PATIO SHOW: Ben Flournoy
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEBEN FLOURNOY Ben Flournoy, known as “Strings” on stage, is a breakout artist in pop/modern blues. After dazzling audiences at SXSW 2025, he took the main stage at SXSW 2026. With a charting single, “So Beautiful,” hitting #24 and glowing praise in Goldmine magazine, his blistering guitar work and electrifying presence create a can’t-miss, unforgettable show.
PATIO SHOW: Forty Drop Few & Vaiano’s Paisanos
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEFORTY DROP FEW & VAIANO’S PAISANOS The “Forty Drop Few” are a trio originally from the southwest that play popular music of the early 1900s. They perform in various styles from the era as a string band and are influenced by nothing other than the old 78 records that they love so well. Their main influences include New Orleans jazz, southwestern fiddle music, classic banjo rags, black string band music, hillbilly harmonies and unique vocals. The trio consists of Ethan Francis, Candra Edwards and Elliot Kennedy who all currently reside in Portland Oregon. The couple, also known as “Stone and Sue” have been playing music together for a decade and met Kennedy who joined them 6 years ago. The three are inseparable and spend all of their time picking apart old tunes, listening to 78s, throwing shows in Portland and traveling around the country together.Vaiano’s Paisanos, the string band, founded by Rachel Meirs (violin, mandolin); Maxwell Apra(mandolin, tenor banjo, tenor guitar); and Van Burchfield (guitar)—which sometimes balloons to a quintet, thanks to Quentin Bardinet (mandolin, tenor banjo, tenor guitar) and Albanie Faletta (guitar)—is a melting pot of old- instrumentation, with international repertoire gathered from recordings made in New York City. Though the musicians in the band met busking in New Orleans, fiddler in chief Meirs, now based in Louisville, KY, first encountered some of the recordings that inspired this project while working at the Jalopy Theatre over a decade ago. Following in the grand tradition of musical discovery and dissemination by Jalopy Records labelmate and musicological genius Pat Conte, curator of the acclaimed Secret Museum archival reissue series, Vaiano’s Paisanos’ repertoire consists of the masterful melodies immigrants would’ve been humming along and dancing to in the late ’20s and early ’30s. Think Cape Verdean fiddle tunes, Italian mandolin music, pre-Belafonte Calypsos, and Venezuelan waltzes. “Almost everything in our repertoire was originally recorded in New York City,” explains Meirs. “It’s not that we chose to play immigrant music; it’s that we come from a society largely made up of immigrants, and this music is a beautiful byproduct of that melting pot, as are we.” We owe our gratitude to the musicians who originally composed, played, and eventually recorded this music, who all came from different countries and traditions, and all recorded in New York in the 1920’s and 30’s. Of course, we would not have heard any of these songs if not for the people who seek out and and collect old 78’s, and who found ways to share what was on them, so that they eventually made their way to our ears in compilations, blog posts, discord channels, youtube videos, or a CD burned and sent in the mail.
PATIO SHOW: ZG Smith & Madison Hughes
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEZG SMITH & MADISON HUGHES ZG Smith is the Los Angeles-born, Nashville-based son of an English professor mother and a shipwreck diver and underwater archaeologist father. For over ten years, he fronted the band Smooth Hound Smith who headlined tours in the US, Europe, and the UK and supported artists like The Chicks, Collective Soul, Trombone Shorty, Jamestown Revival, and many more. Following the release of their third album in 2019 and a month-long European tour in February 2020, the band’s eventual hiatus caused Smith to refocus towards other artistic pursuits. “I started seeking out music again like I did when I was younger. I realized that I had been so focused on Smooth Hound Smith and had been trying to push the band forward, that I stopped listening to music just for enjoyment. Because of the pandemic, I had time, so I dug a massive hole in my backyard, leveled it off, and laid a patio of over 1,200 bricks, all by hand. It took me about a month. I would just be out there all day in the sun listening to North African desert blues, EDM, ‘90s hip hop, or bizarre, outsider folk music. A lot of that stuff really informed the music I ended up creating months later.”Madison Hughes makes music that lives in the in-between — the space between falling apart and finding your footing. Her sound pulls from the women who defined late ’90s Americana — Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Mazzy Star — and roots it in something country-blues and lived-in. Warm, honest, and a little worn around the edges. Like someone you trust quickly, even if you just met.
