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.
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
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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!
Plan to collaborate with other musicians at Sideways Farm & Brewery in Etowah. Bring your instruments and voices and enjoy making music and networking with other artists, while enjoying the beautiful scenery. Food truck is on site and beverages available for purchase from Sideways (small
batch craft beers, hard jun, ciders, wine, and non alcoholic drinks). Family, fans, friends, and leashed dogs are all welcome!
During winter months enjoy playing under the covered, sheltered, heated porch! And during the summer months enjoy
collaborating in the fields, on the stage, or under the patio
It’s February, which means ‘the boys are back!’ From the same outstanding musical talent who brought you the Music of Queen, the Eagles, and the Beatles, welcome to Mixtape! The Best of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Come shake off the winter blues with this red-hot rockin’ playlist featuring tunes you know and love. It’ll be ‘a gas,’ ‘far out,’ and ‘totally tubular!’
ABOUT SKYLAR: With her luminous voice and captivating songcraft, Skylar Gudasz has won the admiration of some of the most distinguished artists in music. In the past few years alone, the Durham, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has shared stages with the likes of Ray Davies, Cat Power and Sharon Van Etten as part of the Big Star’s Third tribute concerts, opened for Television and toured from the US with Teenage Fanclub to Europe with the Mountain Goats, and appeared as a background vocalist on albums by Superchunk and Hiss Golden Messenger, making her TV debut with the latter on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
World Vision presents the Winter Jam 2024 Tour, founded by Newsong and produced by Premier Productions. Christian music’s biggest tour with performances by Crowder, Lecrae, CAIN, Katy Nichole, Seventh Day Slumber, Newsong, including Speaker Zane Black.
Suggested $15 donation at the door. No ticket required.
with:
There’s a double meaning to the title of What Now, the revelatory new album from singer/songwriter Brittany Howard. “With the world we’re living in now, it feels like we’re all just trying to hang onto our souls,” says the Nashville-based musician and frontwoman for four-time Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes. “Everything seems to be getting more extreme and everyone keeps wondering, ‘What now? What’s next?’ By the same coin, the only constant on this record is you never know what’s going to happen next: every song is its own aquarium, its own little miniature world built around whatever I was feeling and thinking at the time.”
With five Grammy® wins and sixteen nominations, Howard follows up her massively acclaimed solo debut Jaime—a 2019 LP that landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of Pitchfork, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone – with What Now, drawing an immense and indelible power from endless unpredictability. Over the course of its 12 tracks, Howard brings her singular musicality to a shapeshifting sound encompassing everything from psychedelia and dance music to dream-pop and avant-jazz—a fitting backdrop for an album whose lyrics shift from unbridled outpouring to incisive yet radically idealistic commentary on the state of the human condition. At turns galvanizing, cathartic, and wildly soul-expanding, the result is a monumental step forward for one of the most essential artists of our time.
Like Jaime (whose celebratory single “Stay High” earned a Grammy for Best Rock Song), What Now finds Howard taking the helm as producer and working closely with engineer/co-producer/co-mixer Shawn Everett (Beck, The War on Drugs). Recorded at the legendary Sound Emporium and the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville, the album emerged through a deliberately free-flowing process, with Howard doubling down on the unfettered creativity that’s long defined her work. “I don’t ever plan too deeply, but usually I show up with the songs almost fully formed,” she says. “With this record there was a lot of exploring sounds on the spot, and trusting that the right thing would come to us.” Despite that highly exploratory approach, many of the songs on What Now unfold in intricate and hyper-inventive arrangements rooted in complex rhythm patterns, achieved with the help of musicians like Paul Horton (keys), Lloyd Buchanan (keys), Brad Allen Williams (Guitar), drummer Nate Smith (Fearless Flyers, Vulfpeck, Paul Simon), and Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell. “All the sounds on this album are analog, all the drums are real drums,” Howard points out. “There’s so many different structures and tones happening within the songs that it ended up being a real monster to mix, but we figured it out. In a way it’s shocking to me how it all came together.”
