Darren Kiely
ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYDARREN KIELY Hailing from a quaint town in Co. Cork, Ireland, Darren Kiely’s folk-infused pop sound originates from his inherited love of traditional Irish music, intertwined with modern influences such as The Lumineers and Noah Kahan. At just five years old, Darren learned the tin whistle, and at eight years old he picked up the fiddle, eventually teaching himself to play guitar as well. Darren began singing in 2019, quickly garnering attention for his raw and fervent vocals and emotive delivery. After winning numerous honors at a national level in Irish traditional music, Darren found his way to New York in 2022 to continue developing his own music and sound. Since then, he has entered Ireland’s top 50 viral charts on three separate occasions: with his debut single “How Could You Love Me,” second single “Ella” and his most recent release “Time To Leave.” The singer-songwriter has accumulated 3 million total global streams independently and has sold out headlining shows at Rockwood Music Hall and Mercury Lounge in New York. Darren’s next adventure lies in the songwriting hub of Nashville, Tennessee, where he’s currently living and creating new music set to arrive this year. KYNDAL INSKEEP Rising Nashville pop artist and songwriter, Kyndal Inskeep, has been writing and performing since childhood. Her passion for music began in Indianapolis where she was raised. Her challenging upbringing often left her isolated and music quickly became her first love. Inskeep came to Nashville briefly in 2015 where she studied at Belmont University. After a semester she moved to Los Angeles to experience the industry “more closely”. She returned to Nashville in 2018 and signed a global-joint publishing and artist development deal with Cornman and Warner Chappell publishing in 2021. Inskeep’s artist career has taken off after releasing her debut viral single “Honest” with Song House. It quickly accumulated millions of streams and inspired masses. Her second single, “Parachute” initiated the same response. According to Spotify, Kyndal’s 14 daily streams multiplied to 96,000 streams per day, landing her an opening slot on a national tour. Currently, Inskeep remains an independent artist with the desire to make music that inspires others to feel something again.
David Wilcox Annual Thanksgiving Homecoming Concert
– ALL AGES- FULLY SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEDAVID WILCOX David Wilcox is a penetrating storyteller. The revered folk musician has an effortless talent for spinning lyrics that quietly cut deep, and crafting melodies that seamlessly ride the plot twists and turns. Wilcox handily exemplifies the power of lyrical and musical catharsisPick any song from Wilcox’s new acoustic album, My Good Friends, and you will find yourself instantly immersed. Sometimes you’ll see yourself in the lyrics, other times you’ll marvel at the four-minute mini-movie. My Good Friends is a stripped-down, acoustic collection of ten songs, a fan-requested creative respite for Wilcox as he also continues to work on a full band album coming in 2024.Of special note on the new recording is “Jolt,” with its jittery rhythm playing perfect backdrop to lyrics about today’s obsession with online fear mongering and internet disinformation. The title track is a folk-blues number about living a life filled with close calls and surviving them all. Then there’s a trio of story songs – “Dead Man’s Phone,” “This Is How It Ends,” and “Lost Man” – that are as cinematic as they are charismatic. Wilcox says those last three songs “create a whole movie in my imagination.”In fact, the way Wilcox feels about every tune on My Good Friends proves this is indeed a fan-requested labor of love. “I am grateful for the community that sustains me – my good friends,” he says. “These are the kind of friends that get you through difficult times. The kind of friends that you go to for a fresh perspective when the future looks grim. These songs grew out of conversations with friends, and they hold ideas that I like to have around.”Such dedication to honoring personal and heartfelt music has been the backbone of David Wilcox’s entire career. The Ohio native with the warm baritone found his artistic muse in North Carolina during the mid-1980s. In 1987, he released his debut album, The Nightshift Watchman, which led to winning the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in 1988. That translated to a four-album stint with A&M Records starting with 1989’s How Did You Find Me Here, which sold 100,000 copies by word of mouth. Thirty-plus years and twenty-plus albums later, Wilcox won top honors in the 23rd annual USA Songwriting Competition in 2018 for his effervescent “We Make the Way by Walking” from his last album release, The View From the Edge. Wilcox has deservedly earned praise over the years in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone, to name a few. He also has a dedicated and vocal core of fans who regularly write to thank him for his work and the impact his songs have had on their lives.Today, Wilcox is still earning his admirers with storytelling that cuts deep into the soul and observes the human condition from both the nerve center and the outside looking in. That kind of storytelling is certain to become a good friend.
