I know what you’re thinking, and it’s just not true. It’s not true that every other week I’m writing about some whiz-bang multi-instrumentalist blending traditional Appalachian music with sounds farther flung. It’s every third week, tops. Besides, this week’s entrant has a bit of contemporary Hollywood cachet: he’s in “Cold Mountain.” He was on the set, on the soundtrack (“Ruby with Red Eyes that Sparkle”), and even on-screen at one point, playing the fife. (Gordo wants to know: does this make him a fifist? A fifian? A fiffilator?) And while that celluloid cred may have landed him a name-check on the hippest online entertainment sites, Powell’s pedigree stretches back much farther. Consider what he’s already got in the can. For starters, two solo albums on Rounder and one on the way (If I Go Ten Thousand Miles and Hand Me Down already out, and Time Again on the way). He was a major player on 1999’s Songs From the Mountain, the pre-Miramax musical outing inspired by the novel Cold Mountain. He was a founding member of the Cajun band Balfa Toujours: he’s recorded five albums with that group and is married to the front Cajun, Christine Balfa. He’s worked on movie soundtracks ranging from “The Brothers McMullen” to Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” to “From the Holler to the Hood,” a multimedia presentation that examines the tensions between white guards and black inmates in maximum-security prisons around Appalachia. He’s appeared as a guest on dozens of albums, ranging from Geno Delafose to Danny Barnes. He fiddled for Riverdance. He was playing baroque harpsichord at age 10 — a bit before he picked up the guitar, fiddle, banjo and squeezebox. He recorded a series of “Learn the Cajun Accordion” videos. He once recorded a song with Jewel. He may well grow good tomatoes, or have a secret recipe for Pine Bark Stew up his sleeve. The point is, Dirk Powell does what he does well, and what he does most is play music.

What will he be playing Thursday at the Grey Eagle? I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the ghosts of Appalachia, Ireland, and Louisiana floating around, or perhaps even coming in at a full gallop. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear banjo, fiddle, guitar, and accordion in the mix, and who knows? Perhaps a fife. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear more than that — Powell’s got a big bag of tricks, after all — although I will be surprised if Nicole Kidman shows up for a duet on “Hop High, My Lulu Gal.”

Tickets are $15 and the show starts at 8:30. Call 828.232.5800 for more info.

Son de Cuba
Orange Peel, Saturday, Jan. 10

When Son de Cuba’s name first started popping up in The Smoky Mountain News, they were playing for free at the public library. (That may sound like a joke, but it’s not: a May 2000 profile by the estimable Hunter Pope ran in advance of a performance at the Haywood County library.) Nowadays, Waynesville’s own Little Cuban Band That Could is headlining weekend shows at the Orange Peel. Not bad for a troupe that has a 12-year-old on timbales (that would be Nick Marquez, and yes, the kid plays with clave). Of course, Son de Cuba is about more than young kids on the sticks: it’s an authentic sound, a growing buzz, a labor of love. Frontman Joe Lapaz left Cuba when he was 4; his wife Alina Marquez left when she was 1; the two met at the University of Miami, got married, and spent spells as musicians in New Hampshire and back in Miami before moving to Haywood County in 1997. According to local legend — OK. OK, Hunter’s feature — the idea for a local son band was hatched when Alina heard The Buena Vista Social Club playing during a stop for coffee at Turnabouts. A few years later, Son de Cuba was playing the stacks; a few years after that, the Orange Peel. Next stop: Carnegie Hall?

Tickets are $8 and the show starts at 9 p.m. Call 828.225.5851 for more info.

Also Playing in Asheville

° Vida Blue, Orange Peel, 1/7

° Firecracker Jazz Band, Meantime Lounge, 1/8

° Valorie Miller, Gypsy Moon, 1/9

° Sugarland, Grey Eagle, 1/9

° Sons of Ralph, Jack of the Wood, 1/10

Three Good Things

1. 1915. Muddy Waters is born.

2. 1967. The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

3. 2004. Happy New Year!

They Said It

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”

— Albert Schweitzer


“Except for cats.”

— The Great Gordo