Anchored in Howard’s inimitable and infinitely commanding voice—a supreme vessel for channeling raw emotional truth—What Now opens on a slow-building and rapturous track called “Earth Sign.” An intimate meditation on the limitless nature of love, “Earth Sign” immediately envelops the listener in its quietly symphonic convergence of musical elements: Howard’s frenetic piano work, barbershop-quartet-inspired harmonies, otherworldly textures formed through an ingenious bit of in-studio experimentation. “We were playing keyboard sounds through a speaker, and on top of the speaker was a trash can with different metal objects attached, and we recorded the resonance of those objects to bring into the song,” Howard reveals.
A departure from the dreamy languor of “Earth Sign,” What Now’s title track takes on a potent urgency fueled by its syncopated grooves, blistering guitar riffs, and fiercely honest lyrics (e.g., “I’ve been making plans that don’t include you anymore/My heart wants to stay but I don’t know what for”). “‘What Now’ is maybe the truest and bluest of all the songs,” says Howard. “It’s never my design to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I needed to say what was on my mind without editing myself. I like how it’s a song that makes you want to dance, but at the same time the lyrics are brutal.” Next, on “Red Flags,” Howard offers up a gloriously brooding reflection on love’s darker dimensions, echoing the stormy intensity of her emotional state by continually pulling the track into strange new directions. “In my past relationships, I’ve had a tendency to see red flags as part of some parade just for me—something for me to run right through without paying any attention,” she says. “To me ‘Red Flags’ sounds very dystopian, which makes sense for a song that feels like end-of-times as far as me emotionally maturing. It’s like a big tower fell and now I have to create something new.” Later, on “Prove It To You,” What Now bursts into a more euphoric mood as Howard delivers a four-on-the-floor dance track spiked with her explosive guitar work. “I wanted to write something fun that captured the joy of a new relationship, but also tell the truth about how I always feel like I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to love.”
An album deeply informed by the chaotic climate of modern life, What Now looks outward on songs like “Another Day”: a soulful and sublimely uplifting track preceded by an interlude in which Howard samples Maya Angelou’s reading of her poem “A Brave and Startling Truth.” “The poem talks about how as humans we’re all powerful beings with the capacity to do so many wonderful things for the world and for each other, even if that’s not what we usually focus our attention on,” says Howard. “‘Another Day’ is my way of agreeing with Maya Angelou and trying to see the good in others, trying to change my outlook despite what’s shown on the news, trying to stay strong in how I live my life.” And on “Every Color In Blue,” What Now closes out with a gorgeously sprawling reverie graced with a spellbinding performance from trumpet player Rod McGaha. “That song has to do with depression and how it can be such a horrible, heartbreaking thing but also bittersweet,” says Howard. “Within that depth of feeling, when you’re as low as you can go, that’s also where you find your capacity for love and for empathy. It’s a heavy subject for me, but I’ve gotten to the age where I realize that it’s a part of life and something that a lot of people deal with. So why not talk about it, and why not encase it in a beautiful frame?”
In putting the finishing touches on What Now, Howard reached out to two friends from the Nashville Center For Alternative Therapy and recorded their performance on crystal singing bowls, then used those hypnotic tones as a transition between each song. “This record’s definitely meant to be listened to alone so you can really meditate with it,” she says. “At the end of the day I hope people use the album however they need to, but I do think the gift I bring is to help people to be more introspective and ask themselves questions. And I think with a little self-examination, we can learn to be kinder, more compassionate, more understanding of each other. We can see that a lot of us are going through the same shit, and we all just want to be seen for who we really are.”
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, or bluer in this case, which may be why Dwight Yoakam hadn’t thought of doing a bluegrass album over the years. It was always already implicit in his music, from “Miner’s Prayer” on his first album 30 years ago to his one-off collaborations with Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs. If you listened hard, you could even hear that strain of mountain music in the melodies and harmonic sense of his most rocked-out country hits. He wasn’t consciously thinking through the years that he could bust out the mandolins to confirm his Kentucky bona fides – “Melodically, it’s just part of my nature,” Yoakam says, “part of the birthright, I guess, in my DNA.”
