N. C. Wyeth, Eight Bells (Clyde Stanley and Andrew Wyeth aboard Eight Bells), 1937, oil on hardboard, 20 × 30 inches. Bank of America Collection

The Wyeths: Three Generations | Works from the Bank of America Collection provides a comprehensive survey of works by N. C. Wyeth, one of America’s finest illustrators; his son, Andrew, an important realist painter; his eldest daughter, Henriette, a realist painter; and Andrew’s son Jamie, a popular portraitist. Through the works of these artists from three generations of the Wyeth family, themes of American history, artistic techniques, and creative achievements can be explored. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall February 12 through May 30, 2022.

N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945) has long been considered one of the nation’s leading illustrators. In the early 1900s, he studied with illustrator Howard Pyle in Delaware. In 1911, he built a house and studio in nearby Chadds Ford, PA. Later, he bought a sea captain’s house in Maine and in 1931 built a small studio, which he shared with his son, Andrew, and his daughters, Henriette and Carolyn. The exhibition includes illustrations for books by Robert Louis Stevenson and Washington Irving as well as historical scenes, seascapes, and landscapes.

Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) is one of the United States’ most popular artists, and his paintings follow the American Realist tradition. He was influenced by the works of Winslow Homer, whose watercolor technique he admired, as well as by the art of Howard Pyle and his father, N. C. While Andrew painted recognizable images, his use of line and space often imbue his works with an underlying abstract quality. The exhibition includes important works from the 1970s and 1980s as well as recent paintings.

Henriette Wyeth (1907–1997) was the eldest daughter of N.C. Wyeth and an older sister to Andrew Wyeth. Like other members of her family, her painting style was realist in a time when Impressionism and Abstraction were popular in the early 20th century. She studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was an acclaimed portraitist, though perhaps not as widely known as her father and brother. Most notably she painted the portrait of First Lady, Pat Nixon, which is in the collection of The White House.

Jamie Wyeth (born 1946), like his father and grandfather, paints subjects of everyday life, in particular the landscapes, animals, and people of Pennsylvania and Maine. In contrast to his father—who painted with watercolor, drybrush, and tempera—Jamie works in oil and mixed media, creating lush painterly surfaces. The 18 paintings in the exhibition represent all periods of his career.

This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program.

Useful and Beautiful: Silvercraft by William Waldo Dodge features a selection of functional silver works by Dodge drawn from the Museum’s Collection. Organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Whitney Richardson, associate curator, this exhibition will be on view in the Debra McClinton Gallery at the Museum from February 23 through October 17, 2022.

William Waldo Dodge Jr. (Washington, DC 1895–1971 Asheville, NC) moved to Asheville in 1924 as a trained architect and a newly skilled silversmith. When he opened for business promoting his handwrought silver tableware, including plates, candlesticks, flatware (spoons, forks, and knives), and serving dishes, he did so in a true Arts and Crafts tradition. The aesthetics of the style were dictated by its philosophy: an artist’s handmade creation should reflect their hard work and skill, and the resulting artwork should highlight the material from which it was made. Dodge’s silver often displayed his hammer marks and inventive techniques, revealing the beauty of these useful household goods.

The Arts and Crafts style of England became popular in the United States in the early 1900s. Asheville was an early adopter of the movement because of the popularity and abundance of Arts and Crafts architecture in neighborhoods like Biltmore Forest, Biltmore Village, and the area around The Grove Park Inn. The title of this exhibition was taken from the famous quotation by one of the founding members of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, William Morris, who said, “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Not only did Dodge follow this suggestion; he contributed to American Arts and Crafts silver’s relevancy persisting almost halfway into the 20th century.

“It has been over 15 years since the Museum exhibited its collection of William Waldo Dodge silver and I am looking forward to displaying it in the new space with some new acquisitions added,” said Whitney Richardson, associate curator. Learn more at ashevilleart.org.

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Jazz Sunday at One World Brewing West is a modern jazz jam held every Sunday afternoon from 1-4pm. Previously known as Jazz Monday, the jam has been running non stop since July, 2018 at the West Asheville brewery and is hosted weekly by The Fully Vaccinated Jazz Trio, consisting of Ray Ring on guitar, Jason DeCristofaro on drums, piano and vibraphone, and Connor Law on bass. Jazz Sunday typically features a guest artist for a short set and then welcomes jazz musicians of all levels to sit in for the remainder of the afternoon on One World’s spacious outdoor stage.

A modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.

Jesus Christ Superstar is an iconic musical phenomenon with a world-wide fan base. In celebration of its 50^th Anniversary, a new mesmerizing production comes to North America. Originally staged by London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and helmed by the acclaimed director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and award-winning choreographer Drew McOnie (King Kong, Strictly Ballroom), this production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival garnering unprecedented reviews and accolades. Appealing to both theater audiences and concert music fans, this production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.

Featuring award-winning music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.

Official Website

Join Show & Tell for a monthly Sunday Market celebrating and supporting local + indie craft, design, and vintage. Gather with friends and family in the open air at this one-of-a-kind outdoor venue in Downtown Asheville and shop vintage clothes, housewares, handmade jewelry, ceramics, apparel and more. Enjoy music, special activities, and drinks and bites by AVL Taco and AVL Brewing Co. Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave, Asheville. For more info, visit showandtellpopupshop.com.

 May 1st is known as International Workers Day or May Day and events in Asheville will include a rally with speakers from various worker-led movements, music by Brass Your Heart, street theater about the history of May Day, and the launch of the new campaign of Asheville Food and Beverage United. The goals of the campaign include getting a living wage, paid sick days, and fairness in scheduling for all restaurant workers. Asheville Food and Beverage United members will be reaching out to local restaurant owners to sign on and reaching out to the public to support.

Grab your golf clubs and the best players you can find for The Grey Eagle Classic Golf Tournament. This tournament welcomes local businesses, community partners, and supporters of the music and arts for a day full of golf, games, food, drinks, and lots of fun! Your participation and proceeds will directly support Asheville Music School.

This was the show we were about to produce just as the world went into lockdown. Perhaps it’s appropriate that it’s a comedy about the end of the world. If you haven’t yet had enough of the real end of the world, feel free to join us for some real belly laughs at its expense.

The play brings together Jules, a grad student in marine biology, and Jo, a journalism student, for, supposedly, a casual sexual encounter. Jo soon comes to realize that her planned-on one-night-stand is actually a ruse, perpetrated by Jules, to find an Eve to his Adam after he has discovered a pattern in fish behavior that portends the end of all life on earth. Stuck in Jules’ laboratory, they wait out their impending doom. A third character, Barbara, serves as our guide to the end of civilization as we know it.

Tickets are not on sale yet. Please check back closer to the event date.

A multisensory puppetry experience for all ages that explores what it means to be a human being

Admission is free and seats can be reserved in advance through a form on the ACA website: https://ashevillecreativearts.org/mainstage-productions/.

Visit Asheville Creative Arts’ website for general information (www.ashevillecreativearts.org);

Asheville Creative Arts (ACA), Asheville’s professional children’s theatre, returns to live theatre with a 60-minute, multisensory puppetry experience, the world premiere of HUMAN.  Written, directed and designed by Nehprii Amenii (CLICK, CLACK, MOO), HUMAN features original music by Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby; lyrics by Nehprii Amenii, Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby; choreography by Amparo Chigui Santiago; lights, projections and environment design by Marie Yokoyama; sound designs by Joo Won Park; puppet construction by Dan Jones and Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins; dramaturgy by Dr. Allison Curseen and Philip Santos Schaffer; with outreach from ACA’s Community Development Director, Daniele Martin. HUMAN will run at The Tina McGuire Theatre at The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts (18 Biltmore Ave) from April 28- May 15, with public performances Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 1pm, and Sundays at 3pm, with special performances Thursday 4/28 at 7pm and Saturday 5/7 at 7pm. Admission is free, with a hat passed for donations post-performance. More information and a link to reserve seats is available at www.ashevillecreativearts.org.

Now that Humans are extinct and the world as we knew it has ended, the Octopus has a decision to make…  Will it be willing to give up one of its three hearts in order to create a new, more sensitive human being? Will it be willing to give humanity a second chance?   HUMAN is told through the windows of a sunken submarine, using images of the human heart, and a hybrid of puppetry styles. Meant to be enjoyed by children 5 and older and their families, it consists of projection design, sound design, dance, puppetry, and sensory play that explore what it means to be HUMAN.

The cast features April Tilles, Joshua Chung, Kaylyn Carter, Khalilah Smith, Olympea, Rebekah Babelay and Tippin.

Creator and Khunum Productions Artistic Director, Nehprii Amenii says “in a world increasingly mediated by technology and flattened screens, this piece will offer a space for audiences of all ages to explore humanness, touch, and interconnectedness.”

