Calendar of Events
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.
Weekly Open Mic with Caleb Beissert! Sign up at 7:30 pm, Mic starts at 8 pm! All forms of entertainment welcome!! Come get a kava and enjoy the local talent
BULA!!
Uncensored expression: anyone is invited to step up to share song, music, poetry, comedy, magic, stories, rants & raves, & other performances!
The most eclectic open mic around, in a welcoming gallery setting! 6 pm signup, perform 6:30-8:30 pm.
Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist, Astoria sculpts sonics with both organic and synthetic sounds, birthing experimental pieces that bridge genres. The Asheville based artist explores trip hop, soul, sky wave, hip hop, pop, folk and ambient, and the project is always evolving to reflect new influences. Astoria has a voice and lyricism that evoke ethereal, colorful, and mystical worlds, while gracefully shifting into phonetic flows that have blunt, earthy, and soulful qualities as well. Their exploration of sonic arrangements creates distinct and enticing atmospheres, ranging from bright and vibrant to dark and bewitching.
Astoria’s passion and intention is to use sound to explore the subtle layers of our inner and outer experiences. To utilize music as an alchemical process that may help us discover more about ourselves through it’s unbridled expression, fascination, and experimentation.
Chris Cooper – guitars
Caleb Beissert – drums, percussion
Max Melner – keyboards, synths
Aaron Price – bass, synths, vox
***also sometimes with Rob McConnell (bass) and Jason Moore (sax)
Hometown: Asheville
About
Kavalactones, based in Asheville, NC, create a special blend of experimental drip noise using analog instruments, found objects, and expressionist vocals.
Biography
Little is known about the Kavalactones except that they appeared in 2013 at a strange little bar in Asheville, NC, and began expanding sonic realms with their own breed of experimental “drip noise.” The core members now consist of Caleb Beissert, Chris Cooper, Max Melner, Aaron Price, Rob McConnell, and Jason Moore with an ever-rotating cast of special guests.
An exploration of spontaneous music in context, Kavalactones play to the feeling in the room while building soundscapes that tell textured stories. Many of these “compositions” fall under the ancient genre of “drip noise,” while others contain futuristic elements of pirate jazz and space rock, such as pallasite and enstatite chondrite. Drawing from a lineage of art and design in the mountains around Asheville, NC, the band weaves ideas of chance, randomness, and the dictum of “more with less” to find just the right groove.
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
Aaron Woody Wood’s story is one steeped in music and tradition. Woody is straight up Appalachian Soul music. Carved from a piece of the NC foothills Rock and then Rolled through the Mississippi Delta mud, he’s a cosmic cowboy who represents the powerful soul and energy of American music.
http://www.aaronwoodywood.com
Appalachian Soul
Funky Mountain Soul wrapped in a skinny battered body
Soaring melodies, driving rhythms, theatrical instrumentation and personal themes are the heartbeat of for KING & COUNTRY. The Australian duo, comprised of brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, raised expectations with the release of 2012’s Crave, winning Billboard’s New Artists to Watch for 2012. Their sophomore effort RUN WILD. LIVE FREE. LOVE STRONG. debuted at #1 on the iTunes Chart and garnered two Grammy Award wins for the band. They received yet another Grammy nomination in 2017 for their song Priceless, the title track from their #1 indie film of the same name. This past Spring (2016), for KING & COUNTRY headlined a major 60-city arena tour, and finished the year with their first, headlining Christmas tour, selling out several arenas across the country. With over 150 shows in 2016 alone, the band played for over 1 million fans, has sold over 600,000 records and had 150,000,000 streams of their music. They have performed on numerous network television shows including The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, FOX and Friends and have songs featured on the Emmys, The Super Bowl, Sunday Night Football, U.S. Open and more.
Pianist, Composer and “Steinway Artist,” Michael Jefry Stevens has released over 80 cds and composed over 340 works for both large and small ensembles. An active band-leader for over 40 years, his current working musical ensembles include the “Conference Call Quartet,” the “Fonda/Stevens Group,” “Eastern Boundary Quartet,” his collaboration with New Orleans horn man, Brian “Breeze” Cayolle and “Trio Generations” featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake.
Voted WNC “Best Composer” 2016
Winner 2017 “Regional Arts Project Grant”
michaeljefrystevens.com
http://michaeljefrystevens.bandcamp.com/
http://www.chamber-music.org/member/mjsjazz
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/michaeljefrystevens
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
Start your week refreshed, renewed, and ready to go with the gentle vibes of indigenous instruments and Sacred Voice. Release tension all the way to your toes. You will be laying down and deeply guided in this meditative experience. Each individual will receive an individual energy ReTuning with tuning forks. Bring a friend and get peaceful.