Yet here he is, releasing Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars… in the same year that he is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars… harks back to that landmark debut in its obviously cheeky title, while otherwise looking even farther back by recasting some of Yoakam’s most classic songs in a style that not only predates cowpunk but antecedes his beloved Bakersfield sound. Yoakam even remakes “Guitars, Cadillacs” in the style of “Man of Constant Sorrow.” No one is ever going to mistake a star so renowned for favoring snug jeans with a Soggy Bottom Boy, but here, he clinches his status as at least an honorary Clinch Mountain lad. “And then Chris Lord-Alge, who has mixed my last 2 studio albums, entered the picture in LA and agreed to add a further edge of Beggars Banquet-esque rock and roll mystique, completing the journey with a masterfully unique sonic framing of the entire project. I believe it was the first bluegrass album that Chris has ever mixed.”
RoC (Roots of Creation) has taken on a unique new project: Grateful Dub: a Reggae-infused tribute to the Jerry Garcia & The Grateful Dead. Combining their longtime love for Reggae-Dub style music and the Grateful Dead, RoC reworked some of the world’s favorite Dead tunes into a new studio album. RoC had the pleasure of working in the studio with the legendary 5-time Grammy winner Errol Brown who was Bob Marley’s sound engineer for this project. Grateful Dub is also being performed live in its entirety at festivals, theatres, and clubs around the country, and features rotating live special guests that has included Melvin Seals (Jerry Garcia Band), Scott Guberman (Phil Lesh), Zach Nugent, RyMo, AG, & Paul W. (Slightly Stoopid), G. Love (G. Love & Special Sauce), Mihali (Twiddle), Dan Kelly (Fortunate Youth) and others. Grateful Dub captures the spirit and magic of the Grateful Dead, while laying it down Reggae-Dub style.
On Friday, February 23, prepare for an evening brimming with infectious laughter during our comedy show headlined by Jeff Allen, known for his appearances on America’s Got Talent, Netflix, Amazon, Dry Bar Comedy and more.
Spend Saturday, February 24, rockin’ to legendary sounds from Monsters of Yacht, playing yacht rock style classics from artists like Toto, Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers and more.
Both events will be held in the Grand Ballroom of The Omni Grove Park Inn. Will Call begins at 7pm and all Eventbrite purchasers must show tickets to get seating assignments. Doors open at 7:30pm; performances begin at 8:00pm.
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
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Asheville’s BIGGEST + BEST Consignment Event
SATURDAY, February 24th
- 10 AM: Open to Public
- 5 PM: Close
- 6:30 PM: DISCOUNT PRESALE (registered consignors & their family only with wristband)
- 8:30 PM: Close
- 9:00 PM: BUILDING LOCKED
SUNDAY, February 25th:
- 10 AM – Open to the Public (Items marked DISCOUNT are 50% OFF)
- 1PM: POWER HOUR: Items marked “DONATE” will be 75% Off for the FINAL HOUR OF THE SALE
- 2:00 PM: Close
- 8:00 PM: Unsold Item Pick-Up
- 9:00 PM: Building Locked
MONDAY, February 26th
- 10:00 AM: Unsold Item Pick-Up
- 12:00 PM: Close, all items left in the building will be donated
- 2:00 PM: FOSTER FAMILY FREE SHOP (requires pre-registration)
TUESDAY, February 27th
- DONATION DAY
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!
TWIN PEAKS DAY
Diane, 11:30 a.m. February 24th.
Entering the town of Twin Peaks.
Join us for Twin Peak’s Day! At DSSOLVR Asheville
Featuring:
Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt: (11:30 AM – 3:00 PM)
Complimentary Coffee
Mount Patisserie’s Pastries:
The Lynchpins Live Set (5:00 PM – 8:00 PM):
The Red Room Photo Booth
Limited Edition Merch!
Art Pop-ups
Release of Cherry Pie Coffee Donut Stout!
Step into the mysterious world of Twin Peaks at DSSOLVR! Join us for a day of intrigue starting at 11:30 AM, with a mind-bending Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt from 12 to 3 PM. Immerse yourself in the eerie atmosphere with complimentary coffee, delectable donuts, and a chance to showcase your style in our costume contest.
Twin Peaks Day at DSSOLVR features!