Adds ACA Artistic Producing Director, ”Nehprii has brought together an incredible, majority BIPOC team who between them have Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional credits, Drama Desk Awards, and the imagination, sensitivity and creativity to guide young people and their adults through a timely, and in the end, joyful exploration of hope in our current moment.”.

This production of HUMAN is supported, in part, with awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, The Henson Foundation Family Grant, and has been developed as part of the New Victory LabWorks 2021-22 Season.

ABOUT THE CO-PRODUCERS: 

Asheville’s critically acclaimed, award winning theatre devoted to creating works for children of all ages, Asheville Creative Arts was founded in 2013 and produces, presents and creates innovative works for multigenerational, multiethnic and multidimensional audiences, performed by adult actors. Past productions include CHARLOTTE’S WEB, THE WARP & THE WEFT, BUGS!, and SLUG & SNAIL. “Ostensibly, ACA produces children’s theater, but the company’s ambitious works appeal to both youths and adults.” – Mountain Xpress

Khunum Productions is a New York based production company that produces highly visual narrative-based productions that combine the personal, the social, and the magical to create experiences that transform the human heart, and thus our society. Khunum Productions recognizes itself as a platform for “Creative Anthropology.” This means that we are interested in the study of what makes us human, and the interconnectedness of all people and things. Our work and process of working aims to deepen human connectivity–to one another and to our own selves.  We are not interested in art that drags the human along. Thus the people involved in process and their individual needs are priority. We believe in process and nefer –beauty. We strive to make the  artistic process of creating together equally as beautiful as our productions.

LISTINGS INFORMATION:  HUMAN runs April 28 – May 15, 2022 at Tina McGuire Theatre at The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts (18 Biltmore Ave): with public performances Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 1pm, and Sundays at 3pm, with special performances Thursday 4/28 at 7pm and Saturday 5/7 at 7pm. Admission is free and seats can be reserved in advance through a form on the ACA website: https://ashevillecreativearts.org/mainstage-productions/.  Visit Asheville Creative Arts’ website for general information (www.ashevillecreativearts.org); for school and community groups wishing to book weekday school matinees, contact [email protected] or call 914/830-3000. For more information about Wortham Arts visit https://www.worthamarts.org.

Hosted by: The Buddhist Studies Institute

FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺

🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.

🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.

🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.

Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!

Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/daily-meditation/

What better way to close out our 60^th anniversary season than with exquisite selections from the past 60 years?  The Greenville Chorale is not only Greenville’s symphonic chorus, but also a community of musicians who love to sing and who invest themselves fully in the broad spectrum of the Chorale’s repertoire – from Bluegrass to Beethoven, to classics and popular song arrangements, the profound and delightfully entertaining.  One of our state’s most outstanding youth ensemble, the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir, will join the Chorale for this season finale celebration.

What better way to close out our 60^th anniversary season than with exquisite selections from the past 60 years?  The Greenville Chorale is not only Greenville’s symphonic chorus, but also a community of musicians who love to sing and who invest themselves fully in the broad spectrum of the Chorale’s repertoire – from Bluegrass to Beethoven, to classics and popular song arrangements, the profound and delightfully entertaining.  One of our state’s most outstanding youth ensemble, the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir, will join the Chorale for this season finale celebration.

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/

In the sequel to Nunsense and Nuncrackers, Dan Goggin’s endearing, eccentric nuns sing zesty tunes with a country-and-western twang. Sister Amnesia (a.k.a. Sister Mary Paul), having discovered her true identity and desire to be a country singer, finally records her debut country album, “I Could Have Gone to Nashville,” and goes on tour to promote it. The show, filled with hysterical one-liners and infectious comic songs, is sinfully funny.

Sister Amnesia’s Country Western Nunsense Jamboree’s production team includes HT’s Artistic Director Victoria Lamberth as director, the musical direction of Laura Williams, choreography by Matilyn Hull and Dru Dykes as stage manager. WNC actors Karen Covington-Yow, Leisa Foronda, Sarah Henby, Hogan McLamb and Allison Starling complete the cast.

