, short stories, essays, and literary criticism. With such colorful descriptions as “teeth stained red with Lebanese wine, long hair … in sweeps of oil blacker than a cypress pool,” one might assume he bases the subjects of his songs on real-life people he interacts with in North Georgia; instead, Bradshaw describes them as “nameless characters” compiled from “fragments” he’s collected, pieces that usually start with just a line or two. These fragments all add up to a remarkably cohesive 10-song collection, despite Bradshaw being a self-professed admirer of (and writer of) the non-sequitur. This is thanks in no small part to his own masterful vocal delivery and the expert musicianship of his backing band, one that includes the aforementioned Stewart and Bronchtein with Robert Green on bass, Ryan Moore on drums, and Jenna Mobley on fiddle.“The poet soon stops experimenting and innovating and starts his life’s work,” Bradshaw expounds, citing a quote from one of his favorite writers, Wendell Berry. A single album as a life’s work may seem like a grand, overambitious aspiration. But for Pony Bradshaw, North Georgia Rounder is just that – a life’s work, one that, as he describes it, is a culmination of “sweat and work and joy and pain and anger and patience and restraint.”RACHEL BAIMAN
Western Carolina Writers Showcase V
– ALL AGES – SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEWESTERN CAROLINA WRITERS Here comes the 5th Western Carolina Writers Showcase since the first production in July of 2022! This showcase features these 9 incredibly talented local singer-songwriters: Whitney Mongé, Melissa McKinney, Ben Balmer, Jeff Santiago, Tina Collins (Tina & Her Pony), Siena Christie, Steve Taton, Hunter Andrus, and Jim Swayzee. There will be 3 rounds of 3 performers taking turns playing their original music with occasional spontaneous collaboration creating many magical moments that can only be experienced live. Western Carolina Writers was established in 2019 by Nick McMahon, along with Jesse Frizsell and Thomas Yon, as a traveling “Songwriters-In-The-Round” style show. The idea was to take turns performing original songs with fun moments of collaboration at venues all over Western North Carolina. After about a dozen increasingly successful shows, McMahon started inviting other area songwriters to participate. And now, after around 150 shows featuring close to 80 different local artists, the concept has become even more popular, fun and diverse. In 2022, Mcmahon and current project partner, Stephen Evans, decided to take this show into the listening rooms and out of the noisy bars and breweries so the songs could really be heard and appreciated. With four recent magical & successful songwriter showcases, three at The Grey Eagle and one at Ayurprana Listening Room, this decision has proven to be the right move. So join us for another magical night of music on Sunday, March 10th at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC.
Tuba Skinny
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYTUBA SKINNYFor over a decade Tuba Skinny has grown steadily in popularity, releasing twelve albums and touring all over the world. They’ve attracted a wide variety of fans, young and old, neophytes and niche-enthusiasts, with the strength of their musicianship and the scope of their jazz and American roots music catalog. The band is composed of Shaye Cohn (cornet), Barnabus Jones (trombone), Todd Burdick (tuba), Craig Flory (clarinet), Gregory Sherman (guitar and vocals), Max Bien-Kahn (banjo), Robin Rapuzzi (washboard), and Erika Lewis (vocals and bass drum).While they’ve become known as world-class interpreters of traditional jazz, over the years they’ve branched out into jug band music, spirituals, country blues, string band music, ragtime, and New Orleans R&B. Their approach is a true reflection of Americana, encompassing the full genealogy of popular American music from an early 20th century perspective.No matter how well known they’ve become or how high profile their gigs have gotten, Tuba Skinny has always returned to the streets. “We continue to play in the street because it’s a public space,” says Shaye. “We get to play for everyone: old, young, rich, poor, people from all walks of life. It keeps things interesting because it’s organic and unpredictable.”
