PATIO: The Tallboys
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED THE TALLBOYS The Tallboys are an Asheville, NC band that writes original songs and performs throughout the region. Their songs feature vocal harmonies and strong rhythmic play between the instruments. Each player is an experienced veteran: Bill Melanson, vocals/guitar/bass, toured throughout the country with The Billys, a duo with the great Billy Jonas. Jeff Mooney, lead guitar/vocals, toured with Electric Monkeywrench out of Birmingham, AL, a top-notch jam band. James Fisher, bass/vocals/guitar, has been in numerous Asheville bands and has roots in the DC music scene. For this show, The Tallboys will have Elzy Lindsey, veteran drummer originally from New Orleans on cajon. And Eric Ciborski will debut as our new keyboardist! The Tallboys are currently working on their debut album and continuing to write new material.
PATIO: Laney Jones & The Spirits
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVELaney Jones & The Spirits Press play on Jones’ mesmerizing new album, Stories Up High, and you’ll find yourself transported there, too. Recorded at East Nashville’s famed Bomb Shelter studio with producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Langhorne Slim), the collection is lush and immersive, with rich, elegant arrangements that ebb and flow beneath Jones’ velveteen vocals. The performances here are graceful and timeless, evoking a faded, old Hollywood glamor full of longing and melancholy, but dig a bit beneath the surface and you’ll find that Jones is actually an optimist at heart, a believer in the relentless beauty of this mixed-up world. She wrote the album in what she describes as a “flow state,” surrendering herself to the creative process the way a monk might approach meditation, and the result is a captivating, cinematic work that’s equal parts stream-of-consciousness and careful introspection, an honest, intuitive record that hints at everything from Angel Olsen and Judy Garland to Brandi Carlile and Andy Shauf as it reckons with growth, change, and the very fabric of life itself. “Strange as it sounds, I found myself sitting there crying while I was writing some of these songs because they came with such deep realizations about myself,” Jones confesses. “The music was there for me when I needed it most.” Jones earned widespread acclaim with a string of early releases, drawing comparisons to the likes of Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver for her majestic take on organic roots music. Her 2013 debut, Golden Road, landed her a nationally televised performance at The Kennedy Center alongside Alison Krauss, Sara Bareilles, and Ben Folds, while her 2016 follow-up, Laney Jones, prompted Rolling Stone to hail her as an Artist You Need To Know and praise her “penetrating hooks” and “Seventies-era flourishes.” Tracks from the albums, meanwhile, racked up millions of streams on Spotify and turned up in films from major studios like Disney and Pixar alongside commercials for Google, Netflix, New Balance, Toyota, and Red Bull. “I’m really proud of those first couple records,” Jones explains, “but they were the result of going into the studio for a week or so and coming out with a finished product. They were these little snapshots of wherever I happened to be at the moment. This time around, though, I wanted to give myself the time and the space to go beyond that, to work without any kind of limitations.” So Jones let Stories Up High unfold at its own pace, capturing the record over the course of several years and multiple recording sessions. The new songs she found herself writing bore less of the rustic, folk-inspired imprint of her previous work and instead drew on a hazy, more abstract palette of airy indie-rock textures reminiscent of Big Thief or Sharon Van Etten. Leaning into all the radical change going on her personal life (most notably her engagement and marriage to drummer Brian Dowd), Jones embraced the new, more self-assured versions of herself that emerged each time she shed her skin and allowed them to guide her on her creative path.
PATIO: Turkey Buzzards
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED TURKEY BUZZARDSMuch like the duo themselves, the songs range near and far. From the sticky humidity of North Carolina to the dusty cellars of the West, The Turkey Buzzards tell simplistic stories that unravel through gritty vocals and thoughtful harmonies. The carefully crafted guitar riffs set against a solid bone bass stretch out across an American landscape with enough depth to sink well beneath the skin.
