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.

Friday, January 26, 2024
Neon Dreams: A Night of Disco, Synth-pop, and Electro House
Jan 26 @ 9:00 pm – Jan 27 @ 2:00 am
The White Rabbit at Water Street

Join us for a night of disco, synth-pop, indie-electro, and electro-house – featuring a killer lineup of local DJs! Nothing but dancy, synthy stuff all night (9:00 pm – 2:00 am). Great way to shake off those late winter blues!
January 26, 2024
The White Rabbit at Water Street
116 N Lexington Ave.
Asheville, NC
$10 Cover
Doors at 9:00
Artists:
Tapz
Interstellar Noise
Absynthe

https://www.facebook.com/events/1394921001232068

Saturday, January 27, 2024
Connect Beyond Festival Volunteer Opportunities
Jan 27 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
Upstate South Carolina Boat Show
Jan 27 @ 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Greenville Convention Center

The 54th Annual Upstate SC Boat Show is coming to the Greenville Convention Center on January 25-28, 2024!

The show will host the latest models of boats including:
Fishing, Pontoon, Speed, Ski, Cruisers, and Personal Watercraft. Additionally, you’ll find boating accessories and everything that you need to start the season off right!

Show Hours

Thursday & Friday: 12pm – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 9pm
Sunday: 12pm – 6pm

Admission & Parking

Adults $7 • Seniors (60+) $6 • Students (7-18) $6 • Children (Age 6 and Under) FREE
Parking $5

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 27 @ 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 27 @ 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.
COMPANY
Jan 27 @ 2:00 pm
Peace Concert Hall

PHONE RINGS, DOOR CHIMES, IN COMES COMPANY.

Winner of 5 Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, COMPANY “strikes like a lightning bolt. It’s brilliantly conceived and funny as hell” (Variety).  Three-time Tony® Award-winning director Marianne Elliott (War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Angels in America) helms this revelatory new production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s groundbreaking musical comedy, at once boldly sophisticated, deeply insightful, and downright hilarious.

It’s Bobbie’s 35th birthday party, and all her friends keep asking, Why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man and isn’t it time to settle down and start a family? As Bobbie searches for answers, she discovers why being single, being married, and being alive in the 21st-century could drive a person crazy.

COMPANY features Sondheim’s award-winning songs “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side by Side” and the iconic “Being Alive”. Let’s all drink to that!

“Dazzling! So vibrant, so alive!” – Hollywood Reporter

“GLORIOUSLY TRANSFORMATIVE. A GODSEND.” – The New York Times

“HANDS DOWN THE BEST MUSICAL PRODUCTION OF THE SEASON!” – New York Post


Official Website

World Harvest Presents The Commissioning
Jan 27 @ 6:30 pm
Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

“The Commissioning” featuring

Christian Hip Hop Artist KB “Kevin Burgess”

This. Will. Be. Transformative! Come and experience a Jesus Movement that will impact the upstate in a historic way. This event exists to gather, mobilize, and empower our generation into their purpose! We believe this monumental event coming Jan 27th of 2024 will be a catalyst to reach not only the upstate but the world with the gospel. No matter where you’re in life, we want you here!

If you’re reading this, we want you to know that this event is not just a one-night moment. We’re inviting your generation into an extraordinary journey that we think will surprise you and compel you. People from all around the upstate and the world will be attending this night for many reasons.

– KB, Evangelist Jacob Ebersole, World Harvest Inc, Jesus Youth, and many other ministries, churches, missions organizations will be represented here. This is a collaboration and a gathering to respond to the need of the Upstate, the Nation, and the World.

– We believe thousands will literally be set on mission right there at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. Not simply because this will be an amazing event, but because of what we will be offering you after. Young people and old will have an opportunity to partner with us on a global scale. Get your tickets fast!

– After the event in the lobby, you will have an opportunity to meet the leaders of this initiative. More importantly there will be a team present to greet you, speak with you about details, what your heart cry is, and to pray with you. Right there in the lobby you will have the opportunity to partner with World Harvest initiatives going on not just in the Upstate, but globally.

About World Harvest Inc.