☕ Complimentary Coffee:
🍩 Mount Patisserie’s Spellbinding Pastries:
🎵 The Lynchpins Live Set (5:00 PM – 8:00 PM):
🔴 The Red Room Photo Booth
👻 Limited Edition Merch!
🎨 Art Pop-ups
🍺 Release of I’m Gone. Long Gone. Cherry Pie Coffee Donut Stout:
🎭Costume Contest
The boys are back in town! If you enjoyed our past Music on the Rock shows like The Music of Queen, The Eagles, or The Beatles, you won’t want to miss Mixtape! Eric Anthony, Dustin Brayley, Paul Babelay, Ryan Dunn, and Ryan Guerra return to bring you the biggest hits of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s in one unforgettable show.
It’s February, which means ‘the boys are back!’ From the same outstanding musical talent who brought you the Music of Queen, the Eagles, and the Beatles, welcome to Mixtape! The Best of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Come shake off the winter blues with this red-hot rockin’ playlist featuring tunes you know and love. It’ll be ‘a gas,’ ‘far out,’ and ‘totally tubular!’
– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY
“Life changes fast,” Joan Didion once wrote. “Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”
With plainspoken language and incandescent melodies, Makino narrated these feelings on a pair of songs, “Sit Down for Dinner Pt I” and “Sit Down for Dinner Pt II,” which helped title the tenth full-length from Blonde Redhead. “Sit Down to Dinner Pt II” thematically transcends time: “It’s sort of about death, but the music is so alive and groovy,” Makino says. Yet, the title Sit Down for Dinner has a separate resonance for the Italian members of Blonde Redhead, the Milan-born twin brothers Amedeo Pace (singer / multi-instrumentalist) and Simone Pace (drummer). “Culturally, dinner is important to us,” Simone says of the nonnegotiable family ritual. “It’s a moment for us to sit down and have time with each other. We grew up that way. I know a lot of people eat and run, eat in front of their TV, or don’t care about it too much—and that’s OK—but we really do.” Dinner has long been a sacred ritual for Blonde Redhead as a band as well; when they’re on tour or rehearsing, they always share a meal, no matter what.
Releasing Sit Down for Dinner in its 30th year, Blonde Redhead’s perseverance partially came in realizing that the process of making the record should necessarily be fun. “Usually I agonize and it’s painful for me to write music, but on this one, I didn’t suffer as much,” says Makino. “I wanted to put my foot down and say: we can have a nice time together. The record sounds quite optimistic.” Amedeo adds, “We do really respond to each other. We depend on each other for inspiration. Kazu completes what I start; Simone completes both with rhythm.”
Like a song through an open window, it feels like we’ve been waiting a long time for Le soleil et la mer. The debut release by Bibi Club, aka real-life lovers Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque, is sun-kissed and wave-washed, shimmering and chic, a bilingual party overdue after two years that have felt (to everyone!) like winter.
The pair named themselves “Bibi Club” for the discothèque in their living-room, where the couple’s bibis—their loved-ones—come and dance. With kids at home, Nico and Adèle had to sneak away to make music: five minutes here, two hours there. Accordingly, their songs imagine that a family’s everyday enchantments might be loaned to the dancefloor, to the nighttime, to a place that’s still thumping as the day breaks.
Bibi Club’s debut album is out August 26 via Secret City Records.
Thurston Howell establishes itself as a premier Yacht Rock spectacular. Their shows are tailored to perfection: it’s all about taking the audience on a journey through some of the most iconic soft rock songs of the 70’s and 80’s, performing them with modern energy while staying true to that classic sound.
Thurston Howell has developed a unique repertoire, featuring classic hits from artists ranging from Toto to Michael McDonald, to Hall and Oates, and many more. Comprised of experienced musicians who bring the right chops and the right sound to all their gigs, these talented players go to great lengths to give their audience a sultry, authentic rendition of the songs they love the most. Soaring melodies, lush harmonies, and tight bouncy grooves are a hallmark of the beloved two-stepping sing-a-long songs that Thurston Howell delivers.