PATIO: Todd Cecil & Dirt Yard Choir
ALL AGES LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVETODD CECIL & DIRT YARD CHOIR Genre-bending Americana Blues-Rock trio from Asheville North Carolina. Todd Cecil & Dirt Yard Choir is a mixture of music medicine ranging from Appalachian Swamp Rock to thought provoking Americana singer/songwriter. The trio has a dynamic range to please any crowd, and when it’s time to dance at the show, it’s hard to sit still. The members consist of Todd Cecil (songwriter vocal, guitar, guitar/bass cigarbox) – a Nashville songwriter scene transplant. Todd has traveled the world promoting his music and positive thinking through creative art and the belief in oneself. Mike Fore (Harmonica) – a South Carolina transplant Scott Harte: (Drums, Washboard and Spoons) – true-blue Asheville Together the three make a monstrous sound with fun quirky and uplifting live performances that is uniquely their own.
Brent Cobb: Livin’ the Dream Tour
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYBRENT COBB The American south isn’t just Brent Cobb’s home. It’s his muse, too. A Georgia native, he fills his Grammy-nominated songwriting with the sounds and stories of an area that’s been home to southern rockers, soul singers, country legends, and bluesmen. Cobb has a name for that rich tapestry of music — “southern eclectic” — and he offers up his own version of it with his newest album, Southern Star. “Down here, there’s a lot going on and there’s nothing going on at the same time,” he says. “You’ve got all these different cultures in the south, and everything is mixed in together. Otis Redding and Little Richard were from the same town in Georgia. So were the Allman Brothers. James Brown and Ray Charles grew up right down the road. All these sounds reflect the South itself, and that music has influenced the whole world. It’s definitely influenced mine.” Filled with country-soul songwriting, laid back grooves, and classic storytelling, Southern Star distills the best parts of southern culture into 10 of the strongest songs in Cobb’s catalog. He began writing the material after leaving Nashville — where he spent a decade releasing solo records like 2016’s Shine On Rainy Day (which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album) while penning hit songs for Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, and dozens of others — and returning with his family to Georgia. It was a time of change. Not long after celebrating the arrival of his second child, Cobb found himself mourning the death of his longtime friend, Jason “Rowdy” Cope of The Steel Woods. “Rowdy was like my older brother,” says Cobb, who named Southern Star in part after a small-town bar that he and Cope used to frequent. “He loved the music that came out of Georgia, and he helped me appreciate it even more. A lot of artists like to branch out and become experimental as their career continues, but I sort of go the opposite way. I feel like I can never go wrong if I continue to get closer and closer to the core of who I am and what I love, musically. Coming back to Georgia helped me with that. Southern Star is the sound of me getting closer to the source.” Don’t let Cobb’s breezy songs about rural life fool you. There’s some serious complexity lurking beneath the surface. At first glance, “It’s a Start” unfolds like the soundtrack to a leisurely afternoon in the south, with Cobb singing the praises of crawfish, barbecue, and day-drinking. Dig deeper, though, and the song reveals itself to be something more universal: a reminder to appreciate the small things in life, stay mindful, and chase down new horizons at your own pace. To Cobb, there’s something distinctly southern about that message, too. “Sometimes, there ain’t shit going on down here,” he says with a laugh, “but since there’s nothing else to do, you learn to be laid back. You learn to use your imagination, and you wind up imitating your surroundings. These songs sound like the place that inspired them. On ‘It’s a Start,’ when the organ comes in, it reminds me of the sound of the cicadas and frogs you hear in the springtime.” Caleb CaudleForsythia, the latest studio LP offering from Caleb Caudle out now via Soundly Music, isa portrait of his truest self, of the artist at his most solitary and reflective.Thematically, it meets anticipation for the unknown future with nostalgia for the past, and reconciles both with meditation in the present.The album was recorded at the legendary Cash Cabin during the pandemic, and inspired by the solitude and symbols Caudle found in nature during that time.
