asheville Archive
17 Oct 2017
A Chat with River Valley Blues Fest Headliners Janiva Magness and Grady Champion
Growing quickly from a 2015 local event in a bar ten miles outside of town to its current form – a two-day event featuring world-class talent – this year’s River […]
04 Oct 2017
Album Review: The Undergrowth — Synergy
Asheville-based The Undergrowth isn’t a band. And it’s not a person. Instead, it’s a collective of musicians and producers working nominally under the musical umbrellas of electronica, drum and bass, […]
15 Sep 2017
EP Review: DJ Audio — Shut it Down
The advent of low-cost, do-it-yourself recording technology has put the power to create music in the hands of a wider group of creative musicians. Knocking down barriers to entry has […]
14 Aug 2017
Album Review: BJ Leiderman — BJ
You know that Morning Edition theme on National Public Radio? BJ Leiderman wrote that, and a lot more for NPR besides. Understandably wanting to trade on those achievements, the 61-year […]
03 Aug 2017
Christopher Paul Stelling: Embracing the Unknown
Christopher Paul Stelling is a singer-songwriter; he doesn’t include an ability to predict the future among his skills. Yet unlike some of the most respected pollsters, the seismic political changes […]
02 Aug 2017
Skunk Ruckus: Disrupting the Old-time Vibe
Nearly everything about Asheville-based band Skunk Ruckus is suffused with humor. But the band is very serious about its music. The inherent tension between those two realities is part of […]
14 Jul 2017
Album Review: The Tills — Canon
Hardcore 1960s pop acolytes hold a special place in their hearts and record collections for “Mr. Dieingly Sad,” a minor ’66 hit for New Jersey group The Critters. And while […]
12 Jul 2017
Album Review: Laura Blackley and the Wildflowers — Tell it to the Darkness
An engaging Southern gothic troubadour, Laura Blackley is a beloved fixture on the regional live concert circuit. On Tell It to the Darkness, her well-honed strengths are on prominent display. […]
11 Jul 2017
Album Review: Carpal Tullar — Horse of a Different Tullar
Carpal Tullar is an arty rock trio based in Asheville, N.C.; the band plays local dates occasionally. But Carpal Tullar is also a studio project that’s essentially the work of […]
22 Jun 2017
The Allah-Las: Record Store Days
The Allah-Las make original music that evokes the shimmering, melodic end of mid-to-late 1960s psychedelic scene. But because the members of the Los Angeles-based group write and perform their own […]