Vincent Neil Emerson
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYVINCENT NEIL EMERSON Vincent Neil Emerson is a torchbearer of the Texas songwriter tradition. He channels the straightforward truth-telling and resonance of his songwriting heroes in Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Steve Earle into something fresh and distinctly his own. Where his 2019 debut Fried Chicken and Evil Women proved himself as one of the most reverent students of country and western musical traditions, his follow-up LP, the masterful Rodney Crowell-produced Vincent Neil Emerson, which is out June 25 via La Honda Records/Thirty Tigers, is a brave step forward that solidifies his place as one of music’s most compelling and emotionally clarifying storytellers. His songs are cathartic and bluntly honest, never mincing words or dancing around uncomfortable truths. Raised in Van Zandt County in East Texas by a single mother of Choctaw-Apache descent, Emerson’s world changed when he first heard Townes Van Zandt’s music. “To hear a guy from Fort Worth say those kinds of things and make those songs was pretty eye opening,” the now 29-year-old songwriter says. “I had never heard songwriting like that before.” He’s spent the better part of the past decade honing his songwriting and performance chops playing bars, honky-tonks, and BBQs joint across the Fort Worth area. His first album Fried Chicken and Evil Women, which he wrote in his mid-twenties and came out on La Honda Records, the label he cofounded that now includes a roster of Colter Wall, Local Honeys, and Riddy Arman, is a snapshot of his growth as a songwriter and stage-tested charm with songs like “Willie Nelson’s Wall” and “25 and Wastin’ Time” expertly combining humor and tragedy. These marathon gigs and the undeniable songs on his debut introduced Emerson to Canadian songwriter Colter Wall, who quickly became a close friend and took him on tour. With Wall’s audience and sold-out theater shows on runs with Charley Crockett, Turnpike Troubadours, and many others, Emerson found his niche. “It took a guy from Canada bringing me on tour for people to actually start paying attention,” says Emerson. “Before that it was a grind like anything else just trying to make a living.” Crockett is another staunch early supporter of Emerson’s and covered Fried Chicken highlight “7 Come 11” on his 2019 LP The Valley. Like every working musician, 2020 pulled the rug out from under Emerson. With the pandemic shuttering live music and cancelling promising tours, he processed the upheaval the only way he knew how: by writing his ass off. “At the beginning of quarantine, I was really frustrated with everything else going on,” says Emerson. “Everything was falling apart around me, and I didn’t know what to do.” He took to his writing shed and came up with the single “High On Getting By,” a gorgeous song full of self-reflection and resilience: the most autobiographical thing he’s ever written. He sings, “I got my first child on the way / And the bills are all unpaid / I should have finished high school / Got a job and learned to save / But the words keep on fallin’ / And the highway keeps on callin’ / To my pen.”VALLEY JAMES Nurtured by the golden hills of Star, Idaho, Valley James grew up riding horses through cheatgrass and sagebrush, unknowingly searching for more beyond the confines of her life. Music was in her veins, and over time, she realized that articulating her depth through song was her lifeblood.