World Harvest is a global missions movement set to reach every continent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Founded by Evangelist Jacob Ebersole, who is actually from the upstate of SC – World Harvest has witnessed hundreds of thousands attend their crusades around the world. A few years ago the Herald Journey did a full story on Ebersole’s ministry which ended up on the front page of Sunday’s paper. This year, due to the impact of their campaigns, the story continues and his crusades have went viral on CBN, Christian Post, Charisma, and many more. Jacob’s heart cry has never been about social media, but about global impact. With that said, people are beginning to hear and wonder how they can be a part of this Jesus Movement as this is just the beginning.

About KB

KB for His Glory Alone! “To me, resistance carries with it a certain posture,” KB says. “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”Three studio releases in and KB is at his creative zenith. For years, the Tampa native has been something of an outlier in hip-hop, firmly placing a thumb print on the game while invoking the power of spiritual conviction. His lyricism is impassioned and astute, and he won’t be bent against his will. Given his commanding presence and consistent output, it comes as no surprise that the world has taken notice. The track “100” from the EP of the same name, took home the Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Song of the Year in 2014. And his last LP, 2015’s Tomorrow We Live, garnered both critical and commercial acclaim, earning a Stellar Award nomination for Rap/Hip-Hop Gospel CD of the Year and debuting on the Billboard charts as the No.1 Christian Album and the No. 4 Rap Album overall.

Now — with the world in a social and political frenzy—KB is redefining what rebellion truly means. Today We Rebel, his third full-length album with Reach Records, is an exercise in zeal and imagination. No-frills, no filler. Just raw, uncut transparency through and through. KB follows his artistic impulses to great effect, lending his take on terms that are dominating the cultural conversation.

About Jesus Youth

From small beginnings, Jesus Youth has been focused on building an army! Established in 2022, many of the youth in Spartanburg came together to be the youth of this generation! Joining forces, putting aside differences, and uniting  under the name of Jesus, with strategic development, counsel, and leadership, what has been built up, will forever continue to affect the youth and generations to come!! What we see here is a move of God that cannot be stopped, the transformation of lives that cannot be denied, and the call to Christ that sounds to every age, race, and ethnicity. With Love in the center, Jesus Youth is pressing forward to win many souls for the kingdom of God! Not only do we focus on saving the lost, a revival is needed for the saved! Come join us for this night of being commissioned into the harvest that has been worked on for so long!

For more information and all other general inquiries about this event, please follow the link below to contact a member of World Harvest Inc.

WORLD HARVEST

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Arizona Coyotes
Jan 27 @ 7:00 pm
PNC Arena

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Arizona Coyotes

PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour
Jan 27 @ 7:00 pm
Bon Secours Wellness Arena

For the fifth time in history, PBR’s (Professional Bull Riders) Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour will buck into Greenville, South Carolina, returning to the Bon Secours Wellness Arena for the fourth consecutive season on Jan. 26-27, 2024, with PBR Greenville.

For two nights only, some of the best bull riders in the world will battle the sport’s rankest bovine athletes in the ultimate showdown of man vs. beast in one of the most exciting live sporting events to witness.

PBR’s return to Greenville comes on the spurs of one of the organization’s most dynamic individual seasons in 2023, as the Velocity Tour broke and reset numerous attendance and competition records en-route to its most successful season to date.

The upcoming PBR Greenville will mark the eighth event of the new individual season for the PBR’s expansion series. Eventgoers will watch on as riders vie for crucial points in the race to be crowned the 2024 PBR Velocity Tour Champion.

When PBR’s Velocity Tour was last in North Charleston in February 2023, Mauricio Moreira (Gaviao Peixoto, Brazil) rode supreme, delivering a 2-for-3 effort inside Bon Secours Wellness Arena to win PBR Greenville.

Moreira first put points on the board in Round 1 when he tied for the second-best score, marked 86.5 points atop Grinch (C Check Bucking Bulls). The charismatic Brazilian then surged to the event lead when he rode Chubs (J Bar W) for 82.5 points in the second round.