PATIO SHOW: Jesse James Deconto (The Pinkerton Raid)
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEJESSE JAMES DECONTO (THE PINKERTON RAID) Leading up to Independence Day, The Pinkerton Raid’s songwriter Jesse James DeConto will release “The Fight for Freedom was in VOGUE,” about Lee Miller, Solange D’Ayen and the Parisian artists who stood up to the Nazi occupation in the ways they knew how. “VOGUE” is among a series of narrative-driven resistance singles from his upcoming full-length album, IF YOU LOVE SOMEBODY, TELL THEM, singing his story as a dad trying to hold onto hope and imagine a future for his kids in the face of American fascism and climate catastrophe. Back home in Durham, NC, with partners like Indivisible, Jesse often leads singalongs of classic protest songs from Bob Dylan, NENA, Neil Young, 4 Non-Blondes, Crowded House and others. “The sane response to tyrants is to sing,” Jesse says on “VOGUE,” inspired by a famous quote by revolutionary painter Pablo Picasso. On Wednesday, July 1, he’ll bringing his “protest songs with Big Dad Energy” to the Grey Eagle patio in Asheville’s River Arts District.
2026 Paddling Film Festival World Tour benefiting MountainTrue
ALL AGES SEATED FIRST COME FIRST SERVE W/ ADDITIONAL STANDING ROOM DISCOUNTED TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 12 PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT MOUNTAINTRUEWhat better way to celebrate than by watching the best paddling films and being in community with other clean water supporters? You’ll be inspired to explore rivers, lakes, and oceans, push extremes, embrace the paddling lifestyle, and appreciate the wild places. Nocturne: Shot entirely at night, Nocturne captures athlete Heidi Walsh and the quiet chaos and beauty of paddling under stars. Every ripple glows in the light emitted from the LED lights adorning Heidi’s equipment. It is a study in contrast, darkness and illumination, where every stroke becomes poetry in motion. Shot on the Ottawa River, Canada. Follow the Water: This short documentary follows a crew that embarks on a source-to-sea kayaking adventure. The goal was to find the source of the drinking water for Portland, Maine, then follow the water on its journey to the ocean. Along the way, the paddlers encountered many amazing people and organizations. Riverbound: Yak is a former pro guide and expert kayaker who became a paraplegic after a canyoning accident. Can packrafting give him the freedom to run rivers again? And how will he fare in the thundering Class III rapids of the Upper Buller Gorge? The film also asks whether packrafting can open the sport to an even more diverse range of people who want to run rivers. Gauley Guide: The Upper Gauley River is legendary throughout the whitewater world and the words “I’m an Upper Gauley Guide” give you instant street cred. The path to becoming a Gauley guide is not quick or easy. It takes years of flips, swims, early mornings, late nights, swiftwater training and guide ejections to get to where smooth lines through class V rapids are the norm. Gauley Guide follows Michael Anderson as he works to become an Upper Gauley guide. Part 2:Gabon uncharted: The SEND Collective is the closest thing to social media stardom the kayaking world has ever seen. The crew embarks on an unknown river deep in the jungles of Gabon. With no Wi-Fi and no turning back, they plunge into 10 days of raw whitewater, relentless jungle and uncomfortable honesty. Gabon Uncharted is a wild, unfiltered and occasionally damp exploration of what happens when online legends are dropped into offline chaos. Featuring the SEND team members: Adrian Mattern (GER), Dane Jackson (USA), Kalob Grady (CAN), Bren Orton (GBR). Presenting Sponsor: Caley Bowman and Mosaic Realty Supporting Sponsors: Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), Second GearRAFFLE: There will be a raffle announce at this event, there are two raffle packages featuring a variety of outdoor swag. Please follow this link to enter! https://secure.everyaction.com/Ip8on2Y6T0yOcOEv1AR3DQ2
PATIO SHOW: Jane Kramer + Hannah Kaminer w/ Jackson Dulaney
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEJANE KRAMER + HANNAH KAMINER w/ JACKSON DULANEY Lauded by UK music reviewer Three Chords and the Truth as sounding like she was “…born to bohemian poets and raised in the mountains by Emmylou Harris,” Asheville, North Carolina songstress Jane Kramer has garnered international recognition for the heartrending originality of her vocals and for the heavy-hitting lyrical eloquence of her songwriting. With deep roots in the musical traditions, culture and lore of her beloved Appalachia, Kramer’s songs are introspective, gracefully gritty andfiercely memorable. Her live performances are equally as poignant and engaging; artfully lifting the veil between audience and performer with bittersweet