Mason Jennings at Asheville Masonic Temple
ALL AGES – FULLY SEATED SHOW – AT ASHEVILLE MASONIC TEMPLE (80 Broadway St, Downtown Asheville) MASON JENNINGS When Mason Jennings started writing songs for his new record, Songs From When We Met, he was in a setting he had never written in before. “I was living out at a farm for a month and walking through some old woods on the property every day. There was a river. And each day an owl would come find me, and then perch above me, day or night. I saw lots of snakes. Songs just came to me there. They were coming in so fast they just about took my head off. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced before,” recalls Jennings. In Native American animal medicine snakes symbolize rebirth, owls symbolize seeing what others cannot and turning darkness into light. Both are themes throughout the album and the music has a clear hopeful feeling. Songs From When We Met pulls you in from the start, with Jennings telling the listener, “Get into my car now…let’s leave the city”. “Cursive Prayers is the first song I wrote for the album. I hadn’t written anything in a long time and any time I tried writing things I wrote were very dark. This song is so hopeful and full of love it surprised me. I think it was the beginning of things getting better in my life, like a message from another dimension.” “The last record was made in a real dark time for me. I was battling a lot of dark energy. Since then I’ve healed a lot and a lot of changes have taken place. I got divorced. I’ve been healing from agoraphobia. It’s been a rough patch but thankfully this record is about healing and hope. I fell in love and got married so it is mostly about love.” A great ambassador for the album is the slow grooving “I Know You”. The album features Mason on guitar, piano, bass and drums. He is accompanied by one of his favorite bands The Pines. “They are magic. They got inside these songs and really brought them to life. I produced an EP for them last year and it reminded me how good we worked together. It is always a pleasure working with them. They are Great humans”. The album was recorded with Grammy winning engineer Brian Joseph (Paul Simon, Bon Iver). “His studio has tons of windows. It is an old renovated barn in Eau Claire Wisconsin. He’s got tons of amazing wasp nests, bones, books, hanging lights. The walls are covered in ropes. It’s so beautiful. He’s got bees out back. The studio sits on beautiful land and lots of natural light. Very helpful”. Then the recordings went off to Los Angeles to be mixed by another Grammy winner, producer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War On Drugs.) “He’s an amazing person and sound engineer who has mixed three of my albums. He’s another magic being. He brings out the essence of a recording and makes it hit so hard. He’s a rare guy. I’m happy for him that he’s winning Grammys now. He deserves it”. SILVIESilvie is an indie-pop artist based in Nashville, TN. Although the project began more than five years ago, her sound and story have evolved as she herself has transformed in the last few years through pain and healing. With her poetic lyrics, honest story-telling, and unique pop-rock sound, it’s hard not to feel connected to the stories she’s telling as you listen. Her latest EP, Eleven Twenty-Eight, is a deeply personal journey through Silvie’s adulthood, divorce, and identity that only leaves you wanting more of her stories.
Jeffrey Martin
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMIITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEJEFFREY MARTIN On a small corner lot in southeast Portland, Oregon, Jeffrey Martin holed up through the winter recording his quietly potent new album Thank God We Left The Garden. Long nights bled into mornings in the tiny shack he built in the backyard, eight feet by ten feet. What began as demos meant for a later visit to a proper studio became the album itself, spare and intimate and true. Recorded live and alone around two microphones, Jeffrey often held his breath to wait for the low diesel hum of a truck to pass one block over on the busy thoroughfare. During the coldest nights, he timed recording between the clicks of the oil coil heater cycling on and off. Martin’s fourth full length album, Thank God We Left The Garden comes out on Portland’s beloved Fluff and Gravy Records Nov __. He produced and engineered it himself, recalling, “There was a magic quality to the sounds I was getting in the shack with these two cheap microphones, some lucky recipe of time and place that allowed my voice and the way I play guitar and the shape of these new songs to come together with the kind of honesty I was craving.” So much has happened in the world since the release of his previous album One Go Around (heralded by No Depression as ‘the poetry of America’), and Jeffrey has filled the time doggedly, but happily, touring the US and Europe, watching it all unfold in a stream of small town conversations and city sprawl. In a moment where depth is so often traded for the instantaneous, where tech billionaires are building rockets to escape the planet, where the dead-eyed stare of artificial intelligence is promising to existentially upend our world, and where divisiveness in our culture is breeding delusional levels of certainty, Jeffrey Martin’s new record feels like a hopeful and fully human antidote. TOMMY ALEXANDER Tommy Alexander has never quite known where he was going, just to keep moving. In 2015 something undeniable was pulling the 31-year old DIY musician, self-made entrepreneur, and college dropout to the Pacific Northwest, where he quickly become a core part of their close knit songwriting community. While continuing to refine his own songwriting and performing skills, Alexander would go on to found Pilot Light Booking, which initially focused on that very community, but soon expanded to nearly 50 artists nationwide. As he began to delve into the art of tour booking, Alexander cold called one of his favorite venues and was soon the talent buyer at Bunk Bar. With little to no experience booking a dense concert schedule, Alexander dove in. His plan was simple: offer Bunk Bar to the community as a home for local showcases and touring bands alike. Bunk’s concert schedule thrived, on average hosting more than 20 shows a month. In April of 2022, Alexander was offered a job to book tours at Wasserman Nashville, one of the most respected music booking teams in the world. As hard as it was to let go of Pilot Light Booking and the idea of a dense touring schedule of his own, Alexander knew this was something he needed to pursue.
