Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.

Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.

Thursday, January 18, 2024
BLUEGRASS JAM Hosted by Drew Matulich
Jan 18 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Jack of the Wood

BLUEGRASS JAM

Hosted by Drew Matulich


Don’t miss your chance to check out some of the best pickers from all over WNC at our amazing Bluegrass Jam curated by the talented Drew Matulich — every Thursday starting at 7:00 pm! A real show-stopping performance only at Jack of the Wood! Open jam starts at 9:30 pm.

Jazz Jam
Jan 18 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
LEAF Global Arts

Join us for Jazz Jam Thursday every Thursday from 7-10. There is a suggested donation of $10 and local craft beer and wine for sale. Come as you are or bring an instrument! Open jam starts at 8 after a House Band set guaranteed to fill your soul with groove and joy.
Public parking is available at Marjorie Street, across from Packs Tavern.

DOSS CHURCH + THE UNHOLY NOISE
Jan 18 @ 8:00 pm
The Pulp

Ages 18+

DOSS CHURCH + THE UNHOLY NOISE
Jan 18 @ 8:00 pm
The Pulp

Support:
Steven Brett

Ages 18+

Friday, January 19, 2024
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 19 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

PRINCESS GOES with Exclamation Pony
Jan 19 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
    • ALL AGES

 

    • – STANDING ROOM ONLY

 

 

    • Michael C. Hall: Vocals

 

    • Matt Katz-Bohen: Keyboards

 

    • Peter Yanowitz: Drums

 

 

“We’re a weird band,” states Princess Goes drummer Peter Yanowitz. He’s not wrong. But weird like David Bowie, Bjork and Brian Wilson’s Smile might be termed “weird.” In other words: unconventional and quite possibly irresistible. Princess Goes’ second full-length album, the 12-song Come of Age, is the trio’s most accessible work to date, yet it’s still chock-full of innovative songs that traverse a thrilling and often surprising sonic and lyrical landscape. The first single, “Shimmer,” highlights Michael C. Hall’s powerful, ethereal vocals atop quietly propulsive rhythm lines, and features Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as guest guitarist. “Shimmer”’s equally stunning and expansive video was directed by Tim Richardson (Elton John, Billie Eilish, Givenchy). “Take Me Home” serves up a soaring emotive trippiness that morphs into headbanging moments worthy of the heaviest metaller or your favorite Zeppelin album, while the haunting “Jetpack” showcase Hall’s poignant lyrics and penetrative voice, at once bell-clear and diaphanous, as the song builds to a wild and harrowing conclusion.

 

The 12 songs on Come of Age are by turns foreboding, mystical and danceable, Ray Bradbury- meets-the-Jetsons in its galactic aural scope. The ominous semi-drone beginning of “Blur” morphs into synthwave spectacularness, the song’s dynamics suiting Hall’s lyrics about “an illicit formative encounter.” Some of Hall’s most pointed writing is on the title track, “Come of Age,” the irresistibly bouncy musicality cut by the singer’s trenchant words: “Godzilla goggles seeing nothing but King Kong makes it hard to get along,” he sings, before deadpanning, “did you really mean it when you told me I was good / or are you just a devil spitting Hollywood.”

 

“Come of Age,” explains Hall, is neither a command that the audience come of age, nor a suggestion that Princess Goes has reached some adulting milestone. As with much of what the trio does, it just intuitively felt right. It was likewise an easy decision to include a remixed version of a previously released song, the fan favorite “Let It Go.” Princess Goes felt the cut, as originally written, was sort of an outlier. It started with Yanowitz. Katz-Bohen took it home, sped it up and it became a little more EDM, but also fun, poppy, and anthemic. The LP’s mixer and frequent collaborator Brandon Bost (HAIM, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga) worked on the song with the Princess Goes (and also plays some bass and keys to the album), and now the band can hardly wait to play the new, slightly more expeditious incarnation of “Let it Go” live.

