asheville Archive
01 Jan 2020
30 Days Out: January 2020 #1: Interstellar Echoes, Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, 3rd Annual Women in Music Series, Beach Fossils
For five and half years, I wrote a twice-monthly column for Asheville, N.C.’s superb altweekly Mountain Xpress. That column, “30 Days Out,” previewed upcoming live shows of note, focusing on […]
29 Dec 2019
Kat Williams: Season’s Gratitude
For nearly two decades, Katrina Way “Kat” Williams was a prominent fixture of Asheville’s live music scene. The vocalist’s multigenre repertoire earned her a place as one of the region’s […]
28 Dec 2019
Album Review: Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters — Christmas on a Greyhound Bus
When an artist releases an album (or EP) of holiday music, it need not be designed to fulfill an obligation to a label. It also needn’t be a placeholder while […]
21 Dec 2019
Hit Dogs: Serious Rock, Leavened with Humor
In the mid-1980s, Frank Zappa released an album with a question for a title: Does Humor Belong in Music? While much of the guitarist-bandleader-composer’s music was quite serious, his humor-focused […]
08 Dec 2019
Album Review: Bask — III
For a small city, Asheville is home to musicians representing a staggering array of musical styles. In an era that many see as post-album, post-rock and post-all other manner of […]
06 Dec 2019
Free Planet Radio: In Pursuit of Modern Jazz
When Free Planet Radio debuted in 2001, the Asheville-based trio was often described as a world music group. And while by definition that label casts a wide net, it was […]
02 Dec 2019
Rock and Bounce: Big Freedia and Low Cut Connie
Note: This story was originally published in October in Mountain Xpress. Combing different musical genres is more common than it was a generation ago; the barriers between styles have been […]
15 Nov 2019
It’s a Nice Day for a Weird Wedding: Fleetwood’s
Fifth in a five-part series The genesis of Fleetwood’s came from a simple, practical goal. “I have a lot of friends in the music industry,” says co-owner Mary Kelley. “And […]
14 Nov 2019
Everybody Knows Your Name: Archetype Brewing
Fourth in a five-part series In a city filled with breweries and brewpubs – more than 30 at last count – it takes some effort to stand out. Located in […]
13 Nov 2019
Deep Strangeness, With Boundaries: the Odditorium
Third in a five-part series Seven years ago, an online discussion on the subject of “dangerous dive bars” in Asheville elicited a number of comments. One of the posters on […]