Aaron “Woody” Wood is quite the renaissance man, embodying the energy and mystique of American music. Carved from the foothills of the Piedmont, rolled and tumbled through the Delta mud and washed in The Mississippi, Aaron “Woody” Wood is straight up Cosmic Appalachian Soul. With a background as diverse as his music he consistently delivers the soul, power and energy that have gained him renown as a musician’s musician. Throughout his long career, Wood has never been a musician that fits neatly into one genre. His appeal calls to people who love music no matter if they prefer rock, blues, americana, or soul. He’s shared the stage with Warren Haynes, Trombone Shorty, The Neville Brothers, Mountain, Brad Paisley, Tony Joe White and Sara Evans as well as having players like Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s Family Band) on harmonica and worked with famed Producer Rob Frabone (The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan). Aaron ”Woody” Wood continues to carry his art farther by giving attention and respect to the artists that have influenced and shaped his music, allowing him to keep that Spirit burning forward. Focusing on songwriting and new styles of guitar playing, Aaron ”Woody” Wood’s inventive approach to musical style and the raw emotion he delivers in his songwriting creates a cohesive sound that is hard to find but heavily sought ought by music lovers everywhere.

Come Over and Meet Bob!

Join us on Sunday, May 1 at 5:30 pm to welcome Bob White, our new Artistic Director! He officially begins work the next day – and we want him to meet YOU! We’ll be outside in the Stargazer’s Garden (the brick patio on the Spruce St side of the theatre) and refreshments will be provided.

All are invited, all are welcome!

Join us on Sunday, May 1 at 5:30 pm to welcome Robert “Bob” Arleigh White, our new Artistic Director! He officially begins work the next day – and we want him to meet YOU! We’ll be outside in the Stargazer’s Garden (the brick patio on the Spruce St side of the theatre) and refreshments will be provided.

All are invited, all are welcome!

A modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.

Jesus Christ Superstar is an iconic musical phenomenon with a world-wide fan base. In celebration of its 50^th Anniversary, a new mesmerizing production comes to North America. Originally staged by London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and helmed by the acclaimed director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and award-winning choreographer Drew McOnie (King Kong, Strictly Ballroom), this production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival garnering unprecedented reviews and accolades. Appealing to both theater audiences and concert music fans, this production pays tribute to the historic 1971 Billboard Album of the Year while creating a modern, theatrical world that is uniquely fresh and inspiring.

Featuring award-winning music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary series of events during the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. Reflecting the rock roots that defined a generation, the legendary score includes ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Superstar’.

Official Website

NILUFER YANYA

It does not take long listening to West London-based singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya’s music to realise that playing by the rules has never been her forte. First discovered at 20 years old after uploading her sparse, acoustic demos to Soundcloud, Yanya quickly made a name for herself following the release of her first three EPs. Starting with Small Crimes in 2016, her early releases set the stage for Yanya’s artistry as a lo-fi bedroom pop artist who could spin deftly weaved guitars and honeyed vocals into earworm melodies. Her brand of heartfelt indie pop led to support slots playing alongside likeminded artists such as Mitski, The xx, and Sharon Van Etten, along with receiving a litany of accolades including being longlisted for BBC Sound of 2018.

As the daughter of two visual artists (her Irish-Barbadian mother is a textile designer and her Turkish-born father’s work is exhibited at the British Museum) creativity was always destined for Yanya’s future. First picking up the guitar at 12, she credits her love for music to her parents’ music collection and her school, which offered subsidised music classes. “It was life changing for me,” Yanya says of her school days as we sit outside a Ladbroke Grove café, “having that community in school was really good for everyone else as well, even if they’re not doing music.”

By the time her debut album Miss Universe landed in 2019, Yanya fully established herself as a singular artist with a distinctive voice that needed to be heard. The critically acclaimed debut is an 18-track concept record that takes a tongue in cheek swipe at the most self-involved corners of the health and wellness industry. The album allowed Yanya to further open up her eclectic world, bringing in jazz-inflected guitar licks, and grunge indebted songs that were backed up by limber drum beats and noughties leaning synth lines.

Follow up release, the three song EP Feeling Lucky?, further explored Yanya’s fascination with ‘90s alt-rock melodies, drawing on themes of resentment, her fear of flying, and the concept of luck. She also re-released her early EPs on vinyl for the first time this year on the record Inside Out. The release is a fundraiser for Artists in Transit, an arts collaborative group Yanya founded with her sister Molly that delivers art workshops to communities in times of hardship.

