OUTPOST: Orange Moon
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINEOrange MoonErykah Badu tribute band based out of Asheville, NC. Performing hits & deep cuts from across Badu’s vast discography, Orange Moon is sure to have you movin’ from the second they hit the stage as vocal powerhouse Saara Maria (of Joomanji) pays homage to the queen of neo-soul over the sultry stylings of keyboardist Charlie Evans (of Leisureville & Big Blue), the infectious grooves of bassist/guitarist Eli Kahn (of After Ours & Mood Ring), & the dynamic drumming of Joe Enright (of HELLCRAB Ensemble). Be sure to catch them at The Outpost on 7/20!
PATIO: The Two Tracks
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVEDTHE TWO TRACKS American Songwriter has this to say about The Two Tracks: “They avoid many of the cliches and gimmicks that have grown common in the Americana world while still championing a natural, Earth-grown sound. To hear an acoustic quartet reach a level of dynamic and thematic intensity like The Two Tracks do is an immeasurably rewarding experience. It’s pure musicianship, it’s pure excellence, it’s pure Americana.” Husband and wife Julie and Dave Huebner write songs that traverse the male and female perspective with emotional and natural images of rural American life. The band cares about lyrics, story, the power of the song as much as the music itself, and every arrangement is designed to fully highlight that direct connection between the song and the listener. Hailing from the eastern side of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, the band has traversed the country bringing their joyful, unique sound to stages big and small, including NewWestFest (CO), Deadwood Jam (SD), Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival (CA), MeadowGrass (CO), Albino Skunk Music Festival (SC), Red Ants Pants Music Festival (MT), Levitt Sioux Falls (SD), LevittAMP Green Bay (WI), Ashley for the Arts (WI), Beartrap Summer Festival (WY), Sioux River Folk Festival (SD), Music on the Mothership (NM), Oystergrass (WY), and The LAWN (CO), to name a few, and opened for artists such as Orville Peck, Eilen Jewell, Kitchen Dwellers, Black Lillies, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades and more. They recently completed their first international trip, traveling to Dubai for performances at the World Expo. Julie’s driving rhythm guitar, on-stage enthusiasm and vocal prowess dance perfectly with Dave’s rich voice and unique cello playing, adding a layer of surprise to the band’s sound. This is complemented wonderfully by the four part harmonies, and rock solid groove filled out by Taylor Phillps on bass and Fernando Serna on drums. All seasoned musicians and good friends, they have knit their passions into a tight band family, and it comes across in their albums and on stage. Their latest Cheers to Solitude, was one of the last records made at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville with Grammy winning engineer Sean Sullivan (Sturgill Simpson, Travelin’ McCourys), and was produced by Will Kimbrough (Todd Snider, Rodney Crowell) and mixed by Grammy winner Trina Shoemaker (Tanya Tucker, Sheryl Crow), spending several weeks on the Top 40 Americana Radio Chart, and the Top 10 Alt-Country Specialty Chart. “One of those consummate Americana albums…the songs just roll along with melodies dovetailing into sublime playing, wonderful harmonies and strong songwriting. There’s a direct line from the songwriters to the listeners with just the right amount of production and texture to make them dance on the surface and slide deep into the soul.” – Post to Wire
AJJ
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYAJJAJJ frontman Sean Bonnette can summarize the band’s new album, Good Luck Everybody, in a single sentence: “Sonically, it’s our least punk record, and lyrically, it’s our most punk record.”And indeed, Good Luck Everybody (January 17, 2020), the Arizona band’s seventh album, stands out in their already diverse catalog. While still rooted in the folk-punk sound AJJ has become known for, the album is unafraid to delve into new territories that test the limits of what the band is capable of. “I think it explores some of the weirder sides of AJJ, the more experimental leanings that we’ve had in the past,” says bassist Ben Gallaty. Good Luck Everybody draws from a wealth of sonic inspirations, from Laurel Canyon folk-rock of the 60s and 70s to avant garde artists like Suicide, as well as some orchestral pop. There is even a piano ballad, the tragic “No Justice, No Peace, No Hope.”Lyrically, Good Luck Everybody is a change of pace from the idiosyncratic songwriting style Bonnette has honed over more than 15 years fronting AJJ. It still features his wonderfully weird turns of phrase and oddball word pairings, but this time, his thematic lens is more directly focused on the inescapable atrocities of the world around him. Longtime fans will recognize the album’s social commentary as a return to their 2011 release, Knife Man, but this time it’s fueled by a more radical urgency.“I usually try for a timeless effect in songwriting, so that you can hear a song and generally not think about the context under which it was written,” says Bonnette. “But for this one, I was trying to write, and all the bad political shit just kept invading my brain and preventing me from writing that way. So I decided to fully embrace it and exorcise that demon.”Much like Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs pulled their songs straight from newspaper headlines, Good Luck Everybody feels like a long scroll through social media feeds on a particularly volatile day.with special guests….OPEN MIKE EAGLESAD PARKFOOT OX