 

Hall, Katz-Bohen and Yanowitz are seasoned performers forging new creative ground together in PG: Hall is best known for playing moralistic serial killer Dexter Morgan from Showtime hit Dexter as well as David Fisher from HBO’s revered Six Feet Under. Katz-Bohen has played with Blondie since 2008, while Yanowitz is a veteran of the Wallflowers and his own group, Morningwood.
SHREK RAVE
Jan 19 @ 8:00 pm
The Orange Peel

IT’S DUMB JUST COME HAVE FUN. WHO CARES. COOL IS DEAD.

Ages 18+

Saturday, January 20, 2024
Connect Beyond Festival Volunteer Opportunities
Jan 20 all-day
Harrah's Cherokee Center- Asheville

We have three opportunities for you to help Connect Beyond AND see some music! We need volunteers to assist with wristbands for three shows this summer at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville in Downtown Asheville, N.C. Shifts are roughly (3) hours and all participating volunteers will also receive (1) free ticket to stay after and watch the show. The following dates and shows are available:

  • February 16-18: Billy Strings
  • May 16: Amon Amarth
  • May 20 & 22: Noah Kahan
  • August 30: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 20 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Yala Cultural Tour + Drum Workshop
Jan 20 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
LEAF Global Arts
Visit LEAF Global Arts every Saturday for an in-house cultural exchange with Adama Dembele. Experience the Ivory Coast with our Culture Keeper from the House of Djembe.
Stay for an all-ages Drum Workshop, no experience necessary.
P U R R T H D A Y P A W T Y
Jan 20 @ 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Ginger's Revenge - South Slope Lounge

Benefitting TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions
Fundraiser & Silent Auction, Music
Performances, Cat Clicker-Training, & More!
Join us for the purrfect, cat-filled evening!

2024 Vote Blue Kickoff
Jan 20 @ 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm
A-B Tech Conference Center

Join us for our 2024 Kickoff! We will be gathering to celebrate the beginning of the 2024 election season with live music, good food, friends & fellowship!

Get Tickets

Whether you sponsor or buy one ticket to this fun evening event, your generosity will help ensure our success at the polls and safeguard the future of our democracy. BCDP volunteers are the grassroots organizing power behind every Democratic victory, and your support allows us to pay for printing, canvassing and Get Out The Vote materials, as well as access to our data software. It also helps us maintain our headquarters, which is already bustling with activity! Sponsors will receive special recognition during the event and candidate sponsors will have the option of having their information included in our presentation (email [email protected] for details).

With your ticket or sponsorship, you will enjoy a buffet dinner from Mamacita’s Taqueria — a locally-owned family business, serving up fresh, made-from-scratch Mexican cuisine. You’ll also receive a free drink ticket for beer or wine (additional tickets will be available for purchase).

Discounted tickets are available for those under 35 years old, as well as our dedicated teachers and first responders. If you aren’t able to pay the full or discounted amount for a ticket to this event, please contact BCDP Chair Kathie Kline at [email protected].

Who should attend: Democrats and left-leaning unaffiliated voters in Buncombe and surrounding counties.

Chase Away the Blues
Jan 20 @ 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Tryon Fine Arts Center

TFAC’s popular event, Chase Away the Blues, returns to January in 2024 to brighten up the winter nights! Get ready! The VIP Blues Lounge opens at 5:30 PM with live music open bar and food provided by Tryon Resort in the Pavilion. All are sure to get your feet stomping…

Playground Stage 5 Year Anniversary Celebration
Jan 20 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Highlands Brewery Event Center

Attire: Dress to impress in your favorite sparkly and colorful party clothes!

What’s Happening: A performance at 6:30pm with appearances from current and former PGS students and staff.

Other Details: A performance, activities for kids, drinks and snacks will be provided. Adult Beverages from Highlands Brewery will be available for purchase. All children must be accompanied by an adult for the evening.