Thurston Howell can provide entertainment for crowds in a wide variety of settings. From private events to corporate functions and festival stages, Thurston Howell is all about getting people to move and sing-along to some of the best soft rock songs ever written. Audiences can always expect on-point musicianship, professionalism, and sure-fire entertainment, for a night of great yacht rocking fun that you will not forget anytime soon.
Led by Captain Pete on keys and vocals, First Mate Cameron Love on guitar and vocals, and Activities Director Leona Love sharing percussion and lead vocal duties, the bow of the ship is stacked with harmonies and familiar melodies. With Professor Newland Archer on bass and Helmsman Phineas Wigglesworth IX on drums, the stern of the boat is guaranteed to be pumping out solid two-steppin’ grooves!
From Steely Dan to Cristopher Cross, Little River Band to Carly Simon, Thurston Howell navigates across your favorite smooth sailing hits of the 70’s and early 80’s. The evening is always complimented with tasty licks of Pina Coladas and Brandy. So grab your mates and make your way out to the edge of the dock, climb on board the Thurston Howell Yacht Rock Spectacular and enjoy a musical tour!
Second show added by popular demand!
What Now Tour
BRITTANY HOWARD
Becca Mancari
There’s a double meaning to the title of What Now, the revelatory new album from singer/songwriter Brittany Howard. “With the world we’re living in now, it feels like we’re all just trying to hang onto our souls,” says the Nashville-based musician and frontwoman for four-time Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes. “Everything seems to be getting more extreme and everyone keeps wondering, ‘What now? What’s next?’ By the same coin, the only constant on this record is you never know what’s going to happen next: every song is its own aquarium, its own little miniature world built around whatever I was feeling and thinking at the time.”
With five Grammy® wins and sixteen nominations, Howard follows up her massively acclaimed solo debut Jaime—a 2019 LP that landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of Pitchfork, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone – with What Now, drawing an immense and indelible power from endless unpredictability. Over the course of its 12 tracks, Howard brings her singular musicality to a shapeshifting sound encompassing everything from psychedelia and dance music to dream-pop and avant-jazz—a fitting backdrop for an album whose lyrics shift from unbridled outpouring to incisive yet radically idealistic commentary on the state of the human condition. At turns galvanizing, cathartic, and wildly soul-expanding, the result is a monumental step forward for one of the most essential artists of our time.
Like Jaime (whose celebratory single “Stay High” earned a Grammy for Best Rock Song), What Now finds Howard taking the helm as producer and working closely with engineer/co-producer/co-mixer Shawn Everett (Beck, The War on Drugs). Recorded at the legendary Sound Emporium and the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville, the album emerged through a deliberately free-flowing process, with Howard doubling down on the unfettered creativity that’s long defined her work. “I don’t ever plan too deeply, but usually I show up with the songs almost fully formed,” she says. “With this record there was a lot of exploring sounds on the spot, and trusting that the right thing would come to us.” Despite that highly exploratory approach, many of the songs on What Now unfold in intricate and hyper-inventive arrangements rooted in complex rhythm patterns, achieved with the help of musicians like Paul Horton (keys), Lloyd Buchanan (keys), Brad Allen Williams (Guitar), drummer Nate Smith (Fearless Flyers, Vulfpeck, Paul Simon), and Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell. “All the sounds on this album are analog, all the drums are real drums,” Howard points out. “There’s so many different structures and tones happening within the songs that it ended up being a real monster to mix, but we figured it out. In a way it’s shocking to me how it all came together.”
Anchored in Howard’s inimitable and infinitely commanding voice—a supreme vessel for channeling raw emotional truth—What Now opens on a slow-building and rapturous track called “Earth Sign.” An intimate meditation on the limitless nature of love, “Earth Sign” immediately envelops the listener in its quietly symphonic convergence of musical elements: Howard’s frenetic piano work, barbershop-quartet-inspired harmonies, otherworldly textures formed through an ingenious bit of in-studio experimentation. “We were playing keyboard sounds through a speaker, and on top of the speaker was a trash can with different metal objects attached, and we recorded the resonance of those objects to bring into the song,” Howard reveals.