PATIO: Vince Junior Band
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVEDVINCE JUNIOR BAND “Vince Junior Band makes music that we’d like to hear when we go out to wind down, dance, or throw a few back,” says guitarist and singer Vince Junior of Vince Junior Band. “I love that Muscle Shoals sound of bass, drums, Fender Rhodes, and a Fender guitar. Simple, soulful, and funky. We just try to make that sound our own” Vince Junior Band has been together since 2014, playing around the Asheville area. “I think we have a unique blend of genres. You’ll hear the flavors of blues, funk, Louisiana, and Soul, coupled with some unusual topics.” Indeed, at a recent Vince Junior Band show, the audience heard a surf version of a Jimi Hendrix song, an original song about a 69 Camaro, and another original tune that could double as a pasta recipe. And surprisingly, they all sound like they belong together. “I try to write about topics that I don’t hear people write about,” says Junior. “The hardships of parenting, getting older, working all day and pursuing the dream with little fuel left.” Vince Junior does have some credentials under his belt. He’s shared the stage with Robert Cray and Paul Geremia, won a Parents’ Choice award for his CD of children’s music, and was a finalist in the Cape Fear Blues Competition. With a voice that some have compared to Tom Waits and Greg Brown, Vince Junior has some pretty impressive guitar skills. “I’ve always played with my fingers, and with a Stratocaster through a tube amp, that can get a pretty sweet sound,” says Junior. “And with this new band, I’m working on bringing in some of that Steve Cropper, Cornell Dupree, and James Burton styles.” The band is rounded out by Noah Pitts on keyboards. “He can get a groove going that just makes the sound so soulful,” says Junior. “He finds these really interesting riffs that just make the song sound familiar and new at the same time. Sort of like new shoes that feel already broken in.” The rhythm section of Robert George and Wayne Kirby is tight, simple but interesting. “We work hard on getting really cohesive arrangements. This is not a band that just jams to three chords. Every measure, every note, every lyric has to serve the groove and melody of the song. We all are constantly trying to make the arrangements unique and swinging so hard you’d have to get up and dance,” says Junior.
OUTPOST: Mama & The Ruckus + Mckinney
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINEMama & The RuckusThe Ruckus is an intergenerational project with a big sound and an even bigger heart. They recently represented the Women in Blues Foundation in Memphis at the International Blues Competition. Inspired by The Allman Brothers, Janis Joplin, and Etta James, The Ruckus is led by Mama who writes songs about the trauma and pain that every person inevitably experiences in their lives. She sings these songs as a cry for hope, healing, and inspiration to others and you hear that in every note that the band plays. With soaring guitars, wailing vocals, screaming harmonicas, and funky bass, keys, and drums, the Ruckus has a sound that is undeniably unique.MckinneyA 22-year-old bass player, singer/songwriter living in Asheville, NC. Since moving to AVL in 2018, McKinney has been mentored by a plethora of Asheville’s finest. McKinney is a resident artist with LEAF Global Arts and has been a regular performer at the LEAF festivals for the past 6 years. She grew up touring with an empowerment concert tour that educates youth about mental health resources. K continues to infuse her shows with a genuine vibe that lifts her audience and truly makes them feel seen and heard. She released her debut solo album in 2021 entitled “Stay,” produced by Josh Blake at Echo Mountain. With McKinney on bass and vocal, Thommy Knowles of the Fritz on keys, Derrick Johnson from Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band on trombone, Alex Bradley of Empire Strikes Brass on trumpet, Isaac Hadden of IHP on guitar and backing vocals, and K’s drummer of 13 years Aryan Graham on drums, you can feel the desire she has to create new music that reaches into your soul and feels like an old friend. With new music, coming early 2023 produced by Ted Marks & Thommy Knowles, this young woman is ready to take her place as the next powerhouse female coming out of Asheville.