FOY VANCE – REGARDING THE JOY OF NOTHING TOUR with Bonnie Bishop All Ages
Jan 20 @ 7:00 pm
The Grey Eagle

– ALL AGES
– SEATED SHOW
– LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE

FOY VANCE
Foy Vance is a singer and songwriter hailing from the land of Bangor, Northern Ireland. Deeply rooted in the rich musical history and aesthetic of the Southern United States, Foy independently released his debut album Hope in 2007, quickly garnering acclaim from fans and fellow musicians alike. Foy released his second full-length album, Joy of Nothing, in 2013 on Glassnote Records which led to further critical praise and star-studded invites on tours worldwide from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Bonnie Raitt, Marcus Foster, Snow Patrol and Sir Elton John.

Foy was only the second artist signing to Gingerbread Man Records, Ed Sheeran’s label division within Atlantic Records. Foy’s debut recording on Gingerbread Man Records, The Wild Swan, was Executive Produced by Sir Elton John and released in 2016. His music video for the lead single “She Burns” featured “Pretty Little Liars” and People’s Choice Award winner Lucy Hale. His music video for “Coco” featured the inspiration for the song title, Coco Arquette, the daughter of Courteney Cox and David Arquette, and was directed by Cox as well.

Foy’s recent collaborations include “Moonshine” with Kacey Musgraves, the end credits track from Ben Affleck’s film “Live By Night,” four tracks including “Galway Girl” on Ed Sheeran’s latest album ÷, as well as cuts on recent releases by Miranda Lambert, Plan B and Rudimental.

Foy has headlined globally to sell-out crowds and splits his time between London and the hills of Aberfeldy, Scotland with his family.

BONNIE BISHOP

The first thing that registers about Bonnie Bishop’s stirring album The Walk is that the seasoned Grammy winner is no longer trying to outrun herself; she owns whatever has come her way, good wind or ill. It’s an uplifting confessional that she dedicates ‘to all who wander’ – laying down searing, emotionally-charged variations to award-winning producer Steve Jordan’s (Robert Cray, John Mayer, Buddy Guy) powerhouse production. She does so in a voice that aches and arches and grabs and never lets go.

 

Blessed with an authentically resounding range, a blistering lyrical gift, and OK – she admits it – a couple of inherent vices that any God-fearing Americana/country/soul artist must wrestle with after years of bringing it live and in-color, Bishop has now broken free from the bust-boom mentality of Nashville to walk a line of her own making. The recipe may sound oversimplified, but it’s a frank, funny, ferocious, insightful Bonnie Bishop we encounter on this path; a recharged singer/songwriter full of grace. Her determination to put one foot in front of the other and find the road to reclamation shifted into overdrive when she left Nashville for her native Texas in 2017. Since then, she’s never looked back. The Walk soars as her most honest effort to date. It’s a groove-laden, lyrical lightning bolt from which the tonic of self-revelation pours forth on songs such as the grateful “Every Happiness Under The Sun” and the gut-wrenching “I Don’t Like To Be Alone.” The album’s euphoric closer, “Song Don’t Fail Me Now,” is Bonnie’s most heartfelt testament to date that music absolutely can still heal the spirit.

Hendersonville Theatre Presents: Empire Strikes Brass
Jan 20 @ 7:30 pm
Hendersonville Theatre

Hendersonville Theatre is proud to launch its 2024 Hometown Sound Music Series with Asheville favorite, Empire Stikes Brass! This unforgettable performance is not to be missed.

This brass, funk, and rock band has a lot to say with a big sound. Chock-full of serious groove from a thumping rhythm section and lush horn arrangements, the band’s compositional roots as well as its creative and collaborative soul contribute lots of depth to their original tunes and covers.

Founded in 2012, ESB has grown from a party band of friends playing New Orleans-originated or inspired second-line and funk tunes with elements of rock and jam. Now, it consists of a collective of players, singers, songwriters, and producers who have found an original sound that fuses their musical influences with fresh ideas while still holding to their foundation.

Featuring rich group and lead vocals from several members including Grammy Award-winning artist Debrissa McKinney (Secret Agent 23 Skidoo), keyboardist/producer Lenny Pettinelli, drummer Nik Hope, bassist JP Furnas, guitarist Chris Porter, trumpet Alex Bradley, trombone Kyle Snuffer, saxophone Pauly Juhl, and keyboard/percussion Sean Donnelly. Since their conception, they have been a constant fixture at various festivals throughout the USA. Empire has also co-billed with some of the biggest names in funk and soul.