In the championship round, Moreira drew Gold Standard (Mike Miller Bucking Bulls) as his final animal athlete opponent. While he was upended in 2.36 seconds, Moreira’s initial scores were enough to clinch the victory.

Moreira left The Palmetto State having earned a crucial 115.5 Velocity Global points.

The bull riding action for PBR Greenville begins with Round 1 at 7:45 p.m. ET on Friday, January 26, followed by Round 2 and the championship round at 6:45 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 27. All 40 competing bull riders will get on one bull each in Round 1. The Top 36 riders from Round 1 will advance to Round 2 Saturday evening. The riders’ individual two-round scores will be totaled with the Top 10 advancing to the championship round for one more out and a chance at the event title.

Tickets for the two-day event go on sale Wednesday, September 20 at 10:00 a.m. EDT, and start at $15, taxes and fees not included. Tickets can be purchased online at BSWArena.com, ticketmaster.com and PBR.comor by calling PBR customer service at 1-800-732-1727.

PBR Elite Seats are available for avid fans who want an exclusive VIP experience while enjoying the world’s top bull riding circuit. These tickets, available in three tiers, offer premium seats, personal on-site concierge at the PBR fan loyalty booth, and more. For more on elite seats call (800) 732-1727, or to purchase visit Ticketmaster.com.

For more information about the PBR and the 2024 PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour schedule, or to purchase tickets, visit PBR.com.

Stay tuned to PBR.com for the latest news and results and be sure to follow the sport on all social media platforms at @PBR.

 

About the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour:

The PBR’s Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour (PWVT) began in 2014 as the premier expansion tour for the PBR. The Velocity Tour, the sport’s fastest-growing tour, brings the excitement and top-levels of cowboy and bovine talent that fans have come to expect from the sport to cities across the United States. The PWVT is proudly supported by Pendleton Whisky, Boot Barn, Cooper Tires, Rank 45, South Point Hotel & Casino, Tractor Supply, Kubota, the United States Border Patrol, Zip Recruiter and GovX. Every Velocity Tour event is carried on PBR RidePass on Pluto TV, PBR’s flagship digital network.

BIG SOMETHING: HEADSPACE TOUR
Jan 27 @ 8:00 pm
Salvage Station

Hailing from the North Carolina countryside, or “The Middle of Nowhere,” as it is lovingly dubbed on their debut album, the 6-headed musical monster known as ‘Big Something’ has steadily become one of the most unique and exciting rock bands to emerge from the Southeast. Huge rhythms paired with soaring guitars, E.W.I (electronic wind instrument), synths, horns and soulful vocals rise to the top of their signature sound taking listeners on a journey through a myriad of musical styles. With a diverse and growing catalog of timeless songs that tell stories, and a high energy live show fusing improvisational alternative rock with funk, reggae, jazz, electronica, heavy metal and more–it’s no secret why their fun-loving grassroots community of fans is so enamored with the band. After over a decade together with 6 full-length studio albums produced by Grammy-nominee John Custer and even their own Summer music festival The Big What?, Big Something have carved out their own niche in the live music community and continue to grow nationally landing marquee appearances at Bonnaroo, Peach Music Festival, Lock’n, Summer Camp and Electric Forest as well as critical acclaim from the likes of Billboard, Guitar World, Glide Magazine and Jambase.

OCIE ELLIOTT with Joshua Hyslop
Jan 27 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
– ALL AGES

 

– SEATED SHOW

 

– LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEOCIE ELLIOTT

 

Ocie Elliott pen tunes that feel lived-in. You can hear their memories, experiences, and emotions in the dusty acoustic guitars, the sparse production, and the graceful harmonies between Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy. Their life together plays out in the music as if projected on the big screen of an old small-town theater. Generating tens of millions of streams, earning a JUNO Award nomination and inciting the applause of American Songwriter, CBC, PopMatters, Atwood Magazine, Exclaim, and many more, both of their spirits shine like never before on their 2022 EP, What Remains [Nettwerk Music Group]. “Since we spend so much time together, our life becomes our songs,” observes Sierra. “We play off each other really well. One of us will start playing around, and the other will join in. We fuel one another in a way we normally wouldn’t be fueled by ourselves. We think differently when we’re together.”