Damien Jurado at The Asheville Masonic Temple
– ALL AGES- FULLY SEATED SHOW- AT ASHEVILLE MASONIC TEMPLE (80 Broadway St) DAMIEN JURADO “Play on, there’s no such thing as better days,” Damien Jurado sings on “Roger,” the sweeping wash of a song that opens Reggae Film Star, his 18th full length album and second release from Jurado’s own Maraqopa Records label. But as he enters his 25th year as a recording artist, it’s clear these are, at the least, very good days for Jurado on the creative front. In these 12 songs, which evoke half-recalled dreams and overheard conversations, the cosmic rushes headlong into the autobiographical and specific moments on the clock fade from past to future to scenes set only in the eternal now.Playing out like a backlot documentary filmed on the location of an unnamed TV or film set—maybe a sitcom taping, or perhaps it’s a low budget science fiction B-movie, or could it be a talk show?—the album is populated by performers awaiting call times, camera operators praying for their shot, and studio audiences rapt with anticipation. The stars here eschew glitz and glamor. Instead, they wander grocery stores and parking lots in the verdant Pacific Northwest and the desert Southwest, looking for payphones and a sense of purpose.Produced by Jurado with multi-instrumentalist Josh Gordon and recording engineer Alex Bush at Sonikwire studio in Irvine,CA, Jurado’s home away from home and musical headquarters, the record’s compositions are among the most musically rich in his vast discography, encompassing romantic AM gold, ‘60s psychedelia, driving rock & roll, Latin shuffles, and left of the dial ambiance. Strings swell, melodic bass bubbles, and piano sparkles, undergirding Jurado’s unmistakable voice, at once intimately present and ghostly, grounded in the here and now but capable, at any moment, of drifting off into the divinatory. Following threads established by 2021’s The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, the album sees Jurado embracing his auteur era, penning vignettes that arrive with little fanfare and depart quicker than you might suspect, only to linger long after they wrap.Seeking a skeleton key to decipher the action is beside the point—Jurado’s songs are worlds meant to be lived in, not picked apart—but on the beatific single “What Happened To The Class Of ‘65?” the singer imagines himself as both the viewer and the viewed, the eye behind the camera and its subject. This emotional and spiritual transference animates Reggae Film Star. Like a masterful director, Jurado offers motivation to the listener, staring unblinkingly from the mise-en-scène in your mind. “Look into the camera,” he commands on “The Day Of The Robot,” “One more time with anger/And sadness/I believe you.”A quarter-century in, Jurado remains gripped by his visions and driven by an unmatched creative drive. Reggae Film Star is one of Damien Jurado’s finest works to date, a stunning new feature from one of indie rock’s most cinematic figures. Here on this sound stage, you are the camera, you are the scene, you are the setting, and you are the viewer. Please try not to blink. -Jason P. Woodbury LILLY MILLER
Blue Dogs
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYBLUE DOGS Since 1987, South Carolina’s The Blue Dogs have been blending the genres they grew up with – bluegrass, country, rock & soul – “turning bluegrass on its ear by creating what’s now referred to as ‘Americana’ or ‘alternative country’ before those terms were commonplace” [Charlotte Observer]. More than 30 years later, The Blue Dogs continue to perform unpredictable and upbeat live shows with original songs that capture a country-rock vibe. Acoustic guitarist Bobby Houck and upright bassist Hank Futch, leaders and lead singers of the band, met in Cub Scouts and reconnected musically during their college years. Based in Charleston, their partnership with songwriter Phillip Lammonds in the 1990’s contributed significantly to The Blue Dogs’ three major studio recordings, Blue Dogs (1997), Letters from Round O (1999), & Halos and Good Buys (2004), produced respectively by world class producers John Alagia (Dave Matthews, John Mayer)), David Lowery (Cracker, Counting Crows), and Don Gehman (John Mellencamp, REM). The Blue Dogs have spent over three decades sharing the stage with a range of artists that includes Willie Nelson, Hootie & the Blowfish, Cracker, Bruce Hornsby, and Widespread Panic, and in recent years at their own annual Homecoming with guests such as Jerry Douglas, Drivin n Cryin, Radney Foster, The Connells, and many more. Along with longtime drummer Greg Walker, the band in 2022 consists of Dan Hood (guitar) and Charlie Thompson (pedal steel), often joined by a bigger lineup which includes mandolin, fiddle, keyboards, and a three-piece horn section.