Now as she enters the next stage of her creative journey, Yanya is running head first into the depths of emotional vulnerability on her sophomore record PAINLESS. The album was recorded between a basement studio in Stoke Newington and Riverfish Music in Penzance (owned by her uncle Joe Dworniak a former bassist in funk band I Level), with Miss Universe collaborator and producer Wilma Archer, DEEK Recordings founder Bullion, Big Thief producer Andrew Sarlo, and musician Jazzi Bobbi.

Yanya began considering her second album back in 2020 after coming home from a year-long headline tour for her debut album. Initially she worried about the mistakes she didn’t want to repeat from making her first record. “Obviously I was really proud of it,” she says of her debut album, “but I also could have done it differently, there wasn’t a rush.” The anxieties that clouded the making of her debut were gone when she got back in the studio with Archer. “It just happened a lot more organically. had all these amazing ideas and they were so easy to turn into songs. It just felt fun.”

Where Miss Universe stretched musical boundaries to include a litany of styles from smooth jazz melodies to radio ready pop, PAINLESS takes a more direct sonic approach. By narrowing down her previously broad palette to a handful of robust ideas that revolve around melancholy harmonies and looped industrial beats to mimic the insular focus of the lyrics, Yanya has smoothed out the idiosyncrasies of previous releases without losing what is essential to her.

PAINLESS is a record that forces the listener to sit with the discomfort that accompanies so many of life’s biggest challenges whether it be relationship breakdowns, coping with loneliness, or the search for our inner self. “It’s a record about emotion,” Yanya explains. “I think it’s more open about that in a way that Miss Universe wasn’t because there’s so many cloaks and sleeves with the concept I built around it.” She adds, summing up the ethos of the new album, “I’m not as scared to admit my feelings”.

With influences as wide ranging as ‘90s alt-rock bands like Nirvana, indie artists Radiohead and Elliott Smith, and drum and bass culture, the anxiety inducing themes of the record are captured in the bones of each song. Audible in the raw, distorted guitar riffs, hip hop-indebted percussion, and Yanya’s mercurial voice which veers from deadpan speak-singing to a sublime, wandering falsetto. This can be heard best on ‘Shameless’ a molasses-slow track with an alt-rock edge that sees Yanya deliver the lines, barely above a whisper, “You can hate me / if you feel like … under it all I’m shameless / until you fall it’s painless.”

The organic way the songs came together was partly an inspiration behind the album title PAINLESS, but it also harkened to the introspective theme of the album. “The lyric is ‘until you fall its painless’. It’s not that everything is painless, it’s that pain is not a bad thing.”

On ‘L/R’ Yanya showcases her heritage playing the saz, a string instrument used often in Turkish folk music. “I’ve always viewed it as my dad’s instrument because it’s something he would play around me a lot when I was younger,” she explains. “It definitely has that nostalgia element to it, but also acts as a step into the mostly undiscovered part of me and my identity.”

Over a fast-paced, nimble guitar line on ‘Stabilise’ Yanya sings “There’s nothing out there / For you and me / I’m going nowhere”. It is a song about the mundanity of the city where dog fights, small flats, and endless high-rise buildings can induce claustrophobia. “I was really thinking about your surroundings and how much they influence or change your perception of things. A lot of the city is just grey and concrete, there’s no escape,” she says, “A lot of people don’t leave the city their whole lives, wherever they’re from.

“It’s weird because on that one the chorus is about going nowhere and I really didn’t want that to be the chorus but it was the only thing that was working, so it was like the song was trying to tell me something.”

On ‘Midnight Sun’, a brooding, trip-hop influenced track, Yanya asks for strength from both an imaginary other and herself when she sings: “You’re my best machine, you’re my midnight sun.” For a song that started life according to Yanya resembling a “jaded country rock song” ‘Midnight Sun’ evolved into a mantra one could repeat to pull themselves up from the brink.

“ can easily fit into a relationship scenario but it also can be about your relationship with yourself. It’s like you’re the sun, you’re the light guiding me through the night. With ‘best machine’ I imagine you’re going to war but against who. It could be something that protects you, something you only take out when you really need it, or maybe it’s something that serves you every day.”

Later, on ‘Belong With You’ Yanya battles against knowing they are in a self-destructive relationship (“I don’t even like you bitch”) while feeling drawn back into the chaos again and again. “It’s definitely like you’re still wrapped up in all the feelings of it, but it’s time for you to exit.”

Written with school friend and member of her touring band Jazzi Bobbi, ‘Belong With You’ had a very unlikely early influence. “A big reference was Tatu. You know that song ‘All The Things She Said,” laughs Yanya. “I think it was the ‘I belong with you, I belong with you’ part. The repetitiveness of that and then it has that pop, early noughties vibe. Sometimes it’s nice to make things that aren’t as weighty and heavy. I know this is going to be fun when we play it live too.”

