Bonny Light Horseman at Asheville Masonic Temple
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- AT ASHEVILLE MASONIC TEMPLEBONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN By the time Anaïs Mitchell, Josh Kaufman, and Eric D. Johnson first convened as Bonny Light Horseman in 2018, each member already had the kind of career about which they once only dreamed. Mitchell, for instance, had made a string of fetching albums at the vanguard of modern folk songcraft, even before her musical Hadestown became a Broadway runaway. As a producer and multi-instrumentalist, Kaufman had worked with a dazzling array of heroes and peers, from Bob Weir and The National to The War on Drugs and Josh Ritter. And for nearly a quarter-century, Johnson had penned intricate indie pop as Fruit Bats. But Mitchell had never been in any band that wasn’t playing only her songs. Johnson had long been focused only on his band (assorted collaborations like The Shins notwithstanding), its sole constant member. And Kaufman largely worked to enhance the visions and hopes of others’ bands. Bonny Light Horseman the band, then, offered that very rare adult opportunity—to learn something new with new friends, with a safety net waiting beneath as needed. No net, of course, would prove necessary: Bonny Light Horseman’s self-titled 2020 debut was a modern folk masterclass, with the trio reimagining centuries-old transatlantic standards with effortless grace and endless wonder. Perfect timing for the trio or perfect chemistry among its members? Who’s to say, really? Yes? Either way, those GRAMMY-nominated, list-topping recordings not only suggested renewed possibilities for aging songbooks but also marked the arrival of a trio fully capable of reorienting the wider folk landscape. Still, if Bonny Light Horseman felt at all like the work of some short-lived supergroup or a one-off diversion (it never was), Rolling Golden Holy rebuffs the notion with preternatural beauty, charm, and imagination. These 11 songs—all originals, written and realized by the trio as a whole—follow the paths of the traditional tunes the band cherishes to new musical and lyrical frontiers, and give the sounds and situations of history the gravity and shape of now. Rolling Golden Holy confirms that Bonny Light Horseman is not a project but a band, and one presently working at the forefront of modern American folk. JOAN SHELLEYJoan Shelley is a songwriter and singer who lives near Louisville, Ky., not far from where she grew up. She draws inspiration from traditional and traditionally-minded performers from her native Kentucky, as well as those from Ireland, Scotland, and England, but she’s not a folksinger. Her disposition aligns more closely with that of, say, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton, or her fellow Kentuckian Tom T. Hall, who once explained—simply, succinctly, in a song—“I Witness Life.” Shelley has crossed the country and toured Europe several times as a headlining artist, typically with guitarist Nathan Salsburg, and sharing shows with the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Other Years, and Michael Hurley. She has opened for Wilco, Chris Smither, Patty Griffin, Andrew Bird and Richard Thompson and has appeared as a guest on WTF with Marc Maron, Fresh Air and Later… with Jools Holland. Her new album The Spur was released in June 2022.