A departure from the dreamy languor of “Earth Sign,” What Now’s title track takes on a potent urgency fueled by its syncopated grooves, blistering guitar riffs, and fiercely honest lyrics (e.g., “I’ve been making plans that don’t include you anymore/My heart wants to stay but I don’t know what for”). “‘What Now’ is maybe the truest and bluest of all the songs,” says Howard. “It’s never my design to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I needed to say what was on my mind without editing myself. I like how it’s a song that makes you want to dance, but at the same time the lyrics are brutal.” Next, on “Red Flags,” Howard offers up a gloriously brooding reflection on love’s darker dimensions, echoing the stormy intensity of her emotional state by continually pulling the track into strange new directions. “In my past relationships, I’ve had a tendency to see red flags as part of some parade just for me—something for me to run right through without paying any attention,” she says. “To me ‘Red Flags’ sounds very dystopian, which makes sense for a song that feels like end-of-times as far as me emotionally maturing. It’s like a big tower fell and now I have to create something new.” Later, on “Prove It To You,” What Now bursts into a more euphoric mood as Howard delivers a four-on-the-floor dance track spiked with her explosive guitar work. “I wanted to write something fun that captured the joy of a new relationship, but also tell the truth about how I always feel like I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to love.”
An album deeply informed by the chaotic climate of modern life, What Now looks outward on songs like “Another Day”: a soulful and sublimely uplifting track preceded by an interlude in which Howard samples Maya Angelou’s reading of her poem “A Brave and Startling Truth.” “The poem talks about how as humans we’re all powerful beings with the capacity to do so many wonderful things for the world and for each other, even if that’s not what we usually focus our attention on,” says Howard. “‘Another Day’ is my way of agreeing with Maya Angelou and trying to see the good in others, trying to change my outlook despite what’s shown on the news, trying to stay strong in how I live my life.” And on “Every Color In Blue,” What Now closes out with a gorgeously sprawling reverie graced with a spellbinding performance from trumpet player Rod McGaha. “That song has to do with depression and how it can be such a horrible, heartbreaking thing but also bittersweet,” says Howard. “Within that depth of feeling, when you’re as low as you can go, that’s also where you find your capacity for love and for empathy. It’s a heavy subject for me, but I’ve gotten to the age where I realize that it’s a part of life and something that a lot of people deal with. So why not talk about it, and why not encase it in a beautiful frame?”
In putting the finishing touches on What Now, Howard reached out to two friends from the Nashville Center For Alternative Therapy and recorded their performance on crystal singing bowls, then used those hypnotic tones as a transition between each song. “This record’s definitely meant to be listened to alone so you can really meditate with it,” she says. “At the end of the day I hope people use the album however they need to, but I do think the gift I bring is to help people to be more introspective and ask themselves questions. And I think with a little self-examination, we can learn to be kinder, more compassionate, more understanding of each other. We can see that a lot of us are going through the same shit, and we all just want to be seen for who we really are.”
On Friday, February 23, prepare for an evening brimming with infectious laughter during our comedy show headlined by Jeff Allen, known for his appearances on America’s Got Talent, Netflix, Amazon, Dry Bar Comedy and more.
Spend Saturday, February 24, rockin’ to legendary sounds from Monsters of Yacht, playing yacht rock style classics from artists like Toto, Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers and more.
Both events will be held in the Grand Ballroom of The Omni Grove Park Inn. Will Call begins at 7pm and all Eventbrite purchasers must show tickets to get seating assignments. Doors open at 7:30pm; performances begin at 8:00pm.
Spend Saturday, February 24, rockin’ to legendary sounds from Monsters of Yacht, playing yacht rock style classics from artists like Toto, Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers and more.
The event will be held in the Grand Ballroom of The Omni Grove Park Inn. Will Call begins at 7pm and all Eventbrite purchasers must show tickets to get seating assignments. Doors open at 7:30pm and the performance begins at 8:00pm.
*Tickets are non-refundable. Parking, accommodations, and other amenities are not included with tickets purchased on Eventbrite. A cash bar will be available. All performances are for guests ages 21+. All seating is assigned. If you would like to be seated near another party that has been booked separately, please email seating requests to [email protected].
However, if you are looking for overnight accommodations, click here for more information on how to book the complete Winter Concert Weekend Package at The Omni Grove Park Inn.
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
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