Nolan Taylor
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYNOLAN TAYLOR Nolan Taylor is a singer-songwriter based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. His voice ranges from the soft fall of rain to a heavy crack of thunder, underlining songs of hard times, wild nights and heartbreak. The emotional impact of his sound is not only heard, but felt, in the bones and in the blood. Themes of longing, desperation, joy and sorrow ring true and genuine from his lips. When Nolan sings, it will make you feel like all of the heartbreak you have ever experienced found a voice and learned how to play guitar. His passion and his energy are contagious and will draw you into his stories.LOGAN HALSTEAD “Logan has that mystic quality that every songwriter seeks to harness each time they put pen to paper, and he’s just getting started. ‘Dark Black Coal’ is a striking lamentation on growing up in coal country, and he takes you there.”- Hippies and Cowboys Podcast “A talented lyricist whose song content authentically revolves around his experiences growing up and living in the heart of Appalachia, Halstead is one of the driving forces in the scene of young artists hailing from the Appalachian region.”- Whiskey Riff “There’s a starkness and a wisdom in this guy’s voice that is way beyond his years. “- Grady Smith
The Resonant Rogues (Album Release Show)
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYTHE RESONANT ROGUES The Resonant Rogues’ dark Appalachian folk paints a picture of their lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina and on the road. Anchored by the songwriting duo of Sparrow (banjo, accordion) and Keith Smith (guitar), they’ve traveled the byways and highways of America and crossed the oceans with instruments in tow. From riding freight trains to building their own homestead, the pair are no strangers to blazing unconventional trails. At once rooted and adventurous, each song tells a story of real experiences, friendships, and challenges. The Rogues just wrapped up a record in Nashville with renowned producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff), featuring guest appearances from Sierra Ferrell, Benjamin Tod, John James Tourville (Deslondes), and Jason Dea West. “Their intense cohesion is so intertwined that it feels like they’re playing with one pair of hands.” –No Depression “I urge you to get out and hear them” -Lonesome Highway CRISTINA VANE Born in Italy to a Sicilian-American father and a Guatemalan mother, Cristina Vane has always had a tenuous relationship with identity and place. She grew up between England, France and Italy, and was fluent in four languages by the time she moved to her fathers’ native United States for university at 18. Despite this, (and perhaps because of it) she had no sense of belonging to any one culture or country. What she did have, however, was an intense love of music. Powered by her signature take on blues and rock, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Cristina Vane’s debut album, Nowhere Sounds Lovely, earned her praise from the likes of American Songwriter and Rolling Stone Country, which deemed it ‘mesmerizing stuff’. The 2021 release was written largely on a road trip across America. Since then, Vane has laid down roots in Nashville and had the opportunity to spend more time exploring internally. On her sophomore album “Make Myself Me Again”, Vane has found a way all the way around the country and right back to herself, both musically and personally. “I’ve been trying to peel back the layers, to understand who I am, and I think that process has translated to this record,” she explains, “The production is straightforward, more minimal, and a bit of a return to my rock roots but still paying homage to the music I’ve explored since then”. After graduating from Princeton with a degree in Comparative Literature, Vane moved to Los Angeles where she worked at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, and spent every free moment working on her music, studying fingerstyle guitar with mentor Pete Steinberg. Those years pushed her into deeper exploration of country blues picking and old folk guitar styles. In the last few years she’s taken a deep dive into old-time and bluegrass music, adding clawhammer banjo to her arsenal of instruments.