Myrrh’s years of classical music and voice training blend with almost 20 years of Sacred Sound and energy healing study, practice and teaching, particularly the use of the voice to help clear and retune the biofield. Myrrh teaches extensively about Sacred Sound, her Sacred Voice® practice, the use of mantra, working with indigenous instruments, and working with specialty tuning forks in the biofield to clear blockages.
Advance tickets only available through 3/9/2019. Tickets HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/good-vibrations-sacred-sound-retuning-group-tickets-56751217419
IMPORTANT! Bring a yoga mat, cushions and pillows. NONE AVAILABLE ONSITE
And DON’T FORGET~DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME also starts that day!
Do you ever think about something you did or said from your awkward pre-pubescence that is SO EMBARRASSING it sends a shiver of shame down your spine? You may not realize it, but the rest of the world is dying to hear it! We’re taking the format of the international art movement – Mortified!
Dust off that diary! Unearth those letters! Share your awkward and embarrassing childhood journals, artwork, letters, poems, lyrics, home movies, and plays. We are always looking for you like you to join our community. Never been on stage? We love that!
Sign up is at 7:30pm, we’ll start at 8:00pm!
Here is a trailer for the film version of the movement, Mortified Nation, currently on Netflix if you want to take a peek and get some inspiration!
Every third Friday of the month, local and national headlining comedians gather to bring laughter to what is a very unique bar, with libations that are safe for those who are searching for an alternative to alcohol. Our master of ceremonies, Justin Blackburn is the Positive Progressive Stand Up Comedian. He uses comedy to confront the issues we face in the world and within ourselves by placing a hilarious and enlightening spin on them to make you laugh while inspiring you. His intelligent bits range from confronting social injustice to healing his relationship with his parents. Blackburn has opened for such comedians as Kevin Smith, Trevor Noah, Rory Scovel, and Jon Reep, and is a unique empowering comedian.
Adapted from Disney’s beloved animated film and the works of Rudyard Kipling, this musical for the entire family will have the jungle jumpin’ with a jazzy beat! Specially adapted from the classic Disney animated film, Disney’s The Jungle Book Live features a host of colorful characters and your favorite songs from the movie, including The Bare Necessities, and I Wanna Be Like You. Banished by the ferocious tiger, Shere Khan, a human boy named Mowgli and his panther friend, Bagheera, are on the run in the deepest parts of the jungle. On their journey, the two meet a sinister snake named Kaa, a herd of elephants and a giant bear named Baloo, who teaches them the swingin’ musical rhythms of the jungle. After surviving a dangerous encounter with a band of monkeys led by King Louie, Mowgli and Bagheera are forced to run for their lives. When Shere Khan returns, our heroes must rally their fellow animals into battle and restore peace throughout the jungle. A live, one-act stage production.
Presented by the Overlook Theatre Company
Chuck Lichtenberger is a musical iceberg. At fist listen, it is easy to note that his formal education in Jazz and music theory have trained his hands and ears. But underneath the surface, Lichtenberger is so much more than just a highly skilled piano player.
Years of studying music and performing with some true pioneers of the WNC art scene have seasoned Chuck with a dynamic array of skills and passions. While Jazz music will always be one of his great loves, one might be surprised to find Chuck shifting between metal, rock and pop on any given day. His diverse sonic interests are evident in his original compositions, and provide for a multi layered listening experience that is both uniquely complex and universally compelling.
Asheville’s newest downtown market!
Featuring Conscious Consumption, Craft & Conversation.
Calling all revolutionary hearts and wild spirited folks! Join us for LIVE music, medicine, and metaphysics. This is an opportunity to get cozy with an amazing community of local vendors in the historic downtown YMI building. Market St. Mimosas with locally fermented blueberry sugar rim and herbal cacao shots will be served and the astrologer and healer tables will be open!!!
Visit us on 2nd & 3rd SUNDAYS 12-4pm after your brunch or church of choice and see what’s happening!
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
Do you have an interest in performance but lack experience? Do you want to share your musical abilities but suffer from anxiety? Are you working on some poetry or story telling but haven’t found an outlet that is comfortable enough for your debilitating stage fright?
If so THANK GOODNESS WE FOUND YOU. WE NEED YOU.
Noble Kava hosts the longest running/one of the largest open mics in Asheville (largely thanks to the renowned Caleb Bessiert) and it is our pride and joy. We want to take that format to create a comfortable space where people can begin to overcome the fears that inhibit them from creatively expressing themselves, the way they genuinely wish they could.