Although PAINLESS is about trudging through the mires of our emotional selves, the writing process left Yanya feeling more confident in her abilities as a songwriter. “It made me feel really good to make it and to write it and put it out.”

In the making of the album her growth is evident to see. “I’m a completely different person. It’s hard to know where the growth is. I think it’s about the openness of the record. Even feeling comfortable sharing my process with another person.”

She continues: “On the last record I didn’t want to work too much with one person because I thought it’s going to become their record, and that’s just rubbish. I think sharing is a really beautiful thing. You don’t always come by that. You really have to work on that, so this album is very much a product of that creative friendship.”

TASHA

Tasha’s second album, Tell Me What You Miss The Most mingles pockets of introspection with wide, expansive, marveling at what’s yet to come. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Tasha is a musician who writes songs that take loving and longing seriously. Whether dwelling in the sad thrum of an impending break up or the dizzying, heart thumping waltz of new infatuation, here is an album that traces one artist’s relationship to herself in love. Full of deep, invigorating inhales and relieved, joyful exhales, Tell Me What You Miss The Most is an exquisitely crafted breath of much needed air.

“Won’t you lay near me please / goodbyes aren’t easy to swallow / Here take my heart for me / I don’t need all this old sorrow” Tasha sings, her voice smooth and honeyed in the first track of the album “Bed Song 1.” She stands on the brink of saying farewell to something once-sweet, the sentiment swirling into the slow-walking pace of the second track, “History,” which wonders aloud “Was it me / Did I not prove to you how far I’d go”. Still, the album refuses to stagnate, instead taking the listener on a whirl across a much-missed dance floor in “Perfect Wife,” calling to mind the sheer pleasure and giddiness of dancing hand-in-hand with a pretty girl. “Perfect Wife” is also a track that demonstrates Tasha’s musical versatility and showmanship, featuring a seamless, slightly retro chorus embroidered with the lilting chirrup of flutes as played by Vivian McConnell.

Yes, Tell Me What You Miss the Most isn’t just a catalogue of tenderness—-it’s also a showcase of Tasha’s growing and formidable musicianship. “When I made Alone at Last, I had only been writing songs for two years. I hardly even knew what kind of song writer I was. But this record feels much stronger as far as a representation of my songwriter and musicianship,” says Tasha, adding “I did feel like I was piloting it in a way that I haven’t really felt before.” Take the heady soprano whisper of “Sorry’s Not Enough” that crests into the wave-crashing roll of dissonance propelled by Ashley Guerrero’s insistent drumbeat. From its attention to instrumentation, the clean strumming of guitars both acoustic and electric, to the steady stretch of Tasha’s vocals across each verse and chorus, this is an album that follows an artist as she produces a sound all her own.

In its second half, the album becomes more spacious, peering with clear eyes toward a blue horizon threaded with a folk tinged, out-of-doors sound. Chimes recorded outside her grandfather’s house twinkle on “Love Interlude.” On “Burton Island,” Tasha sings of “the sun’s last song,” asking “honey dance for a while, dance for a while.” In fact, many of these songs seem to invite gentle dancing, the type of breezy bodily weaving one might engage in on a Saturday morning or a firefly-dotted summer night. These are swaying songs,” Tasha says, extending an invitation to her listeners to rock back and forth, cradled by her music.

“I was inspired by a distance I felt from myself,” says Tasha of the album, “the writing was kind of born from this desire to get back to an intimacy, or honesty, with myself.” Other inspirations include kissing, long drives in nature, her mother, and “winter and all that it allows (being alone inside, wrapped up in something warm, feeling things deeply.)” Her list of inspirations is a collection of types of touch; fleeting affectionate touch, the brush of a knit blanket, the bracing grip of feeling one’s own skin twinned in a palm. So too does the album veer in and out of touch with Tasha herself, tracing tenderness and loneliness, the paradox of feeling held and utterly abandoned at once.

