Calendar of Events

Literacy Together has a determined group of students waiting for volunteer tutors so they can move forward on their goals for a better future. We’re offering in-person and remote volunteer opportunities. We have programs teaching English to immigrants, adult literacy for folks working on a GED, and youth literacy for kids struggling to learn to read. In addition, we welcome everyone -even if they are not ready to volunteer- to attend to learn about the literacy challenges we face in Buncombe County. Thank you!

Shakey Graves & Trampled By Turtles   Rabbit Rabbit   Fri, Aug 4, 2023   Use code “SHAKEYRABBITS” for Local Online Presale Code valid 3/9 10am – 10pm General onsale starts 3/10 10am

TEGAN AND SARA: Crybaby 2023 Tour   The Orange Peel   Tue, Sep 26, 2023   Use code “OPTS2023” for Local Online Presale Code valid 3/9 10am – 10pm General onsale starts 3/10 10am

We are seeking volunteers to assist us in our small after school program for children in West Asheville in low-income housing.  We provide a safe and nourishing environment, healthy snacks, and creative activities.  Our program currently meets during the school year on most Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:00-5:00pm. You may volunteer for one or two days a week. 

Volunteer Responsibilities:

• Assist with serving snacks
• Interact with children during activity time
• Supervise games and outdoor free time
• For people with background in education, there is also an opportunity to assist with curriculum development and program planning and administration

Requirements:

• Background check
• Orientation booklets will be provided
• Masks are required if unvaccinated

Every Thursday Live Music with Aaron Lafalce at 131 Main Restaurant, 6:00 p.m.

Join us as we welcome acclaimed celtic fiddler KEVIN HENDERSON from the Shetland Islands and NEIL PEARLMAN whose music inclues celtic, Cape Breton, jazz and other styles.

Neil Pearlman is a vital and distinctive voice in contemporary traditional music. Described as “a tremendous pianist” on BBC Radio Scotland and “a force to be reckoned with” by WGBH’s Brian O’Donovan, Neil is best known for his groundbreaking approach to the piano in Celtic music. Motivated by a deep musical curiosity and a love of collaboration, his playing is continually evolving and spontaneous without losing its roots in the traditional piano styles of Atlantic Canada, New England and Scotland. He has appeared at major festivals across North America and Europe including the Newport Folk Festival, Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the Orkney Folk Festival, and has recorded, performed or otherwise collaborated with such artists as Natalie MacMaster, Darol Anger, Seamus Egan, Alasdair Fraser and many more.

Growing up in a musical family, Neil was immersed in Scottish and Cape Breton music and dance from the start. He began dancing at the age of 3 and the piano followed soon after. Joining his parents and siblings on stage as the family band Highland Soles, Neil learned the art of performance early at festivals and concert halls across New England. At the age of 11, he appeared several times as a dancer in Natalie MacMaster’s high-powered show alongside his mother Laura Scott and a few years later released his first album with his father, fiddler Ed Pearlman. Already at that age he was exploring a passion for other styles of music, especially a lifelong love of jazz that has always played a role in his creative voice.

Today Neil’s musical projects run the gamut from deeply traditional to refreshingly contemporary. His podcast TradCafe is a series of conversations and collaborations with traditional musicians from around the world. In 2021 TradCafe launched a video series featuring one-off musical collaborations between Neil and artists such as Troy MacGillivray, Jenna Moynihan, Begona Riobo, Anxo Pintos, Yann Falquet and Alasdair White. His 2020 release Burden Lake with acclaimed Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson received 5 stars from The Scotsman. He tours regularly with Kevin Henderson, Katie McNally, The Pine Tree Flyers, and as a solo pianist, while playing more irregularly with a wide variety of side projects featuring top Celtic, Americana and Jazz musicians.

“Dazzling piano chops … Fingers absolutely soar across the keys”

–Portland Press Herald

“A mix of jazz and jigs that will raise a toast and get you on the dance floor.”

–George W. Harris

Jazz Weekly

“I was watching Neil’s hands on the piano and it was like watching two spiders… on crack!”

–Jerry Holland

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Kevin Henderson is a fiddler who draws on the rich fiddle music tradition of his native Shetland and his experience with leading bands including Boys of the Lough, Fiddlers Bid, Session A9 and Nordic Fiddlers Bloc to create an expressive and adventurously individual musical style.

Brought up in the Shetland schooling system, whose concentration on fiddle music and encouragement to participate still inspire him, Kevin benefited in his teens from the teaching of the legendary Willie Hunter. Lessons with Hunter could comprise chatting over coffee and biscuits and even extend to being taught survival skills, as well as learning both the essentials and the finer points of playing Shetland reels, and every Saturday Kevin came away motivated to emulate his mentor.