When Empire Strikes Brass comes together, whether live or in the studio, the sound is undeniably solid. The band’s debut album was recorded at Asheville’s own renowned Echo Mountain Recording Studio, and released in 2017. Entitled Theme For A Celebration, it was tapped as one of the year’s top 100 releases by WNCW 88.7 radio. ESB’s newest release Brassterpiece Theatre (2019), also recorded at Echo, was a fierce follow-up and both albums are available through all major music distribution streaming, sales, and listening platforms. As they continue to tour and captivate audiences, Empire Strikes Brass is diligently working on their highly anticipated third studio album. Between shows, they are crafting and mastering new sounds that will undoubtedly leave their fans craving for more.

Janna Hymes and Joshua Roman: Tales of Transformation
Jan 20 @ 7:30 pm
Peace Concert Hall

Janna Hymes, conductor
Joshua Roman, cellist
Adam Schoenberg: Bounce
Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1
Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite)
Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber

Saint-Saëns got it right with his first cello concerto, widely believed to be one of the greatest ever written for the instrument, even by tough critics like Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. The success of this piece catapulted the composer to stardom, and it’s only fitting that our audience should hear it performed by a major star: Joshua Roman.
Pair that with the dreamy playfulness of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye or “Mother Goose Suite,” written in 1910 for six-year-old Mimi and seven-year-old Jean, the children of the composer’s close friends. The piece has been featured regularly in popular culture, on albums, in television series, and movies.
Paul Hindemith and his wife loved playing piano duets by Classical period composer Carl Maria von Weber, and it was these pieces that inspired his ambitious Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Beloved by orchestras for its sumptuous harmonies and technical challenges, you’ll be amazed when you hear and see the artistry our Greenville Symphony musicians bring to this metamorphosis.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR & GUEST ARTIST

JESSE COOK
Jan 20 @ 8:00 pm
The Orange Peel

A career spanning twenty five years has brought this Canadian guitarist multiple accolades including a coveted Acoustic Guitar Magazine ‘Player’s Choice Silver Award’, eleven Juno Award nominations (he won for 2001’s ‘Free Fall’), a Gemini Award and, most impressively, ten platinum and gold studio albums.

Moreover, he has sold out concert halls the world over, produced five PBS television specials and five live CD’s. Not a bad legacy for a guy who never planned to release an album.

“If you had asked me at age 22, I would have said that I would never, never make music for the public,” Jesse Cook says with a laugh. “I would have told you that the public is much too fickle — they may love you one minute and forget you the next. Well, it turns out I did the thing I said I’d never do, and somehow it’s worked out.”

That’s an understatement. Since launching his career with 1995’s Tempest, Cook has blazed an incredible trail. Along with being a global-guitar virtuoso, he’s honed his skills as a composer, producer, arranger, performer and, more recently, filmmaker and cultural ambassador. Surprisingly, he started down many of those paths before he even started school.

As a child he was introduced to flamenco while spending summers at his father’s house in the Camargue region of southern France. John Cook’s neighbour happened to be Nico Reyes, guitarist for The Gypsy Kings. Meanwhile his mother, Heather Cook, with whom he lived, enrolled him in Toronto’s prestigious Eli Kassner Guitar Academy.

Cook’s musical education continued at the world renowned Royal Conservatory, Toronto’s York University and the esteemed Berklee College in Boston. He set his sights on a career as a composer. That was until an Ontario cable TV company aired his music on the listings channel.

“Their switchboard got flooded with calls,” he recalls. “People even got my number somehow and started phoning me at home and asking for a CD. And I was saying, ‘I don’t have a CD, I’m a background composer guy. I don’t make records.’ “

This proved to be a critical turning point leading Cook to self-produce Tempest at home using an eight-track recorder and one microphone. Then he delivered the initial run of 1,000 CDs from the plant to the distributor in his car. Those humble beginnings quickly sparked a mighty international career.