Red Clay Strays: Way Too Long Tour
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYRED CLAY STRAYS With a sound as classic as the crackling of a Sun Records vinyl still spinning somewhere in Memphis, yet as fresh as the musical stylings of the 21st century, The Red Clay Strays are busy making waves with their spellbinding and genre-bending brand of tunes. Reminiscent of the vibrant heyday of southern music, the band finds their origins in the styles of classic country, rockabilly, and gospel-fed soul all the while ushering in a new era of rock-and-roll that is as distinctive as the men who form it. Born and bred in the red dirt clay of south Alabama, Brandon Coleman (lead vocals/guitar), Drew Nix (vocals/electric guitar/harmonica), Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums), blended their unique individualities and influences together to create a band with a rare sincerity that is not often seen in today’s industry. They have spent the past five years cutting their teeth in the Gulf Coast music scene while simultaneously running the roads discovering who they are and where they belong in the world as they plant roots in towns big and small across the country by burning down every stage they step on—proverbially, of course. Their high-energy, emotive stage presence is as lively as their melodies, though they possess an uncanny knack for tuning into their softer side when the song warrants it. Whether the song has listeners tapping their toes and shaking their hips as in previous singles such as “Good Godly Woman” and “Doin’ Time,” or tugging on the heartstrings in ballads like “Wondering Why” and “Heavy Heart” off their upcoming debut album, the band displays their penchant for storytelling in any song they sing. For The Red Clay Strays, music is simply a way of life—they eat, sleep, live, and breathe it—which is emphasized by their passionate artistic integrity as there is evidently nowhere else they would rather be. At best, they are well on their way to being America’s next big thing, but at the heart of the matter they’re just five guys from Mobile, Alabama who want to play their music and fellowship with people while they do it.Meg McRee After attending Vanderbilt University on a full academic scholarship, Meg McRee traded her newly earned degree for the pursuit of an unpredictable dream as a songwriter. After a few years of waitressing at The Listening Room and nannying in between co-writes, McRee was validated as more than a driven idealist with the signing of her first publishing deal at Hang Your Hat, a creative joint venture with Concord Music Publishing and hit-songwriter Hillary Lindsey. Since, her musical prowess has earned her cuts with Grace Potter, Elle King, Caylee Hammack, Paul Cauthen, Carter Faith, Ben Chapman, Lauren Watkins, Harper O’Neill and more. As she proved her chops in the writing room, McRee toured singing background vocals and playing fiddle with Ben Chapman and Hailey Whitters before making the leap into her own artistic journey with the recording and release of her debut record Is It Just Me?, an album founded upon pleasantly unpredictable melodies, inquisition, and warm-hearted poetry that will make your feelings make sense.
Rooster at The Outpost
– ALL AGES- THE OUTPOST (521 AMBOY RD)- FREE / $10 SUGGESTED DONATION AT DOORROOSTERAsheville band Rooster is Annie Myers and Erin Kinard and was formed in 2016 around a campfire, but the two had performed separately for many years prior. Since then, they have performed throughout Western North Carolina, creating new songs and arrangements of beloved Americana. They perform an energetic combination of folk country and classic Americana, driven by their powerful vocal harmony and soulful drum/guitar instrumentation. Rooster’s debut album ‘Bloodroot’ was recorded in Swannanoa in 2019, released in March of 2020 and made it on WNCW’s top 100 albums of that year. Their orchestrations are clean and uncluttered, but with a raw, gritty edge. They seem right at home in a coffee house, wine bar, brew pub, honky-tonk or at a backyard barbecue.
Dave Desmelik at The Outpost
– ALL AGES- THE OUTPOST (521 AMBOY RD)- FREE / $10 SUGGESTED DONATION AT DOORDAVE DESMELIK “A superb example of all that is good in Roots/Americana music today.” -lonesomehighway.com Dave Desmelik is a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist whose musical focus is on original compositions. What attracts listeners to Desmelik’s tunes, old and new, is the element of authenticity incorporated in them. There is no sugar coating involved. His songs are not wrapped in false smiles, rather they are stark and open and tend to settle on the pulse of everyday life. An unclosed and evolving journal of thoughts set to music and melodies in prose and instrumental performance. If you listen to Dave Desmelik’s songs, whether lyrical or instrumental, you may become pleasantly fixed in the simplistic realness of them and if you hear Desmelik in a live setting you may realize that there are no tricks, just a genuine venture into the highs and lows of life.
Alex Krug Combo: Alex’s Bday and the combo’s single release party at The Outpost
– ALL AGES- THE OUTPOST (521 AMBOY RD)- FREE / $10 SUGGESTED DONATION AT DOORALEX KRUG COMBO Life is at its very core about exploring. We can remain stagnant and rooted in place, or we can take a page out of Alex Krug Combo’s playbook and dive headfirst. The thrill of adventure looms ahead of this band. Their Psychedelic Smoky Mountain Americana strikes a stunningly evocative chord about life, being an outsider and the kind of heartache and healing that transforms your soul.