and even humorous recognition of our flawed human experience. Kramer has been touring and recording nationally and internationally for the last twelve years, playing for enchanted audiences in listening rooms, theaters, festivals, living rooms, prisons and arts councils alike. Three acclaimed solo albums later, this has gained her a loyal followingfrom the southeastern, U.S. where she calls home, to Portland, Oregon to Scotland, U.K to Florence, Italy. Kramer is set to release her fourth solo album, Moon & Mother, recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC, with her band including Chris Rosser and River Guerguerian of Free Planet Radio, Matthew Smith (Amy Ray Band, The Honeycutters), Duane Simpson and Jake Wolf (Dirty Logic) in October of 2026. A mother, former social worker, domestic violence crisis counselor and avid humanitarian, Kramer continues to perform and teach about the songwriting process in prisons, shelters for the unhoused, programs for at-risk youth, hospitals and even animal rescues, sharing her message of music as a powerful tool for healing, connection and compassion. Quoted as “…an artist on the rise” by acclaimed American songwriter Mary Gauthier and “One of the purest voices in modern Americana” by Blue Ridge Outdoors, Kramer has performed with Joan Osborne, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Leyla McCalla, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Sarah Siskind, Gretchen Peters, Malcolm Holcombe, Josh Goforth, Verlon Thompson and Shawn Mullins.Hannah Kaminer is an artist and singer-songwriter writing songs about love, loss, and home. Raised in small towns in Western North Carolina, she fuses echoes of Appalachian and country traditions with wistful, Americana-style songwriting. She has released three studio albums: Acre by Acre (2015), Heavy Magnolias (2018) which was co-produced with GRAMMY-winning engineer Julian Dreyer, and Heavy on the Vine (2024) which she produced with her band,The Wistfuls. In 2024, she also completed her first international tour alongside Asheville-based acts The Moon & You and Amanda Anne Platt, leading one Americana UK writer to note, “At times reminiscent of Iris Dement, full of emotional honesty and intensity… [Kaminer] is a songwriter of the highest order. Hannah Kaminer is a name we should all be hearing a lot more of.” In late 2025, Kaminer joined forces with another Asheville-based act, The Moon & You, to produce Dark Turn of Mind: A Haunted Americana Tour. The show will return stranger than ever in 2026!
PATIO SHOW: Morgan Bevis of Shed Bugs
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEMORGAN BEVIS OF SHED BUGS Morgan Bevis is a guitarist and songwriter based in Asheville, NC. Having established himself locally with his jam band ‘Shed Bugs,’ Morgan’s solo repertoire takes a step back from the sonic intensity of psychedelic rock to create a raw & stripped down acoustic experience. Listeners to his live performances can always expect a heavy mix of loops and improvisation in genres ranging from folk, blues, bluegrass, and country.
The Art of Paul
ALL AGES SEATED SHOW THE ART OF PAUL Benjamin Falcon (You Can Call Me Paul) and Daniel Shearin (River Whyless) present an evening of music featuring the songs of Simon and Garfunkel. The Art of Paul is an intimate review of the classic Paul Simon songs written during the early era of his career, while he was performing and recording with Art Garfunkel. The folk ballads that became part of the American songbook will transport you through the years to a nostalgic place and time. Doors at 5:30pm, show at 6:30pm.
PATIO SHOW: Abe Reid
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVE ABE REIDAbe Reid is a North Carolina musician and one of the modern keepers of the Piedmont roots music tradition. Born in Forsyth County and raised in Statesville, Reid began playing guitar at a young age, developing a deep connection to the region’s historic finger-style traditions. His musical education came directly from the source. As a young player, he spent time with legendary Carolina musicians Guitar Gabriel and Cootie Stark, learning not only guitar technique but also the storytelling and spirit behind traditional American music. In the 1990s, Reid immersed himself in the life of a working musician, busking on the streets of New Orleans before returning to North Carolina’s music scene. He later helped form the roots band The Blue Rags, known for energetic performances and traditional sounds. Reid gained international recognition when he won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis—becoming the first solo performer to win the competition. Today, Abe Reid continues to perform, teach, and share the music of the American South, passing on knowledge learned from older musicians and decades on the road.
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.