With school friends Chris Stout, Andrew Gifford and Maurice Henderson, Kevin formed Fiddlers Bid, a band that – almost thirty years, innumerable gigs and four enthusiastically received albums on – continues to represent the finest of Shetland fiddling allied with harmonic invention, creative subtlety and enthusiastic vigour.

It was Kevin’s clear understanding of and feeling for the Shetland tradition that led to him being invited, in 2001, to join the long-established Irish-Scottish band Boys of the Lough, alongside the Irish national treasure Cathal McConnell, an experience that has enriched his musical appreciation and love for a strong melody.

Since moving to Norway, while maintaining links with the Boys, the Bid and Session A9, one of Scotland’s finest fiddle ensembles, Kevin has put his heart and soul into Nordic Fiddlers Bloc, a meeting of three very distinctive musical styles where simplicity and directness are key. Their blend of Norwegian, Swedish and Shetland accents and their command of varying tones and voicings have led to ecstatic receptions on both sides of the North Sea and across the Atlantic.

– WITH SPECIAL GUEST SUNNY WAR
– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY

SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS
North Carolina’s Sarah Shook sings with a conviction and hard honesty sorely lacking in much of today’s Americana landscape. Always passionate, at times profane, Sarah stalks/walks the line between vulnerable and menacing, their voice strong and uneasy, country classic but with contemporary, earthy tension. You can hear in their voice what they’ve seen; world weary, lessons learned—or not—but always defiant. They level-steady mean what they say. Writing with a blunt urgency—so refreshing these days it’s almost startling—Sarah’s lyrics are in turn smart, funny, mean, and above all, uncompromising. The Disarmers hit all the sweet spots from Nashville’s Lower Broad to Bakersfield and take Sarah’s unflinching tales out for some late-night kicks. At times, it’s as simple and muscular as Luther Perkins’ boom-chicka-boom, or as downtown as Johnny Thunders. The Disarmers keep in the pocket, tight and tough.

The Disarmers line-up is currently Jack Foster on drums, Blake Tallent on guitar, Andrew Lambie on bass, and Nick Larimore on pedal steel.

SUNNY WAR
Sunny War has crafted a set of songs that draw on a range of ideas and styles as though she’s marshalling all her forces to get her ideas across: ecstatic gospel, dusty country blues, thoughtful folk, rip-roaring rock and roll, even avant-garde studio experiments. She melds them together into a powerful statement of survival revealing a probing songwriter who indulges no comforting platitudes and a highly innovative guitarist who deploys spidery riffs throughout every song.  “I feel like there are two sides of me” says the Nashville-based singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso. “One of them is very self-destructive and the other is trying to work with that other half to keep things balanced.” That’s the central conflict on her upcoming fourth album, the eclectic and innovative Anarchist Gospel, which documents a time when it looked like the self-destructive side might win out. “Everybody is a beast just trying their hardest to be good. That’s what it is to be human. You’re not really good or bad. You’re just trying to stay in the middle of those two things all the time and you’re probably doing a shitty job of it. That’s okay because we’re all just monsters.”

Now and Then: Solo viola da gamba through the ages with Gail Schroeder. Enjoy a weekend of exquisite and entertaining acoustic offerings by some of Asheville’s top singers and instrumentalists.

Western North Carolina’s acclaimed ensembles, Pan Harmonia and Asheville Baroque Concerts, present an all-Baroque weekend in partnership with St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Asheville and First Presbyterian Church of Asheville.

Enjoy a cup of coffee with Bach’s comic Kaffeekantata (Coffee Cantata) depicting a dismayed father and his coffee-addicted daughter and featuring soprano Nana Hosmer Griffin, bass Roberto Flores and narrator Garrett Scholberg. Yes, Bach can be funny!

Bassoonist Rosalind Buda shares the spotlight with flutist Kate Steinbeck in GP Telemann’s lyrical Concerto for bassoon and flute supported by the masterful musicianship of Barbara Weiss, harpsichord; Jeremy Roberts, organ and chamber orchestra artists: Mariya Potapova and Andrea Pettigrew, violins; Claire Gerhardt, viola; Katherine Haig cello; Sara Nichols bass.

We are committed to ensuring that programs remain accessible to all members of the community. In the spirit of inclusivity and equity, PAN HARMONIA offers donation-based, pay-as-you-can community concerts. All are welcome.

Those planning to attend are expected to be fully vaccinated for the safety of our community.

Live Music at Hickory Tavern, 9:00 p.m. until 12:00 a.m.

There not only will be bargains on ceramic functional and artistic pieces, but live music, snacks and drinks.  All are welcome!

Flatfooting is a low, close-to-the floor style of dance that focuses on making rhythms that go along with the music, usually an old-time dance tune. It’s really all about the sound, and most flatfooters don’t do anything fancy with their arms. Participants will learn how to do basic flatfoot moves in this workshop while learning the history of one of Appalachia’s deepest rooted dance forms and hearing personal anecdotes about other traditional Appalachian dancers that Rodney has had the pleasure of encountering throughout his journey.