Canadian television appearances followed and so too did important gigs in the US. If he must point to one it was the 1995 Catalina Jazz Festival where his playing earned a 10-minute standing ovation, sparked mob scenes — “It was like being The Beatles,” he marvels — and prompted one store to order enough copies of Tempest to land it at No.14 in Billboard.

In Poland, his 2004 live album Montreal took the country by storm. In India, he gained fame after one of his songs was plagiarized for a major Bollywood movie. (“In India, that’s allowed,” he explains. “They call it cultural appropriation — it obviously doesn’t mean the same thing there.”) In Iraq, his instrumentals score the nightly news. Elsewhere, they’ve accompanied gymnastics and skating routines at the Olympics.

“In Torino, the Japanese skater and the Russian skater both competed using the same song (Mario Takes A Walk). One of them won. I think I should have got bronze,” he says laughing.

It’s no wonder Cook also jokes that his music “has had a way more interesting life” than he’s had. But lately, that international appeal — reflected in a compositional style that mixes flamenco with everything from classical and jazz to Zydeco, blues and Brazilian samba — has become something he takes more seriously.

“If music can come from around the world and interconnect so beautifully to create this beautiful tapestry, maybe there’s something that music can teach us.”

Over the course of his first twenty -five years making award winning music for a global audience Cook could be forgiven should he contemplate retiring or, as he puts it,  ‘hanging out at my cottage dipping my toes in the water.”  But the fact is he loves creating music. And, there’s also the matter of some unfinished business interrupted by the pandemic.

“Tempest 25’ the reissue of his debut album (released 25 years prior) had been amongst those pre-Covid plans. So too had been another world tour in support of its release.  Cook, like most of us, found himself house bound due to travel restrictions.

“The first year with no touring since my career began. I needed a mountain to climb” Cook quips.

So, Cook got to work producing 23 (and counting) extraordinary solo YouTube videos of his favourite songs in which he played all the instruments, recorded, and filmed himself. The collection is called “Love in the Time of Covid” Not only have they pleased his existing fan base but this YouTube video collection has expanded his worldwide audience who are now craving that soon to be announced world tour.

Jesse Cook, clearly, has many more years of memorable performances ahead of him.

JESSE COOK
Jan 20 @ 8:00 pm
The Orange Peel

A career spanning twenty five years has brought this Canadian guitarist multiple accolades including a coveted Acoustic Guitar Magazine ‘Player’s Choice Silver Award’, eleven Juno Award nominations (he won for 2001’s ‘Free Fall’), a Gemini Award and, most impressively, ten platinum and gold studio albums.

Moreover, he has sold out concert halls the world over, produced five PBS television specials and five live CD’s. Not a bad legacy for a guy who never planned to release an album.

“If you had asked me at age 22, I would have said that I would never, never make music for the public,” Jesse Cook says with a laugh. “I would have told you that the public is much too fickle — they may love you one minute and forget you the next. Well, it turns out I did the thing I said I’d never do, and somehow it’s worked out.”

That’s an understatement. Since launching his career with 1995’s Tempest, Cook has blazed an incredible trail. Along with being a global-guitar virtuoso, he’s honed his skills as a composer, producer, arranger, performer and, more recently, filmmaker and cultural ambassador. Surprisingly, he started down many of those paths before he even started school.

As a child he was introduced to flamenco while spending summers at his father’s house in the Camargue region of southern France. John Cook’s neighbour happened to be Nico Reyes, guitarist for The Gypsy Kings. Meanwhile his mother, Heather Cook, with whom he lived, enrolled him in Toronto’s prestigious Eli Kassner Guitar Academy.

Cook’s musical education continued at the world renowned Royal Conservatory, Toronto’s York University and the esteemed Berklee College in Boston. He set his sights on a career as a composer. That was until an Ontario cable TV company aired his music on the listings channel.