Chris Pureka
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLECHRIS PUREKA It’s rare for an artist to bridge the divide between critical acclaim and dedicated fan engagement. Chris Pureka is a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose body of work has resonated deeply with these seemingly disparate milieus. Her music has straddled the folk, americana and indie rock genres over the course of her 20 year career, and over that time, her bold vulnerability in processing the intimacies of life in song has struck a chord with those listeners who crave authenticity and depth. Chris’s elegant emotionality as a vocalist and her flair as a lyricist have garnered her favorable comparisons to Chan Marshall, Bruce Springsteen, and Patty Griffin. Over many years of touring on both sides of the Atlantic, she has shared the stage with such diverse and esteemed artists as The Lumineers, Gregory Alan Isakov, The Cowboy Junkies, Haley Heynderickx, and Ani DiFranco. She has had her songs featured on such television shows as Brothers and Sisters, Covert Affairs and Shameless and well as a song featured in the Sundance featured indie film, The Royal Road. Along the way, Chris has remained truly independent, selling nearly 50,000 albums through her own label, Sad Rabbit Records.
Emo Night Karaoke
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY Setlist on Spotify: https://bit.ly/emonightkaraoke6:30 PM doors & signupsSong sign ups are first come first serveEMO NIGHT KARAOKE features a live band with members of Just Surrender, Freshman 15, Southcott & Thieves and Villains playing your favorite songs from back in the day on stage live with you on lead vocals!ENK has a setlist of 75+ pop punk/emo songs + the band is also known for doing random throwback album nights. Signups are first come first serve on the iPad, and there are several TVs scrolling the lyrics to help you on stage! Link up with ENK online! http://facebook.com/emonightkaraoke and https://www.emonightkaraoke.com/ and follow instagram.com/emonightkaraoke to stay up to date with your band!
Victor Wooten & The Wooten Brothers w/ Rebirth Brass Band
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY – LIMITED NUMBER OF VIP TICKETS AVAILABLEVICTOR WOOTEN & THE WOOTEN BROTHERS Victor, bass guitar/vocals; Joseph, keyboards/vocals; Roy, percussion/vocals; and Regi, guitars/vocals. For over four decades the Wooten Brothers have been recognized as some of the most innovative musicians in existence and are collectively known as one of the most talented and dynamic band of brothers the world has ever known. Since they were young, the five brothers have been a musical tour-de-force redefining the limits of jazz, funk, soul, R&B, rock, and bluegrass. Sons of military parents, their early years were spent living in different states including Hawaii, California, and Virginia where they shared stages with the likes of Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, Ramsey Lewis, Stephanie Mills, War, and other artists. In the mid 80’s, the brothers released an album as The Wootens for Clive Davis’ Arista Records. This will be the brother’s first tour together as a band since the untimely death of their saxophone-playing brother Rudy a few years ago. Victor Wooten, a five-time Grammy Award-winning artist, has graced the cover of Bass Player Magazine five times. He is a founding member of the eclectic group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and is recognized as one of the greatest living bassist today often drawing comparisons to Jaco Pastorius, and was named one of the “Top ten bassist of all time”by Rolling Stone Magazine. He is also an award-nominated author, naturalist, and music educator and has been running his unique music/nature camps since the year 2000. Wooten’s camps are held at his own Wooten Woods, which is just outside of Nashville. In 2010, he started his own record label, Vix Records, which has released a series of acclaimed recordings over the last few years. REBIRTH BRASS BAND “just saw THE REBIRTH BRASS BAND, unbelievable. hard as hell, free as a ray of light, there is not a band on earth that is better. stunning.” – Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers For almost 4 decades, the Grammy winning Rebirth Brass Band has been “stunning” fans with a fiery live show and a rich musical catalog. Their trademark sound pays homage to the New Orleans brass band tradition while weaving a tapestry that combines elements of jazz, funk, soul, R&B and the sounds from the streets they grew up on. From their legendary 25+ year run of Tuesday nights at the Maple Leaf to stages all over the world, Rebirth is the soundtrack of the Crescent City and her premier musical ambassador. Founded by brothers Phil and Keith Frazier over 35 years ago, Rebirth began their career playing on the sidewalks of the French Quarter, and quickly landed gigs at second line parades. Those auspicious beginnings have led to thousands of shows to music aficionados everywhere, including heads of state and royalty. The bands unique “soundtrack of New Orleans” has also garnered admiration from artists of all genres. They’ve shared the stage and collaborated with everyone from the Grateful Dead to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Maceo Parker, Green Day, U2, James Brown, 311, G-Love, MuteMath, Juvenile, Train, Big Freedia, Ani Difranco, Galactic, Allen Touisant, Neville Brothers, Quincy Jones and Trombone Shorty.