As the album winds down, the feeling of a sun setting or a year ending begins to glow, as if Tell Me What You Miss The Most charts a path through the desolate starkness of a personal winter, the blossoming of an internal spring, the blaze of a heart’s summer and then the golden dénouement of autumn. Regarding the shape of the album itself, Tasha discusses her intention for it to feel like a finished, fully realized piece of art. She says, “I wanted very much for this to feel like an album with a start and finish, where there’s an arc that’s brought back around.” An organic feeling of rise and fall lifts the album from beginning to end, especially given the bookend of “Bed Song 1” and “Bed Song 2.” Between these Bed Songs lies a journey of emotional burnishing, of loss, realization, re-imagination, with dreams bounding toward the future. Still, we begin and end in a place of intimacy and rest, reflecting Tasha’s long held belief in the necessity and power of respite. Listeners might recognize the bed as not just an album through line but a career one. Even while Tell Me What You Miss The Most represents growth and change, Tasha notes that “there are parts of me as a songwriter and emoting poet-person that carry over. Bed might be the obvious connection.”

Listen to Tell Me What You Miss The Most as the sun peeks its downy head over the rooftops. Listen as you sit down to your cup of coffee, listen as you remember someone you once loved and wonder what might have been. Listen as you imagine different pasts, their many colors laid out before you, dizzying in their potential. Listen as the sun sets again and the moon rises, her cool face perfectly hung in the night sky. Listen as you imagine all the people you might someday be, all the mornings you’ll grow to greet. Listen as you pull someone close. Listen, and let the album pull you close.

ADA LEA

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden is the name of the second album by Canadian songwriter Alexandra Levy, publicly known by the moniker Ada Lea. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, on the other it’s a book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. Ada Lea has followed up the creative, indie-rock songcraft of her debut what we say in private with surprising arrangements and new perspectives. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. Due on September 24th from Saddle Creek and Next Door Records in Canada, the physical record will be released alongside a map of song locations and a songbook with chords and lyrics, inspired by Levy’s love of real book standards.

Levy penned and demoed this batch of songs in an artist residency in Banff, Alberta. After sorting and editing she made her way to Los Angeles to record with producer/engineer Marshall Vore (Phoebe Bridgers) who had previously worked on 2020’s woman, here E.P. After a long walk to the studio each morning, Levy spent her session days diving into the arrangements, playfully letting everything fall in place with complete trust for her collaborators. She notes “Marshall’s expertise and experience with drumming and songwriting was the perfect blend for what the songs needed. He was able to support me in a harmonic, lyrical, and rhythmic sense.” Other contributors that left a notable fingerprint on the soundscape include drummer Tasy Hudson, guitarist Harrison Whitford (of Phoebe Bridgers band), and mixing engineer Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett). Many songs came together with a blend of studio tracks and elements from the pre-recorded demos.

The resulting sounds range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Tracks like “damn” and “oranges” feel timeless with their AM gold groove and 70’s studio sheen, while songs like “my love 4 u is real ”, “salt spring” and “can’t stop me from dying” sound completely modern in their use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. In their subtle, sonic variety, all of the album’s songs flow together with ease into one big, romantic dream for Levy’s silken vocals to float above.

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics of one hand… center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. Opening track “damn”, as a song of winter, kicks off the narrative with the events of a cursed New Year’s Eve party. Immediately this timeline becomes jumbled into a Proustian haziness. The listener is then led through the heat-stricken, brain fog of Summer song, “can’t stop me from dying” and then into the autumnal romanticism of “oranges” before returning back to New Year’s on “partner,” which Levy describes as “a woozy late-night taxi blues reflection on moments when timing can be so right, yet so wrong…”. These collected stories as a whole chart the unavoidable growth that comes with experience. “All is forgiven in time. All is forgotten in time. And when the music stopped, I heard an answer” (from “my love 4 u is real”).

Whether to consider these songs fiction or memoir remains unknown. On one hand, Levy says “Why would I try to write a story that’s not my own? What good would that do?” but on the other hand, she is quick to note the ways that language fails to describe reality, and how difficult this makes it to tell an actually true story. The poetic misuse of the word “sewing” in the album’s title serves as a nod to the limitations words provide. What does it mean to sew the garden? And how can we appreciate its carefully knit blooms when the rearview mirror is so full of car exhaust?

NC State Parks’ Year of the Tree continues with a celebration of spring trees. Break out your camera and capture the transformation of trees from winter to spring as they show off their gorgeous blooms throughout the next few months. You may even win a prize for your efforts!

GREAT PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO 3 WINNING ENTRIES

1st Prize: The winning photo will be our Facebook cover photo for two weeks, and the photographer will receive two annual passes to Chimney Rock State Park, two boat tour tickets from Lake Lure Tours, and dinner for two at the Old Rock Café.