Nikki Lane: Denim and Diamonds Tour
– WITH DRAYTON FARLEY- ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYNIKKI LANENikki Lane’s stunning third album Highway Queen sees the young Nashville singer emerge as one of country and rock’s most gifted songwriters. Co-produced by Lane and fellow singer-songwriter, Jonathan Tyler, this emotional tour-de-force was recorded at Matt Pence’s Echo Lab studio in Denton, Texas as well as at Club Roar with Collin Dupuis in Nashville, Tennessee. Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage Sixties country-pop swagger, Lane’s new music will resonate as easily with Lana Del Rey and Jenny Lewis fans as those of Neil Young and Tom Petty.Highway Queen is a journey through heartbreak that takes exquisite turns. The record begins with a whiskey-soaked homage to Lane’s hometown (“700,000 Rednecks”) and ends on the profoundly raw “Forever Lasts Forever,” where Lane mourns a failed marriage — the “lighter shade of skin” left behind from her wedding ring. “Love is the most unavoidable thing in the world,” Lane says. “The person you pick could be half set-up to destroy your life with their own habits — I’ve certainly experienced that before and taken way too long to get out of that mistake.””Becoming a songwriter is one of the most selfish things I’ve ever done,” Lane says plainly. She describes writing her first song at age 25 like it was a necessary act of self-preservation after a devastating breakup. Many of her early songs, she said on Shame and Nothin,’ were about the fleetingness of relationships she believed were permanent, she says. Lane’s main line of work in those days was a fashion entrepreneur (she’s currently the owner of Nashville’s vintage clothing boutique High Class Hillbilly). It brought her to cities around the country, New York to Los Angeles to Nashville. And like a true wanderer, Lane’s sound crisscrosses musical genres with ease, while the lonesome romantic in her remains. Even a soft song like, “Send The Sun,” with its lilting downward strum, is flush with bittersweet emotion. “Darling, we’re staring at the same moon,” Lane sings lovingly. “I used to say that to my ex,” she says with cheerful stoicism, “to try to brighten the long nights, stay positive.”DRAYTON FARLEYAlabama native Drayton Farley has as honest a voice as you’re likely to hear in this burgeoning scene of country, folk, roots, and Americana music we’re all wrapped up in. With songs and lyrics pulled from real life experience, there’s a grounded feeling to his stories, a confessional quality that rings true to those who know. His voice fills the room like cigarette smoke, curling into every corner of you, with a fine grit rasp that smooths out every rough edge. It lingers hours, days, after you’ve left the bar – turns of phrase that tumble around your mind, bittersweet and familiar. He sings as deeply about the love he holds as the love he’s lost and there’s something so broken-in and comfortable about that Southern inflection that every song feels like coming home. Sharing stages with musicians on the rise such as Zach Bryan, Arlo McKinley and Mike and the Moonpies, Drayton has quickly gained a loyal fan base.
PATIO SHOW: Darby Wilcox
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING (FIRST COME FIRST SERVED)DARBY WILCOXStunning. Incisive. Heartbreaking. These are words that jump to mind when describing singer-songwriter and Mayor of Babetown, Darby Wilcox, whose powerful and commanding presence leaves her audiences captivated, charmed, and fascinated. With the dual powers of her tenderness and ferocity, she makes you feel as if you have been given a gift; a precious glimpse into the deepest depths of her secret soul. Her songs are places you’ve been before. They are pain. They are joy. They are honesty. They are your story through her eyes. It is this unadulterated vulnerability and strength in honesty that leaves Darby’s audiences with the feeling that ‘this too shall pass and in the morning I will try again,’ empowered, inspired, and likely misty-eyed. You can find Darby Wilcox in a plethora of venerable listening rooms, patios, and galleries throughout the Southeast, and you can find her music on any streaming platform where music is available.