 

“Sierra makes me a better songwriter,” Jon agrees. “She makes me want to try different things and experiment with melody. She pushes me to use new words and phrases.” Their interplay borders on magical, and it continues to entrance audiences. Ocie initially emerged with EP in 2017. The single “I Got You, Honey” has amassed over 13 million Spotify streams and counting. Meanwhile, their music appeared multiple times in Grey’s Anatomy in addition to a sync on NETFLIX’s Sweet Magnolias, among others. Following 2019’s We Fall In, their 2020 In That Room EP yielded the fan favorite “Be Around,” which eclipsed 10 million Spotify streams. Remaining prolific during 2021, they unveiled the Slow Tide EP and A Place EP. Of the latter, Exclaim! praised, “Each track is a direct invitation to the listener; six strings tugging on the heart,” and PopMatters attested, “The folk duo create another collection of sweetly understated music.” Along the way, they toured with Joshua Radin, Sons of The East, Kim Churchill, and Hollow Coves. During 2022, they garnered a nomination at the JUNO Awards in the category of “Breakthrough Artist of the Year,” marking their first nod. Ocie Elliott composed What Remains during a series of writing retreats, holing up in Whistler and Sierra’s hometown of Salt Spring Island. In the midst of the process, Sierra’s dad was suddenly diagnosed with cancer.

 

“We had one last month with him,” she recalls. “We were able to play these songs live for him in his final days. I think it helped us. He was the reason I started playing music to begin with and encouraged me to get piano lessons as a kid. My dad was the kind of guy who picks up any instrument, plays it, and makes it sound good.”

 

“Playing those songs for him was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever gone through,” Jon exclaims. “When he was listening, he was fully immersed. It was a beautiful experience for us.”

JOSHUA HYSLOP
Joshua Hyslop is a modern folk musician, an amalgam of influence in the classically romantic tradition of Damien Rice, Iron and Wine, and Sufjan Stevens. Like the said ballyhooed folksters before him, Joshua is inspired to write largely as a result of the people and relationships surrounding him, while also subjecting his songs to his own vulnerabilities, doubts, and conflicts. He integrates these revelations with his agenda of lyrical candidness, creating an expressive and open artform.

THE TAYLOR PARTY: THE TS DANCE PARTY
Jan 27 @ 8:00 pm
The Orange Peel
Ages 18+

Hey, Lovers!

Are you ready for it?

THE TAYLOR PARTY, the original Taylor Swift Inspired Dance Party ✨

💃 Come shake it off at our enchanting evening of Swifties, singing and dancing through all TS iconic Eras.

Pick your Eras outfit, bring your besties, and come party in style! 🕶️

Long live the magic we’ll make. 💎

Sunday, January 28, 2024
Connect Beyond Festival Volunteer Opportunities
Jan 28 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
54th Annual Upstate South Carolina Boat Show
Jan 28 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Greenville Convention Center

The 54th Annual Upstate SC Boat Show is coming to the Greenville Convention Center on January 25-28, 2024!

The show will host the latest models of boats including:

Fishing, Pontoon, Speed, Ski, Cruisers, and Personal Watercraft. Additionally, you’ll find boating accessories and everything that you need to start the season off right!

Show hours are Thursday and Friday from 12pm – 9pm, Saturday from 10am – 9pm and Sunday from 12pm – 6pm.

Jack’s Bluegrass Brunch
Jan 28 @ 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!

Upstate South Carolina Boat Show
Jan 28 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Greenville Convention Center

The 54th Annual Upstate SC Boat Show is coming to the Greenville Convention Center on January 25-28, 2024!

The show will host the latest models of boats including:
Fishing, Pontoon, Speed, Ski, Cruisers, and Personal Watercraft. Additionally, you’ll find boating accessories and everything that you need to start the season off right!

Show Hours

Thursday & Friday: 12pm – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 9pm
Sunday: 12pm – 6pm

Admission & Parking

Adults $7 • Seniors (60+) $6 • Students (7-18) $6 • Children (Age 6 and Under) FREE
Parking $5

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 28 @ 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!