As the event organizer I (Delaney Storm Brown) gotta say…. I suffer from hilariously bad stage fright and am looking forward to overcoming that fear with you beautiful creatures.
Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 76 No. 1
Mendelssohn: String Quartet, Op. 80
Amy Beach: Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor, Op. 67
The New York Times recently lauded the Takács Quartet for “revealing the familiar as unfamiliar, making the most traditional of works feel radical once more”, and the Financial Times described a recent concert at the Wigmore Hall: “Even in the most fiendish repertoire these players show no fear, injecting the music with a heady sense of freedom. At the same time, though, there is an uncompromising attention to detail: neither a note nor a bow-hair is out of place.” Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess.
Considered by many as one of the best kalimba players alive today, Kevin Spears musical gifts have astounded audiences around the world and rewritten what was thought humanly impossible on this exotic musical instrument.
Spears’ blinding skill and musical creativity are often compared to innovative legends such as Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix and Les Paul among others and his uncanny ability to play multiple musical and percussive ideas simultaneously in a live setting is iconic, pure and simple…
Spears music is an acoustic electronic mix of funk, afro-beat, latin, trance with a dash of rock that will move your feet and stir your soul.
In addition to making his own instruments, KalimbaMan (as his friends call him) performs internationally including a recent tour of Japan and has worked with and/or opened for artists such as: Victor Wooten, India.Arie, Eric Benet, Col. Bruce Hampton, Toubab Krewe, Wudasse, POS (of De La Soul), Arrested Development, Bill Summers (of Herbie Hancock band), Vinx, Jhelisa Anderson, Divinity (bassist for Beyonce).
Enter into the Rites of Spring with us to celebrate the Equinox and the Cycle of Newness. In this Sacred Equinox Sound ATUNEment, immerse into the indigenous, purifying tones of Sacred Voice, Tibetan and crystal bowls, tank drums, and the exquisite frequencies of gongs. We create a Human Mandala of Sacred Sound and chant the ancient sacred seed syllables of the chakras and connect them deeply within us through mudras. We dance into Newness through ecstatic movement, and end the evening in joy, sharing and copious amounts of chocolate.
We will be seated in a star configuration and once again we will be offering the Inner Mandala Healing Circle and the Outer Mandala general seating. The Inner Mandala Healing Circle is near the bowls and gongs, where you will receive individual Sacred Sound with specialty tuning forks, crystal pyramids and vocal tunings.
VERY IMPORTANT: We will be laying on a hard dance floor. PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN MATS, CUSHIONING and BLANKETS. It is important that you are comfortable to get the most out of this experience. There are very few mats available and NO cushions or blankets on-site.
With Vibrational Alchemists/Sacred Sound Healers Myrrh de Marmion and Wendy Morrison
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
Blue Echo Radio’s annual music festival hosted on UNCA campus. All ages & free and open to the community.
16+ Bands including The Love Language, Linqua Franqa, Kitty Tsunami, Infinity Crush, The Eccentrics, and more!
Echofest will also feature food trucks, family friendly activities, and community vendors including Honey Pot Vintage, Word Emporium as well as Tarot and Henna Artists.
More information as well as the full lineup can be found on the Echofest event page via Facebook.
Echofest is hosted by Blue Echo, UNCA’s student run radio station and co-hosted by Asheville FM.
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
Andrew Duhon is a songwriter from New Orleans, a teller of stories with an undeniable voice, weighted and soulful. Duhon has released 3 recordings, the latest of which, ‘The Moorings’, was nominated for a Grammy in 2014 for ‘Best Engineered Album’. He has toured solo for much of his career, and that troubadour element is certainly present, an usher of modern day folklore. His current touring group is a trio with upright bassist, Myles Weeks and drummer, Jim Kolacek. Since recording ‘The Moorings’ Duhon has been crossing the American landscape, the thoughtful colors and harmonies of the trio breathing a new musicality and direction into Duhon’s songwriting traditions.
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Lydia Luce was born into a musical family, her mother, a gifted organ and piano player, and her brother, a cellist. Luce’s first instrument was viola, and by age 13 she was performing in her mother’s orchestra. Her debut full-length album Azalea, produced by Jordan Lehning and Skylar Wilson, combines her classical training with Americana and folk influences for a collection that feels authentic and comfortable in a way that only lifelong talent can create. Popmatters writes of the debut release that the tunes are, “carefully composed without the sort of pomp that we may have come to expect from classically-trained performers from musical families. Luce forgoes the usual pageantry for something organic and unique that comes from the heart.”