ELLA VOS: The Microdose Tour
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYELLA VOSAcclaimed for her dreamy soundscapes and psychedelic anthems, Ella Vos arrived on the scene with her 2017 single “White Noise,” which became an overnight sensation, debuting at #1 on Spotify’s Viral Charts. Her debut album, Words I Never Said, shortly followed to critical praise from Rolling Stone, HuffPost, Nylon, Coveteur and more. In 2019, Vos shared her Watch and Wait EP to acclaim from The New York Times, UPROXX—who called it “cathartic and confessional”— Earmilk and more. She has consistently sold out shows across North America, and with more than 300 million streams amassed independently, her songs have soundtracked hit series on ABC, MTV, E!, The CW and more. Vos’ songwriting is celebrated for exploring modern women’s lives in their totality, from motherhood, postpartum depression, reproductive rights, a lymphoma diagnosis, her divorce, to navigating lockdown with a new partner. With SUPERGLUE, her latest album written and recorded with husband Tommy English (Kacey Musgraves, Noah Cyrus), Vos expands on the complexities of womanhood after a year of intractable life shifts.
OUTPOST: Anuraag Pendyal
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINE “Anuraag Pendyal is a piano player and songwriter based in New Orleans and originally from Carrboro, NC. His solo show combines his original songs, which often address contemporary political and culturally-relevant themes through storytelling and satire, with stride piano, New Orleans R&B, traditional standards, improvisation, and colorful instrumental compositions. New Orleans piano is all about coherently synthesizing the wide range of musical expressions that were born in the city—you have to “play all the styles.” Funk, second line rhythms, “rhumba boogie,” rock & roll, swing, and more will be covered—from Jelly Roll Morton to Allen Toussaint to Ellis Marsalis, and plenty more in between. Check out a review of his solo album from the New Orleans cultural magazine AntiGravity: https://antigravitymagazine.com/reviews/reviews-79/ And more on the New Orleans Public Library’s online Crescent City Sounds music database: https://crescentcitysounds.org/artists/anuraag-pendyal His music is available for streaming on Bandcamp, Spotify, and all other major streaming services.”
Emerald Rae
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEEMERALD RAEEmerald Rae is an American Fiddler & Folksinger based in Nashville. Hailing from the seaside town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Rae began her musical journey deep in the world of traditional Celtic music. With her 2018 self-titled release, Rae broke the boundaries of fiddle-singing with a wide palate of experimental techniques. With her powerhouse vocals, groovy percussive fiddle and eclectic songwriting style, she has delighted audiences at legacy folk festivals and concert stages across North America.
PATIO: Kathryn O’Shea (WTF Artist)
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEKATHRYN O’SHEAThe Grey Eagle in partnership with WTF week (Women to the Front) presents Kathryn O’Shea! Kathryn O’Shea is an Asheville-born singer/songwriter mostly known for her unmistakable voice and soul-stirring original songs. Riding on a hypnotic current of soft electric banjo picking, O’Shea’s confessional lyricism and powerful, winding melodies collide to create something of a “country fried Florence Welch,” as Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine puts it. If you’d like to keep in touch (or you’re just in the market for a good cry), say hi @kathrynoshea on socials.
OUTPOST: Louise Page
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINE “Louise Page is an independent singer/songwriter based in Memphis, TN. She is a classically trained pianist with a degree in Creative Writing from Rhodes College. Her raw vocals, intricate lyrics, and piano prowess create a genre-bending musical chamber punk experience. She released her first EP “Salt Mosaic” in 2017, and her follow-up EP ”Simple Sugar” in 2018, followed by an east coast tour. Her first full-length album “Silver Daughter”, recorded at Young Avenue Sound in Memphis, TN, was released in 2019. Page released her first solo album “Play Nice” in 2021, which highlights the strength of her lyrics and piano playing. Page has achieved recognition for her artistry several times in Memphis, TN – receiving a Best of Memphis accolade in 2019 for “Best Singer”, having multiple music videos featured in the Indie Memphis Film Festival including winning an audience favorite award for “Paw in the Honey” (directed by Laura Jean Hocking) in 2020, and being honored in the Memphis Flyer’s “20 under 30” class of 2022. Page performs both as a solo pianist and also with a full band backed by a classically trained eclectic group of musicians that includes violin and horns. For fans of Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor, and Lana Del Rey.”Guy Roswell is a Psych rock power trio out of Asheville, NC. First playing a string of shows in early 2020 they have since been honing in their sound. Melding influences of 60s psych and folk rock, early punk DIY aesthetic, and 90s- 00s garage rock and shoegaze sensibilities. Inspired by all things magickal and esoteric, lyrical themes explore psychedelic revelations, telepathy, dreams and extra-terrestrial contact.