“Their switchboard got flooded with calls,” he recalls. “People even got my number somehow and started phoning me at home and asking for a CD. And I was saying, ‘I don’t have a CD, I’m a background composer guy. I don’t make records.’ “

This proved to be a critical turning point leading Cook to self-produce Tempest at home using an eight-track recorder and one microphone. Then he delivered the initial run of 1,000 CDs from the plant to the distributor in his car. Those humble beginnings quickly sparked a mighty international career.

Canadian television appearances followed and so too did important gigs in the US. If he must point to one it was the 1995 Catalina Jazz Festival where his playing earned a 10-minute standing ovation, sparked mob scenes — “It was like being The Beatles,” he marvels — and prompted one store to order enough copies of Tempest to land it at No.14 in Billboard.

In Poland, his 2004 live album Montreal took the country by storm. In India, he gained fame after one of his songs was plagiarized for a major Bollywood movie. (“In India, that’s allowed,” he explains. “They call it cultural appropriation — it obviously doesn’t mean the same thing there.”) In Iraq, his instrumentals score the nightly news. Elsewhere, they’ve accompanied gymnastics and skating routines at the Olympics.

“In Torino, the Japanese skater and the Russian skater both competed using the same song (Mario Takes A Walk). One of them won. I think I should have got bronze,” he says laughing.

It’s no wonder Cook also jokes that his music “has had a way more interesting life” than he’s had. But lately, that international appeal — reflected in a compositional style that mixes flamenco with everything from classical and jazz to Zydeco, blues and Brazilian samba — has become something he takes more seriously.

“If music can come from around the world and interconnect so beautifully to create this beautiful tapestry, maybe there’s something that music can teach us.”

Over the course of his first twenty -five years making award winning music for a global audience Cook could be forgiven should he contemplate retiring or, as he puts it,  ‘hanging out at my cottage dipping my toes in the water.”  But the fact is he loves creating music. And, there’s also the matter of some unfinished business interrupted by the pandemic.

“Tempest 25’ the reissue of his debut album (released 25 years prior) had been amongst those pre-Covid plans. So too had been another world tour in support of its release.  Cook, like most of us, found himself house bound due to travel restrictions.

“The first year with no touring since my career began. I needed a mountain to climb” Cook quips.

So, Cook got to work producing 23 (and counting) extraordinary solo YouTube videos of his favourite songs in which he played all the instruments, recorded, and filmed himself. The collection is called “Love in the Time of Covid” Not only have they pleased his existing fan base but this YouTube video collection has expanded his worldwide audience who are now craving that soon to be announced world tour.

Jesse Cook, clearly, has many more years of memorable performances ahead of him.

Sunday, January 21, 2024
Connect Beyond Festival Volunteer Opportunities
Jan 21 all-day
Harrah's Cherokee Center- Asheville

We have three opportunities for you to help Connect Beyond AND see some music! We need volunteers to assist with wristbands for three shows this summer at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville in Downtown Asheville, N.C. Shifts are roughly (3) hours and all participating volunteers will also receive (1) free ticket to stay after and watch the show. The following dates and shows are available:

  • February 16-18: Billy Strings
  • May 16: Amon Amarth
  • May 20 & 22: Noah Kahan
  • August 30: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Jack’s Bluegrass Brunch
Jan 21 @ 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Jack of the Wood

Jack’s Bluegrass Brunch kicks off every Sunday at 12 noon — with lively bluegrass tunes courtesy of The Jack of the Wood Bluegrass Brunch Boys from 1-3pm. Sip a Bloody Mary or Mimosa or a warm Irish coffee. Tasty brunch specials alongside our regular menu and 18 taps of rotating craft brews! Sláinte, y’all!