With this compilation of songs born from a collaboration in Nashville, TN, Luce was able to combine what she knew about instrumentation with the fruits of new self-discoveries. Luce says, “Playing strings has been a huge part of my life. On this album, I got to record viola and guitar on my tunes with people that I truly admire. I’m very proud of what we’ve created.” As she continues to write and record, her Spotify streams are climbing to over 17 million and counting, with plans to release an Azalea EP of instrumental and live versions in May of this year.
The Open Jam at Noble Kava welcomes players of all kinds to come explore, push boundaries, step out of comfort zones, gain experience, and meet and play with musicians from Asheville and beyond. There are no genre restrictions, as long as it’s not too loud for the room. All genders and all peoples are welcome (also well behaved animals are welcome, too).
We provide full backline–drum kit, amps, piano, keys, and PA with mics/inputs. The jam is hosted by the house band, the Kavalactones, who play for the first half hour or so, and then the jam opens up. There’s no list. Just show up and let us know you want to play. We recommend bringing your own instrument (guitar, bass, musical saw, ect.), unless you play keys, or sticks if you play kit.
This is a weekly opportunity for experienced musicians to get together, talk, and share ideas in a living room-like setting. No alcohol is served, but players are invited to try kava at the two-fer-one rate, and kavalactone elixir shots are $1 off anytime the Kavalactones are playing at the bar. Bula!
The Literacy Council of Buncombe County will hold “Beauty and the Bee,” an adult Spelling Bee, on April 3, 2019 at The Mothlight in West Asheville. Beginning at 6 pm, fifteen teams of three adults each will compete in the themed, spirited, and zany word challenge.
While the word list is challenging to even the most advanced spellers, this event is not a traditional, stilted spelling bee. Audience members are encouraged to cheer on their favorite teams and can even purchase opportunities to cheat on the spellers’ behalf. Spellers and audience members are encouraged to wear costumes in homage to this year’s beauty-pageant event theme: Beauty and the Bee.
Spelling Bee teams are fielded by local businesses, non-profits, community associations, colleges, book clubs and friends. This year’s teams include the 2018 winning team, Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café; the 2017 highest fundraising team, Chestnut/Corner Kitchen; and more.
Funds raised by the Beauty and the Bee Spelling Bee support the Literacy Council of Buncombe County’s programs that provide basic literacy and English language services to 2,200 people in Buncombe County.
Weekly Open Mic with Caleb Beissert! Sign up at 7:30 pm, Mic starts at 8 pm! All forms of entertainment welcome!! Come get a kava and enjoy the local talent
BULA!!
Considered by many as one of the best kalimba players alive today, Kevin Spears musical gifts have astounded audiences around the world and rewritten what was thought humanly impossible on this exotic musical instrument.
Spears’ blinding skill and musical creativity are often compared to innovative legends such as Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix and Les Paul among others and his uncanny ability to play multiple musical and percussive ideas simultaneously in a live setting is iconic, pure and simple…
Spears music is an acoustic electronic mix of funk, afro-beat, latin, trance with a dash of rock that will move your feet and stir your soul.
In addition to making his own instruments, KalimbaMan (as his friends call him) performs internationally including a recent tour of Japan and has worked with and/or opened for artists such as: Victor Wooten, India.Arie, Eric Benet, Col. Bruce Hampton, Toubab Krewe, Wudasse, POS (of De La Soul), Arrested Development, Bill Summers (of Herbie Hancock band), Vinx, Jhelisa Anderson, Divinity (bassist for Beyonce).
Born in Flatwoods, Kentucky, Billy Ray Cyrus, known for his country singing, hunky good looks and mullet hairstyle, has enjoyed a mulit-layed performance career as a multi-platinum selling recording artist. He has scored a total of eight top-ten singles on the Billboard Country Songs chart. His most successful album to date is his debut Some Gave All, which has been certified 9 Multi-Platinum in the United States and is the longest time spent by a debut artist at number one on the Billboard 200 and featured the breakout hit, “Achy Breaky Heart.” From 2001 to 2004, Cyrus starred in the television show Doc. The show was about a country doctor who moved from Montana to New York City. From 2006 to 2011, he co-starred in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana with his daughter, Miley Cyrus. Soon after, Cyrus enjoyed an eight-week run on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. In years since, Cyrus has been alternating between making music and acting. In an industry where excesses are the order of the day, Cyrus has retained his humility and morals and continues to be an inspiration and mentor to aspiring musicians all over the world.
Join us for this energetic duo from Black Mountain, featuring Randy Sarton (Guitar & Vocals) and Bill Hattori (Cajon Drum, Splash Cymbal, Various Percussion). $5/person suggested donation. Be dangerous!