I Draw Slow
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEI DRAW SLOW Critically acclaimed roots five piece I Draw Slow are coming back to the US to launch their fifth and most exciting album to date. The band have consistently redefined roots music over four celebrated albums: their last cut, Turn Your Face to the Sun, reached number 1 in the Irish Independent Chart. Their songs are streamed in the millions worldwide and the band are in tour demand in the US, UK and across Europe. Their distinctive music has been licenced for film, TV and advertising and is widely covered and recorded by other artists. The band recently appeared in a major Kerrygold butter commercial which featured one of their songs, Swans. They are also known for their high production videos featuring actors such as Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and award winning directors Hugh O’Conor (Three Musketeers) and Ronan Fox. I Draw Slow is helmed by siblings Dave and Louise Holden and is signed to Nashville label Compass Records, a leading independent US label that nurtures and celebrates roots and folk music. I Draw Slow write unique songs that instil love and loyalty in their supporters. Fans regularly travel hundreds of miles to see their dynamic, emotionally-charged performances that captivate audiences with exquisite balladry, then bring them to their feet with high energy, bass heavy dance trad. Their new album moves once again into new roots territory, employing traditional string instruments to deliver contemporary themes and alt-folk grooves. I Draw Slow have fully established themselves on the North American acoustic music scene, touring the U.S. and Canada multiple times a year and appearing regularly at some of the US’s biggest and most iconic roots festivals including Pickathon, Merlefest and Grey Fox. Locked down for the last two years they have completed their most ambitious album to date, to be released on Compass Records on September 9 2022.
Cordovas at The Outpost
– ALL AGES- THE OUTPOST (521 AMBOY RD)- $12 ADVANCE // $15 DAY OF SHOWCORDOVAS The latest full-length from Cordovas, Destiny Hotel is a work of wild poetry and wide-eyed abandon, set to a glorious collision of folk and country and groove-heavy rock-and-roll. In a major creative milestone for the Tennessee-based band—vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Joe Firstman, keyboardist Sevans Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Lucca Soria and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Toby Weaver—the album harnesses the freewheeling energy of their live show more fully than ever, all while lifting their songwriting to a whole new level of sophistication. The result is a batch of songs that ruminate and rhapsodize with equal intensity, inviting endless celebration on the way to transcendence. Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Rick Parker (Lord Huron, Beck, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), Destiny Hotel expands on the harmony-soaked roots rock of Cordovas’ ATO Records debut That Santa Fe Channel, a 2018 release that earned abundant praise from outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR Music. Before heading to L.A., Cordovas spent over three months in their second homebase of Todos Santos (an artist community in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula), sketching dozens of songs partly sparked from their voracious reading of authors like mythologist Joseph Campbell, poet/novelist Rainer Maria Rilke, and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. And when it came time for the recording sessions—a frenetic seven-day stretch squeezed in just before stay-at-home orders took effect in response to the global pandemic—the band methodically eliminated any lyrics they deemed inconsequential. “We wanted to strike the term ‘want’ from our music—to get rid of all the ‘Baby, baby, baby, I want this, I want that,’ and create something more useful,” says Firstman. “We needed to make sure these were songs we’d be proud to sing forever.” But while Destiny Hotel unfolds in untold revelations on fear and ego and self-liberation, Cordovas offer up that insight without ever slipping into didacticism. In fact, much of the album radiates utter elation, each moment echoing Cordovas’ band-of-brothers kinship and extraordinary closeness: when they’re not touring the world, taking the stage at leading festivals like Stagecoach, Newport Folk and Pickathon, or hosting their own Tropic of Cancer Concert Series down in Todos Santos, Cordovas spend much of their time practicing in the barn at their communal farm home just outside Nashville. “I can’t imagine that many bands rehearse more than we do,” says Firstman, whose wife and young child also live on the farm. “We’re all here together in this wonderful space, and we’re pretty good about never taking it for granted.”
Phuncle Sam at The Outpost
– ALL AGES- THE OUTPOST (521 AMBOY RD)- $10 ADVANCE // $12 DAY OF SHOWPHUNCLE SAMPhuncle Sam is Asheville’s own Dead-Centric “jam band”. Since their formation in 2004, Phuncle Sam has been firmly rooted in musical exploration. The band serves up inventive interpretations of Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead and many others. They have built up a faithful following by using an approach that respects the improvisational traditions of The Grateful Dead, while exploring what can happen when individual band members bring their unique influences and interpretations into the mix.