PATIO: Ben Balmer
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVEDBEN BALMER Born and raised near Ann Arbor MI, Ben Balmer is an Austin and Asheville-based singer songwriter whose talent and way with words has taken him touring all over the world. Binding roots-y Americana with contemporary twists, Ben has been influenced by a wide range of musicians, including Tom Waits, Fiona Apple, Taj Mahal, and Paul Butterfield. He has released three full-length albums, as well as multiple EP’s and singles, and has released his newest album, Honky-Tonk Macbeth, in October of 2021. Ben’s songs speak of the road, love, loss, and revisits archaic themes that work towards a poetic narrative of folklore all on its own. Ben is currently working on writing as well as performing with other esteemed artists as a harmonica player.
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.KYM REGISTER (OF MELTDOWN RODEO) Sometimes the process of mining for melody in words eviscerates the raconteur, gutting them like a tornado through a trailer park. Sometimes, “the truth” is a revival of shit rather forgotten, igniting a coward’s desire to look away. With “Meltdown Rodeo,” Kym Register foregoes such consolatory diversions for visceral scrutiny and unbroken stares. The result is a body of tunes that forages the American south, dislodging its ducked bullets from pearly white sand. According to Register, “Scottsboro,” the album’s opener, was years in the making. It recounts the little known history of “The Scottsboro Boys,” nine Black men falsely accused of raping a pair of white women in hyperpyrexic 1930’s Alabama. One accuser eventually admitted the allegations were bullshit, but, for Black men in the Jim Crow south (as it is now), any assumptions of guilt are soon proven a permanent brand. Register wails against America’s foremost refrains –jury and peers and whole truths– in lyrics hefty with reconciliation and metaphor. “A blind eye, A blind eye is all justice knows/ Of the truth of what happened in Scottsboro/ Come on now, this story’s not that old.” Contrary to Register’s demand for account, the American south knows no shame.Whether grappling with the constrictions of gender expressions on dating apps (“How Do You See Me”), evoking the semi-autobiographical loneliness of Dorothy Allison’s Carolina bastards (“Maureen”), or daring white folks to “get right with their history of compliance in racial capitalism” (“Loamlands”), Register affirms that songwriting, at its best, is a gross but necessary confrontation.Ultimately Register and Meltdown Rodeo (both the newly named band and album) have achieved in eleven songs something the south has only half-heartedly attempted – undoing generational curses by retiring “bless your heart” lip service.Damn if we can’t all benefit from a little melting down.
An Evening with Ivy Eld + Friends: Remembering Our Roots
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEIVY ELD & FRIENDS This evening with Ivy Eld, her band, and other special musical guests is sure to be a heart-expanding and soul-nourishing show for listeners. It will be a cross-cultural musical experience that invites us all to get curious about our own ancestral roots. At this show, Ivy and her band will play some folk rock tunes from her debut album. She is also delighted to host and perform with some wonderful guest artists who hail from a variety of cultural identities and heritages–Eastern Band Cherokee, Mexican/Aztec, African American, Scandinavian, Celtic, and more. This evening will be about celebrating our diversity, cherishing our shared humanity and commonalities, and experiencing the healing that can come from music, stories, and honest reflection and connection. Ivy Eld’s music dances in the land of paradox. Her voice is simultaneously angelic and rawly human, fiery and red-wine smooth. Her evocative and tender songwriting invites listeners to dive in quickly and deeply, piercing weary hearts and enshrouding them with the fierce love and witnessing they desire and deserve. Her vulnerable, heartfelt lyrics soar through the air on the wings of her transcendent, soulful voice. A psychotherapist for over a decade and a half, Ivy has been privy to the sacred inner worlds of thousands of souls (while navigating her own inner hallways, dark attics, and sun-lit living rooms). This rich interpersonal and intrapersonal experience and her curiosity about the internal landscape saturates her indie folk pop music. Her artist moniker is a part of her remembering, her reconnecting to her own ancestry (“Ivy” based on her Scandinavian great grandmother’s name, “Eld” being the Swedish word for “fire”). And her self-titled 2022 debut EP album follows suit with that remembering. It documents her journey of coming home to her inner artist, her voice, her wildness, her power, her roots. The songs dance with mystical, nature-filled language through themes such as love (of self and others), speaking up, setting boundaries, grief, generational healing, and the transformative power of art. The album was specifically dedicated to her beloved little brother (also a musician) who passed away just a few months prior to her entering Drop of Sun studio in West Asheville, NC, to record. Ivy longs for her music to be an oasis of healing and beauty, a call to deeper respect and compassion for ourselves and for humanity. She considers her music to be another facet of how she shows up in the world in authentic and passionate service— as a singer-songwriter, a therapist, a mom, a partner, an advocate, a friend, a human. She hopes her thoughtful, earthy, poetic songs will inspire others to look inside – light, shadows, and all – and come home to their deeply worthy selves.