Pan Harmonia + GeneratioNext, ft. Maria Parrini, solo piano
Jan 28 @ 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, Asheville

PAN HARMONIA’s 24th season continues at First Presbyterian Asheville with GeneratioNext artist Maria Parrini, solo piano

This program will delight with dance forms by Ravel, Schumann, Bartok ranging from intimate and extravagant to luminous, raucous and explosive! PLUS a premiere of a brand-new work Maria commissioned, Isaiah Saranow’s 2023 “forgotten music,” exploring how these forms metamorphose through time and memory.

The last time GenX Maria graced PAN HARMONIA’s stage was in 2018. She has since earned a Bachelor’s from Cleveland Institute of Music, cruised around the world playing chamber music and just recently completed her Masters in piano performance.

Sunday, January 28, 3 pm · First Presbyterian Church of Asheville

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

Reservation portal closes at noon the day of event.
Email [email protected] or call the office at (828) 254-7123, if you have questions.
Panharmonia.org

TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION
Jan 28 @ 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!

ALEXA ROSE
Jan 28 @ 8:00 pm
The Grey Eagle
– ALL AGES
– SEATED SHOW

 

Headwaters are the source of a river. The furthest point from where water merges with something else. They are not mighty. Just a network of small tributaries, like a creek, not necessarily picturesque, but they’re the most important part of the river. Water is fluid and inconsistent and sacred and indifferent. You can be miles down a river, but you’re still at the origin. And in that way, water feels like it has transcended time. That’s how these songs found me—the way memories find you, in that slivering, elusive water. As quickly as you come across them, you bend in another direction.

 

Headwaters is the sophomore album from Virginian indie folk singer Alexa Rose. A series of minutely-observed vignettes that feel intimate and expansive at the same time. It captures the sweetness of life without avoiding any of the pain, with songs about time and its constraints, peppered with precise details pulled from Rose’s own life that make universal themes seem personal, inviting the listener to make each song their own.

 

A series of rivers, Headwaters is centered on the fluidity of time. After a year where time has seemed to ebb and flow inconsistently and all routine has been dismantled, I found myself writing in the medium of water, says Rose. When I was sitting alone in my room in the southern summer heat, windows open, humidity fuming, a song called Human poured out of me. It was August, and all summer there had been such a tremendous sense of humanity, revolution, justice coming up against division, misinformation, fear. Like most regular, feeling people, I had such a strange mixture of emotions: grief, excitement; solidarity with the ways people across the world were showing up to love and support one another. I wanted so badly to run outside and be a part of it all, right then and there in that moment. But I was stuck at home. And in that strange swelling of simultaneous loss and the richness of witnessing so much kindness, I remember laying on the bed with the guitar, staring at the ceiling, and just singing “I wanna go downtown and look some stranger in the face.” I would be happy to see anyone. I just really want to hug someone. To jump into some icy swimming hole. To feel the surge of aliveness. And I felt so imperfect and raw, but I knew so did everyone else.

 

I feel like this record is the first time I’ve ever let my whole self into the room, says Rose. The parts of me that are angry and wanting to stand up and the parts that want to be quiet. The parts that remember being a kid. Letting myself release all of that in the studio and having all these people back me up and make it work was a tremendous gift.

 

When I turned 27 and felt the weight of a decade in a conversation, I envisioned my present and past self in the form of a frenetic, uneasy current slapping up against a steady boat. I imagined my great grandparents in their garden in the golden embers of some evening and the timeless sensation of change, the colorful sunsets I’ve seen through their own eyes, decades later.

 

And in the same way I found the songs, waves breaking against my own roughness, only visitors, I’m passing them on to you now. May all of your rivers come back headwaters.

Karaoke Nights in The Draftsman
Jan 28 @ 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 29, 2024
THE MILK CARTON KIDS
Jan 29 @ 8:00 pm
The Orange Peel
 Show: 8pm | Doors: 7pm
All Ages – under 12 requires venue approval

Completing their seventh studio album was a hard-won victory for The Milk Carton Kids, but I Only See the Moon was worth the effort for Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan. “It feels like returning to something that’s natural and comfortable, and also just as inspiring and new as when we first met,” says Pattengale, who formed The Milk Carton Kids with Ryan in 2011.