The Local Honeys
ALL AGESSEATED SHOWLIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLETHE LOCAL HONEYS Though many artists are defined by place, only a handful of artists come to define the places they’re from. The Local Honeys are Kentucky and Kentucky runs through their veins like an unbridled racehorse. When a master songsmith like Tom T Hall calls an artist “a great credit to a wonderful Kentucky tradition” it’s time to pull up a chair and pay attention. As it pertains to The Local Honeys he was right on the money. For almost a decade the duo (Montana Hobbs and Linda Jean Stokley) have been an integral part of the Kentucky musicscape. They’ve paid their dues, garnering countless accolades and accomplishments (tours with Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, praise from the New York Times) and have become the defining sound of real deal, honest-to-god Kentucky music. With their self-titled debut on La Honda Records, (home of some of today’s most gifted songwriters; Colter Wall, Riddy Arman, Vincent Neil Emerson) the duo have set forth on a journey to create something true to themselves while pushing the envelope within the traditions they hold dear. Carefully crafted vignettes of rural Kentucky soar above layers of deep grooves and rich tones masterfully curated by longtime mentor Jesse Wells, Grammy nominated producer and musician (Assistant Director at the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State). “Jesse grew up with sisters. He was cut from the same cloth as us and we knew he would understand what we wanted to do.” What they ended up with is the most nuanced, moody, deep-holler sound they have captured to date. “This is the first time we’ve actively gotten to express who we are and where we’re from” says Linda Jean, “The songs on the album speak for us,” adds Montana “they’re about what we know, reflections of us as people. We realized we have the power to add our own narrative into Kentucky music.” Through that realization the two were able to uncover and dissect themes unique to Central Appalachia and in turn their own lives, capturing small moments in time that deliver thunderous results. Throughout The Local Honeys, the duo demand to be interpreted as creators and storytellers, not just purveyors of tradition. Similarly, the sounds captured within the project cement their place as innovators and rule breakers. Rollicking banjo meets overdriven guitar hooks and blue collar rural grit is met with lush melodies and nimble harmonies; it’s a project filled with juxtaposition and it isn’t by accident. It’s reflective of who they are and who they run with. Wells along with The Food Stamps rhythm section – Rod Elkins (percussion) Craig Burletic (bass) and Clay City, KY’s irreplaceably one-of-a-kind Josh Nolan (guitar) all lent their expertise and signature groove as collaborators during the session creating a fluidity, warmth and cohesion that can only be created through friendship. The project was engineered in Louisville at Lalaland by Grammy winner Anne Gauthier. PLANEFOLKJESSE LANGLAISBROTHERS GILLESPIE
Jeremy Pinnell
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYJEREMY PINNELL When Jeremy Pinnell released OH/KY in the summer of 2015 to stunned acclaim, it felt like an entire career compressed into one knock-out album. Hailed as, a “Mind-blowingly good” (Greg Vandy/KEXP) “ ”tutorial on classic country music” (Popmatters), Pinnell’s debut immediately differentiated as authentic and unflinching. Dogged touring through Europe and the States and celebrated radio sessions followed, cementing Pinnell’s position as a no-fuss master of his craft. His 2017 album, Ties of Blood and Affection presented a canny lateral move. Instead of doubling down on the stark themes and values of his debut, the sophomore album found Pinnell finding comfort in his own skin, achieving the redemption only hinted at in his previous batch of haunted songs. If the third time’s a charm, Pinnell is all shine and sparkle on Goodbye LA. Produced by Texan Jonathan Tyler, the tunes buff the wax and polish the chrome on Country music’s deeper roots. Rooted in his steady acoustic guitar, Pinnell’s songs are shot through with honest and classic elements. The rhythm section, all snap and shuffle, finds purpose in well-worn paths. The pedal steel and Telecaster stingers arrive perfectly on cue, winking at JP’s world-wise couplets . Here slippery organ insinuates gospel into the conversation. You can feel the room breathe and get a sense of these musicians eyeballing each other as their performances are committed to tape. And through it all comes this oaken identity, the devastating centerpiece of his work. Honest and careworn, Jeremy’s voice can touch on wry, jubilant, and debauched – all in a single line. At his best, Jeremy Pinnell chronicles the joy and sorrow of being human, which is the best that anyone could do. TIME SAWYER Time Sawyer’s name reflects the pull between the past and the future. The character Tom Sawyer evokes the rural background and love of home that the band shares. Time is a muse for songwriting; it’s the thread that runs through life, bringing new experiences and giving us a sense of urgency, while still connecting us with our past. The folk-rock band has performed on the stages of some of the Southeast’s most iconic festivals, including Merlefest, Floydfest, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, Albino Skunk Music Festival, and Carolina in the Fall. They’ve shared bills with American Aquarium, John Craigie, Hiss Golden Messenger, Langhorne Slim, John Moreland, Steep Canyon Rangers, The Wood Brothers, Susto, and many more.