Mama’s Broke
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEMAMA’S BROKE Mama’s Broke have spent the past eight years in a near-constant state of transience, pounding the transatlantic tour trail. They’ve brought their dark, fiery folk-without-borders sound to major festivals and DIY punk houses alike, absorbing traditions from their maritime home in Eastern Canada all the way to Ireland and Indonesia. Nowhere is the duo’s art-in-motion approach more apparent than on their long-awaited sophomore record Narrow Line (May 13, 2022 on Free Dirt Records); it’s the sound of nowhere in particular, yet woven with a rich synthesis of influences that knows no borders. It earned them a JUNO nomination for Traditonal Roots Album of the Year 2022. Tinges of Americana stand side-by-side with the ghosts of Eastern European fiddle tunes and ancient a cappella ballad singing, melding into an unusually accessible dark-folk sound. A careful listen of Narrow Line invokes an ephemeral sense of place—whether real or imagined—inviting us to take comfort in the infinite possibilities of life, whether or not we ever choose to settle down. For a group defined by constant touring, it’s not surprising that the two artists that make up Mama’s Broke, Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler, met on the road. As Lisa remembers it, “Amy was driving her old Mercedes from Montreal to Nova Scotia and I was looking for a ride. We spent the 17 hours in the car talking almost exclusively about music. By the time we reached Halifax we started playing together, and within a week or two became a band.” Both coming out of traveling communities that are focused on music and protest, the two owe the way in which they move through the world to the integrated and self-sustaining nature of DIY culture and activism. It was a busy life that took them on a roundabout annual touring schedule running between Canada, the United States, Ireland, the UK, and Europe. In each country, they built grassroots DIY communities to support their music or moved along the pathways of communal organizing that sustained other touring artists. The driving force behind this band is – and has always been – the commitment to challenge borders between people, places, and traditions; while encouraging freedom of expression and community through music.ERIKA LEWISKnown for her lengthy tenure touring and busking with beloved New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny, prolific songwriter and singer Erika Lewis has been churning out American originals all her own for the past several years. From classic country to cosmic Americana to dreamy indie folk, Lewis continues to dip her toes more deeply into an ever-expanding pool of roots music styles. Her new record A Walk Around the Sun is a testament to Lewis’ songwriting prowess and exceptional vocal ability. Produced by John James Tourville (The Deslondes), A Walk Around the Sun features 11 all-original songs exploring the gray areas between love and loss, joy and grief, longing and contentment. Though her songwriting shines brightly, it’s never at the cost of melody or arrangement; complete with sweeping strings, pedal steel, and even the occasional fuzz of a psych-rock guitar solo, Lewis’ voice soars with emotion and texture throughout. Beautifully balanced, adroitly performed, and masterfully produced, A Walk Around the Sun brings Lewis’ solo work out from the wings to center stage, beneath a spotlight nearly impossible to ignore.
Seth Walker
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW – LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE SETH WALKER Over the last decade, Seth Walker has become recognized as one of the most revered Americana artists in the United States; a three dimensional talent who combines a gift for melody and lyric alongside a rich, Gospel-drenched, Southern-inflected voice with a true blue knack for getting around on the guitar. In 2022, Walker will release, ‘I Hope I Know,’ his eleventh studio album. Produced by Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers, the collection is a beacon of light, written and recorded during the dark times of the pandemic. Each song burns bright with what fans have come to love about Walker: stylistically diverse influences, pure soul in his delivery, contemplative lyrics, and musical movement both geographic and spiritual. Currently residing in Asheville after stints living in Nashville, New Orleans and Austin, Walker has used those experiences wisely, soaking up the sounds and absorbing the musical lineage of these varied places. With a bluesman’s respect for roots and tradition, coupled with an appreciation for—and successful melding of—contemporary songwriting, Seth sublimely incorporates a range of styles with warmth and grace. All Music declares, “Walker is deft and elegant, weaving together sounds and stories in a way that has a quiet, lasting impact,” but perhaps Country Standard Time said it best: “If you subscribe to the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth Walker –with his blend of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, and a dash country—just might be your poster boy.” BEN K. LOCHENBen K. Lochen is a songwriter from Asheville, North Carolina. His debut album, Ingrates, is his attempt at making and honoring the kind of music he loves. He hopes you’ll enjoy it.