What started as a three-week recording session in the fall of 2021, with Pattengale producing the contemporary folk duo himself for the first time, stretched into a months- long project that found the pair digging deeper into their craft than ever before. With a new studio of their own in Los Angeles and the realization that they were in no hurry, The Milk Carton Kids took the time they needed to be fully satisfied with I Only See the Moon.

“I haven’t been as happy with the collection of songs that we’ve put on record probably since our first record, and it’s because of a lot of the lessons we’ve learned over the years, including giving yourself time and space,” Ryan says.

The three-time Grammy nominees sound refreshed on 10 new songs distilled to the essence of The Milk Carton Kids: two voices blended together in spellbinding harmony, accompanied by subtly perfect acoustic instrumentation. Turns out that’s a tough sound to get just right, but I Only See the Moon shows just how much Pattengale and Ryan were willing to work for it.

Your last album, The Only Ones, came out in 2019. Things have changed since then.

Pattengale: It’s totally a different world. For me, a number of life changes lined up where I moved back to Southern California, I got married, I sort of planted roots a little more deeply. I’m 20 minutes from Joey’s door now, rather than the last decade, where I’ve lived 3,000 miles away and 1,600 miles away. And we found a studio space in North Hollywood that is available 24 hours a day, so we have a new opportunity to collaborate in the way that we hadn’t in a decade.

Ryan: We were starting to fall in love with our jobs again, right before the pandemic hit. And I’ll cop to the implication that maybe we had fallen out of love with it for a while, for a lot of reasons. Personally, I had lost touch with any sense of deeper purpose as to why we were doing it, but I came out of it with a renewed sense of why we got into this in the first place.

Why did you get into it in the first place?

Ryan: I consistently have the most meaningful and transcendent experiences of my life while listening to music, especially live music at a concert. I got back in touch with the idea that people aren’t coming to our shows because they’re impressed, or because Kenneth plays the guitar fast (though he does), or because we do this vocal harmony thing. They’re coming for a much deeper reason, and it’s that they really need — we all really need — the experience of being together and hearing music together.

Kenneth, you’ve produced other artists, including Joe Pug and Joy Williams. What was different about producing your own band?

Pattengale: Functionally speaking, the only important thing that you can do as a producer is to keep somebody from following their own artistic drive into a dead end. If you have enough audacity to think that you’ve identified what is potent about someone’s artistic endeavor in the moment, you want to track that down the street and make sure it doesn’t crash.

Making I Only See the Moon was supposed to take three weeks. What happened?

Ryan: We needed more time. Three weeks is three times more than any recording session we’ve ever had. We’ve never spent more than a week, or maybe nine days on All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do, our album that had 15 people on it. But we spent three weeks and that felt luxurious and we got to the end of it and we realized we only had three songs that we liked, even though we had recorded 12. Kenneth said, “We don’t have it. It’s not a good record.” I wouldn’t have had the balls to say that. I was probably in a little bit of denial about whether the songs were good enough.

Pattengale: As the producer, putting my foot down after those three weeks was easy. The harder part was going back on the other side of the line to just keep writing and writing. We clocked another six or seven months making this album, which also coincided with a number of significant life events that tried to derail me, including a bad bout of COVID and a terrible car accident. But despite all of that, it ended up being exactly the timeframe we needed to shake off some kind of collective writer’s block and find a renewed collaborative purpose in what we were trying to say, or where we were trying to land artistically.

How did you hold on to that spark of creativity when you were not as in love with your jobs as you are now?

Ryan: Lots of different things. Monterey, we made while we were on tour. Then we made the album with 15 other people when we decided we wanted to make a full-band album. It’s like a successful marriage in that there’s always been enough there between us collaboratively in the way that we work together, sing together, play together. It’s a very special thing. And I don’t think we ever took that for granted.

Pattengale: The problem we were solving for was different all of those years. But we’re back on a track that is really exciting and expansive. It feels like there’s a new exciting world around every turn. Both of us have now lived enough life to understand that maybe one of the purposes we were put on Earth for is to sing together, to write songs together, to make music together. It has truly provided a direction for our lives.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 30 @ 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!