2nd Prize: After the first place photo, the second place photo will be our Facebook cover photo for one week. The photographer will receive two annual passes to Chimney Rock State Park and dinner for two at the Old Rock Café.

3rd Prize: The third place photographer will receive two adult day passes (or one family pack of day passes) to Chimney Rock State Park and dinner for two at the Old Rock Café.

CONTEST RULES:

1. There is no fee to enter the contest. All photographs must be taken of Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park only in areas accessible to guests between April 1, 2022 – May 31, 2022.
   The contest is open to amateur and professional photographers.
2. Up to three photos per person can be submitted via any of the following ways to be eligible to win:
   • Facebook: First, like the Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park page. Next, send us a private message including your contact information specified in rule #3.
   • E-mail: If you don’t have access to social media, you may email your digital photo with your contact information specified in rule #3 to [email protected].
3. Every entry should be clearly labeled with the photographer’s name, city & state, a brief photo caption, an email address and the best phone number to reach you.
4. Photos should be available at a minimum resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels (1 MB minimum) to be eligible to win. Photos taken via smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices are welcome if they meet minimum requirements.
5. For entries showing human faces, you must list their name(s) and have written permission from any photographed person(s) to use their image.
6. Entries should reflect the photographer’s interpretation of the theme. Emphasis will be placed on quality, composition and creativity. All entries may be used in promotions of Chimney Rock and park-related activities.
7. Digital images can be optimized but not dramatically altered with photo editing software. Black and white photographs are welcome.
8. Finalists will be chosen by Chimney Rock staff and the winner will be voted on by the public. Decisions regarding winners are final.

Winners will be notified personally and announced on Chimney Rock’s social media. For more information, call 1-828-625-9611, ext. 1812 or email us at [email protected].

It can be ruff out there for our canine companions, but we have pawsitively great news. Buncombe County’s first-ever dog park is now open at our Sports Park in Candler. While this is a soft open, the park features two fenced-in play areas; one for large dogs and one for smaller pups. “We do have plans to add other amenities and water fountains,” exclaims Recreation Services Program Coordinator Mac Stanley. “People are very excited about this new opportunity. Since it was announced, we have gotten letters of support as well as many emails questioning when will the project be completed.”

So join us in a round of apaws as we celebrate the opening of this new venue for hot dogs and cool people. “It’s an amazing place to bring your dog to run free without a leash and interact with other dogs,” says Stanley. “One of my favorite aspects of this new dog park is being able to cultivate a community. Hopefully, this dog park will be instrumental in connecting dogs as well as people within the community.” Paw-yeah, sounds great.

Location: Buncombe County Sports Park, 58 Apac Circle

Hours of operation: Monday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. (same as the Sports Park)

Dog park drools rules
Dogs must be:

• On a leash at all times until safely in the fenced-in dog park area
• Vaccinated, licensed, and in good health
• At least four months old to enter
• Wearing a collar with ID tags
• Under voice control of their human and not aggressive

Humans must:

• Be with dogs at all times
• Remove dogs at first sign of aggression
• Pick up poop and dispose of it in receptacles provided
• Be liable for any and all injuries caused by their dogs

Not Allowed:

• Pronged, spike or choke collars
• Aggressive dogs, aggressive humans, or dogs in heat
• Unsupervised children 12 years of age or younger

This survey is being sent to organizations in 10 counties in western North Carolina. It is being supported by the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board, the Land of Sky P-20 Council, the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County, and over 90 regional partners. Please respond based on your experience at your current facility – there are no right or wrong answers. The goal is to understand skills and hiring needs faced by your organization to better inform local leaders and create a strong pipeline of workers for the region. All responses will be confidential and anonymous. You and your organization’s name and identifying information will not be shared. Participants who complete the survey can choose to be entered to win gifts and experiences from WNC makers and businesses including Kimpton Hotel Arras, Biltmore Estate, Navitat Canopy Adventures, Hot Springs Resort and Spa, East Fork, Highland Brewing, and Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn. The survey is being conducted by RTI International, a North Carolina-based independent non-profit research institute, and is funded by Land of Sky Regional Council in cooperation with economic development, industry, and workforce partners across the region. For question about completing the survey, please email Michael Hogan, the research director at [email protected]. If you have questions about your role or rights as a research participant, you can call RTI’s office of research protection at 919.316.3358 or 1.866.214.2043.