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 21 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum

Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Janna Hymes and Joshua Roman: Tales of Transformation
Jan 21 @ 3:00 pm
Peace Concert Hall

Janna Hymes, conductor
Joshua Roman, cellist
Adam Schoenberg: Bounce
Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1
Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite)
Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber

Saint-Saëns got it right with his first cello concerto, widely believed to be one of the greatest ever written for the instrument, even by tough critics like Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. The success of this piece catapulted the composer to stardom, and it’s only fitting that our audience should hear it performed by a major star: Joshua Roman.
Pair that with the dreamy playfulness of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye or “Mother Goose Suite,” written in 1910 for six-year-old Mimi and seven-year-old Jean, the children of the composer’s close friends. The piece has been featured regularly in popular culture, on albums, in television series, and movies.
Paul Hindemith and his wife loved playing piano duets by Classical period composer Carl Maria von Weber, and it was these pieces that inspired his ambitious Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Beloved by orchestras for its sumptuous harmonies and technical challenges, you’ll be amazed when you hear and see the artistry our Greenville Symphony musicians bring to this metamorphosis.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR & GUEST ARTIST

TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION
Jan 21 @ 3:30 pm
Jack of the Wood

Jack’s long-running Traditional Irish Music Session is the perfect way to enjoy the Celtic-influenced sounds of talented pluckers from all over WNC & further afield! Stop in to enjoy a pint or afternoon Irish coffee with the music! Sláinte!

Karaoke Nights in The Draftsman
Jan 21 @ 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm
The Draftsman Bar + Lounge

“Sing your heart out every Sunday with Lyric Jones at our laidback basement bar. Whether you’re a classic crooner or want to relive your glam metal glory days, find your moment to shine between 8pm and 11pm. Remember: what happens at karaoke night, stays at karaoke night.

People in the biz get half off select appetizers and burgers all night!”

Monday, January 22, 2024
TJ + DAVE
Jan 22 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
– ALL AGES
– SEATED SHOW

 

TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi bring their award winning show to Asheville. A miraculously improvised one-hour play at every performance. Get ready to be entertained by the incredible wit and spontaneity of these two talented performers. It’s the perfect opportunity to experience something like you’ve never seen before. Enjoy some great food and drinks, and have a fantastic time with friends. Don’t miss out on this hilarious and one-of-a-kind experience!

 

 

‘One of these guys is the best improviser in the world. And the other one is better.’

 

– Stephen Colbert

 

‘The comics TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi miraculously improvise a one-hour play at every performance. This is an impressive feat of mental athletics, but the results are also observant, complex and frequently enormously funny.’ – The New York Times

 

“BRILLIANT, HEARTBREAKING, MIND-BLOWING, INSPIRING! The best 50 minutes of improv comedy that we’ve ever seen. But we wouldn’t want to insult their effusive skills by speaking so simplistically. Also, it’s funny. Drink their Kool-Aid.” – Time Out New York

 

“TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi, two of the world’s finest practitioners of the art of long-form improv, create an hour long one-act play. They’re both great actors and have amazing improv chops, but it’s always hard to notice these kinds of things when you’re peeing your pants laughing.” – Time Out Chicago

 

Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 23 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sigal Music Museum
Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.

 

Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.

And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!

Live Music at the Library: The David Ambrosio Civil Disobedience Quintet
Jan 23 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

Live Music at the Library Live Jazz Performance:
The David Ambrosio Civil Disobedience Quintet
Blue Note Records in the Progressive ’60s

NYC bassist David Ambrosio has created this project to feature the progressive jazz composers of the late 60’s Blue Note Era, like Bobby Hutcherson, Jackie McLean, Stanley Cowell, Harold Land, Joe Chambers, Duke Pearson and James Spaulding. During a time of important social change and civil unrest, much of this body of work was released decades later and consequently was not heard at the time for when it was written. Exactly fifty years later in America we are seeing significant parallels in social movements to that era which gives this important music, while unfortunately not heard at the time, a new sense of relevancy.

Civil Disobedience is:
Donny McCaslin – tenor, soprano
Jason Palmer – trumpet
Bruce Barth – piano
David Ambrosio – bass
Victor Lewis – drums

This event/performance is made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

ALT ASO
Jan 23 @ 7:00 pm
The Orange Peel

ALT ASO

ALT ASO
Jan 23 @ 7:00 pm
The Orange Peel

The Asheville Symphony joins forces with “mesmerizing” guitarist, JIJI, for this cross-genre performance that includes everything from classical Spanish guitar to Led Zeppelin to Prince and more.
FULLY SEATED