LUCINDA WILLIAMS AND HER BAND
Jan 30 @ 7:30 pm
Peace Concert Hall

Lucinda Williams’ music has gotten her through her darkest days. It’s been that way since growing up amid family chaos in the Deep South, as she recounts in her candid new memoir, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You. Over the past two years, it’s been the force driving her recovery from a debilitating stroke she suffered on November 17, 2020, at age 67. Her masterful, multi-Grammy-winning songwriting has never deserted her. To wit, her stunning, sixteenth studio album, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, brims over with some of the best work of her career. And though Williams can no longer play her beloved guitar – a constant companion since age 12 – her distinctive vocals sound better than ever.

Through all the hardships Williams faced in 2020 – a destructive tornado damaging her new home in Nashville, being sidelined by the pandemic, and then the catastrophic stroke – her music kept her going and continues to bring her more laurels. The past year has seen Williams honored by BMI for her songwriting, her induction into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, and a Grammy Week tribute at the Troubadour, with her songs performed by a diversity of Americana artists. She duetted with Willie Nelson on Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever,” which won a Grammy in February for Best Country Performance. On her birthday in January she performed at a sold-out show in Belfast, Ireland. “I was so glad I was there when I turned 70,” she relates. “The audience sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ Travis brought a birthday cake out onstage, and we took it on the bus and all had a piece of cake. Afterwards, I was so inspired I started writing a song about Northern Ireland.”

As she promises on the powerful last track of Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart–one of the best albums of her career–Lucinda Williams is “never gonna fade away.”

 

Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Pacolet Adult Appalachian Music (PacJAM) Spring Semester
Jan 31 all-day
Tryon Fine Arts Center

Adult Classes

Wednesdays

2:45-3:45 pm & 6:15-7:15 pm

 

Afternoon adult classes are for fiddle, beginning guitar, and beginning mandolin. Evening adult classes are for bluegrass jam, and beginning clawhammer banjo.

“If you don’t let things develop, it’s like keeping something in a bag and not letting it out to fly”
— Earl Scruggs

It’s never too late to learn to play and/or enjoy being part of the synergy that is created by adult PacJAMMERs!

Adult classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the 14-week session.

 

Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred
Jan 31 @ 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!

Sing with our Choir
Jan 31 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
First Congregational Church

Sing with our Choir at a progressive church

Come join us! Contact Mark Acker for more information ([email protected]).

Rehearsals on Wednesday’s, 3:30-4:45

Pacolet Junior Appalachian Music (PacJAM) Spring Semester
Jan 31 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Tryon Fine Arts Center

Beginning & Intermediate youth music classes on traditional and ol’ time instruments including but not limited to, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar. Students will attend 40 minutes of music enrichment, including multiple flat-footing sessions led by Alice Kexel, story-telling, visits from guest musicians, as well as learn about the heritage of the music and the region. They will have 40 minutes of group music classes, and 40 minutes of singing or JAM rehearsal.

Advanced students will have 40 minutes of group instrument lessons, followed by 30 minutes of advanced singing including harmony and shape-note singing, and finish with 50 minutes of coached, small-ensemble rehearsal.

Classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the first student, and a 20% discount of $168 for each additional sibling. Parents may choose to split payments when registering. Inquire with Julie Moore at [email protected] or 864-420-6407 about scholarships.

Youth Classes

Wednesdays, 4-6 pm

OLD-TIME JAM Old-Time Mountain + Folk Music
Jan 31 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Jack of the Wood


Grab some dinner and a pint while enjoying our long-running Old-Time jam! Featuring many talented musicians from the local WNC area, our traditional Appalachian mountain music jam runs from 5-9pm every Wednesday night at Jack of the Wood!

French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam
Jan 31 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Oklawaha Brewing Company

Weekly mountain music JAM with
players in a round, where the session is focused on regional fiddle tunes and songs, You are welcome to come and listen or to
learn and join in. This event supports the Henderson County Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) Kids Program, Free but
donations are accepted.