About Rodney Sutton: Rodney Clay Sutton is a dance performer and teacher of Appalachian step dance – both flatfoot and clogging. He calls square dances and contra dances, and is a storyteller and ballad singer. Rodney offers workshops, lectures, and demonstrations catered for a range of age groups, including youth, seniors, and corporate gatherings. He is also a concert and festival producer, emcee, and stage manager. In 2019, Rodney was one of 9 folks selected to receive a first ever Folk & Traditional Arts Master Artist Fellowship from South Arts. He was able to use the monies to go to Ireland for a month in September of 2019 to study Sean Nos` dance – the Irish step-dance equivalent to flat-footing.

Winter Jam Tour, hosted by Newsong & produced by Premier Productions, Christian music’s biggest tour, is back for 2023 with headliners We the Kingdom and Jeremy Camp and a solid lineup of acts including Andy Mineo, Disciple, Austin French, NewSong and featuring for the first time Dove Award-winning new artist of the year Anne Wilson.

The 1898 Waverly Inn, Hendersonville’s oldest continuously operating inn, continues it’s Waverly Live Americana music series this March for our 6^th season. with monthly musical performances from local, regional and national acts.  Waverly house smoked BBQ and sides will be offered at all events beginning in April.  The first two events will be ticketed events and held at Continuum Art on 1^st Avenue in Hendersonville and the remainder will be free and held at the Waverly Inn for our front porch series.

Schedule is as follows:

March 11^th, David Childers and the Serpents, Continuum Art, 8-10pm

April 2^nd, Jose’s 2^nd Annual Lookin’ Good Showcase Featuring Paleface and Carolinabound benefitting Thrive

May 4^th, Jess Jocoy

June 1^st, Letters to Abigail

June 29^th, The Gathering Dark

July 27^th, The Last Full Measure

September 7^th, Angela Easterling

October 5^th, David Childers (solo)

Our Waverly BBQ menu consists of western North Carolina pulled pork and chicken, smoked wings, smoked pork and beans, Waverly cole slaw, five cheese macaroni, Memphis baby back ribs, tomato pie and more.  Local craft beer, hard cider and wines are available along with lemonade, sweet/unsweet tea and sodas.

Steve Lapointe’s nine years of classical piano as a youth grounded him in music theory. Jazz studies while in Ithaca, NY, opened his ears to extemporaneous improvisation and the music of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Michel Petrucciani and the American songbook. Steve served as musical director of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach, Florida, and occasionally performed at the UU Asheville congregation.

Coffee Craze, The Caffeinated Side of Baroque. Enjoy a weekend of exquisite and entertaining acoustic offerings by some of Asheville’s top singers and instrumentalists.

Western North Carolina’s acclaimed ensembles, Pan Harmonia and Asheville Baroque Concerts, present an all-Baroque weekend in partnership with St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Asheville and First Presbyterian Church of Asheville.

Enjoy a cup of coffee with Bach’s comic Kaffeekantata (Coffee Cantata) depicting a dismayed father and his coffee-addicted daughter and featuring soprano Nana Hosmer Griffin, bass Roberto Flores and narrator Garrett Scholberg. Yes, Bach can be funny!

Bassoonist Rosalind Buda shares the spotlight with flutist Kate Steinbeck in GP Telemann’s lyrical Concerto for bassoon and flute supported by the masterful musicianship of Barbara Weiss, harpsichord; Jeremy Roberts, organ and chamber orchestra artists: Mariya Potapova and Andrea Pettigrew, violins; Claire Gerhardt, viola; Katherine Haig cello; Sara Nichols bass.

We are committed to ensuring that programs remain accessible to all members of the community. In the spirit of inclusivity and equity, PAN HARMONIA offers donation-based, pay-as-you-can community concerts. All are welcome.

Those planning to attend are expected to be fully vaccinated for the safety of our community.

Jack of the Wood : Sunday-Irish Session 

Sundays

1 till who knows when?

Traditional Irish music is kept alive at Jack of the Wood with our unplugged Sunday session.

Jack of the Wood

95 Patton ave

Asheville, NC 28801

(828) 252.5445

http://www.jackofthewood.com/

Tina & Her Pony (indie Appalachian folk) will play a full band show with special guests at The Grey Eagle on Sunday, March 12th, to celebrate the release of their new album Marigolds. $15 advance / $18 at the door / $20 VIP. Purchase tickets online here. Door opens at 6pm, show starts at 7pm. Asheville based retro soul band Fwuit opens.

Marigolds is an album about the cyclical nature of change – of death and rebirth as initiation. After major losses, we are never the same, and we are asked by the universe to allow ourselves to die and to subsequently re-create a new version of ourselves. In Tina’s words “this album is a collection of songs that tells the stories of the ways I have personally been asked to let go.”