The poetry of freedom
One of the most alluring and enduring qualities of the art of poetry is the vast spectrum of forms it…
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Mountain of pain: Beloved Missouri blues-rock act to play Water’n Hole
Cutting through the onslaught of monotonous bar bands and diluted midnight hour showcases like a buzz saw gone haywire, The…
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This must be the place: What came first, the anger or the words?
In my 12 years as a professional journalist, I’ve seen and heard the good, the bad, and the ugly of…
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Fingers like lightning: Remembering Raymond Fairchild (1939-2019)
Raymond Fairchild — a bluegrass legend in Western North Carolina — passed away unexpectedly Sunday afternoon at the age of…
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This must be the place: That’s the way it goes, first your money then your clothes
For a moment, I had thought I’d gone crazy. Standing in the laundromat just a block away from my apartment…
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This must be the place: Seen so many places, still don’t know where I’m bound
My 2019 festival season is over as of this past Sunday night at the “Blue Ridge Jam” at Pisgah Brewing…
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Running jumping standing still: A conversation with Charlie Parr
In the matter of a song, Charlie Parr can make you laugh and cry, all while finding simple meanings and…
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This must be the place: Breakin’ ties that you’d grown, catchin’ dreams from the clouds
The crisp air now wafts into the open windows of my quiet apartment in downtown Waynesville. The ushering in of…
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In search of that ‘high, lonesome sound’: IBMA awards showcase celebrates 30 years
Just before he entered the main auditorium of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh this past…
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Free from society’s handpicked hypocrisy: A conversation with G. Love
For the better part of the last three decades, G. Love (aka: Garrett Dutton) and his band Special Sauce have…
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Where I’m going I’ll be seeing you: A conversation with Marcus King
At 23, guitarist Marcus King has quickly transitioned from a prodigy into a bonafide legend on the electric six-string. Crisscrossing…
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This must be the place: Their music being born of love, children danced night and day
This past weekend at Kickin’ It On The Creek marked my 20th music festival in the last 27 weeks.
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Will the circle be unbroken: Ken Burns on new country music documentary, a life in filmmaking
Clocking in at over 16 hours, the new Ken Burns documentary “Country Music” is an extremely detailed and intricate look…
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This must be the place: Hear that lonesome whippoorwill, he sounds too blue to fly
I’ve been feeling some overwhelming gratitude this week during the premiere and continued rollout of Ken Burns’ 16.5-hour PBS documentary…
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This must be the place: When I pass by all the people say, just another guy on the lost highway
Last Sunday morning, at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Route 27 in Wiscasset, Maine, I decided to turn right…
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Sylva’s White Moon serves up more than just coffee
It’s a serendipitous sort of happenstance when you stumble across the White Moon coffee shop. Tucked in the depths of…
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This must be the place: Where will you take me? What will we do?
Pulling off Interstate 87 onto Route 9, the fading sun lowered itself behind the cornfields and open meadows of the…
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In their own words: Smoky Mountain Folk Festival
The 50th annual Smoky Mountain Folk Festival will be held on Aug. 30-31 at the Lake Junaluska Conference & Retreat…
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This must be the place: Let it wander on my mind. Goodbye, Neal.
Heartbroken and stunned. That’s about all I can say or feel at this moment with the tragic passing of singer-songwriter…
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Where the soul never dies: Richard Sterban of The Oak Ridge Boys
It’s one of the most recognizable voices in all of American music. When Richard Sterban famously coined the “oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-mow-mow” bass…
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This must be the place: And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
It was 50 years ago this past weekend that Max Yasgur, a 49-year-old conservative Upstate New York farmer, stood onstage…
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The living melodic bridge: ‘David Holt’s State of Music’
Now syndicated on PBS stations from coast to coast, “David Holt’s State of Music” has become a beacon of traditional…
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This must be the place: ‘Cause no one knows me like you anymore, as long forgotten as a debt I owe
It’s around midnight, early Tuesday morning. Just sitting here, thinking. Finally getting around to drinking a cold beer on a…
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This must be the place: Living in the present, trying to forget the past
Persistence and gratitude. Those are two key words and concepts in life, personally and professionally. But, for this specific post,…
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Fred Chappell releases new poetry collection
The purpose of a writer is to take observations on life and distill those sights and sounds into words and…
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The rebel and the rose: Becky Buller to play ‘An Appalachian Evening’
In bluegrass, there are pioneers and there are pillars — Becky Buller is both. A beloved singer/fiddler, the Minnesota native…
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This must be the place: Never for money, always for love
Please allow me to reintroduce myself. I started this column back around Memorial Day of 2013. So, by the calendar…
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HCAC ‘Volunteer of the Year’
During its July meeting, the Haywood County Arts Council presented Anna Thibeault with its “Volunteer of the Year” award.
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Haywood Arts expands artist, gallery reach
The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) is expanding beyond Waynesville’s city limits to include the artists and creative workers in…
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This must be the place: If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will
Though the roads were slick from heavy rainstorms on Tuesday morning, I momentarily couldn’t figure out why my truck was…
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Sylva Art + Design Committee gets the ball rolling
Huddled around a table at the White Moon Coffee Shop on Mill Street in downtown Sylva one recent rainy afternoon,…
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This must be the place: And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Lately, or more so in recent years, I find the only way I can drown out the constant barrage of…
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New book details the history of the John C. Campbell Folk School
In Craft & Community, regional author Anna Fariello presents the early history of Western North Carolina’s John C. Campbell Folk…
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Lightning in a bottle: Greensky Bluegrass captures inspiration at Echo Mountain
Bordering the bustling Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville, you wouldn’t know where Echo Mountain Recording is unless you were told. …
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This must be the place: Ten years later and all I got was this crappy T-shirt
This past Saturday morning, I awoke in the top bunk of an RV in downtown Sylva. I got up and…
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New monthly documentary program
The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will be starting a monthly documentary series called “DocuWednesday.”
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In need of craft therapy?
The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will be starting craft therapy. This get-together will be the first Tuesday of…
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Small-town sequel: Waynesville’s Smoky Mountain Cinema reopens
Standing in the lobby of the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville this past Monday morning, owner Greg Israel is putting…
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This must be the place: Ode to Jeff Austin, ode to the power of music
The hardest part of being a journalist, and especially one whose core focus is music, is seeing those you were…
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Closer now and you will see what I mean: Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits
The history of rock-n-roll music is as wide and deep as an ocean, each drop of water a band, song…
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This must be the place: Scribbled notebooks and wild typewritten pages for your own joy
Sliding into the booth at Waffle House, I cracked open Larry McMurtry’s novel All My Friends Are Going to Be…
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Carry me back to the days I knew then: Rock Hall of Famer Denny Laine rolls through WNC
Simply put, singer/guitarist Denny Laine is one of those mystical characters you cross paths with almost serendipitously. He’s an old…
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This must be the place: In a minute I’ll be free and we’ll be splashing in the sea
On Monday morning, as I woke up, packed and said goodbye to Bonnaroo for this year, I can say —…
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Fariello receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Author and curator Anna Fariello was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Folk Art Center during the annual meeting…
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This must be the place: No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language and knowledge
The first week I lived and worked in Western North Carolina, I slept underneath my desk in the old newsroom…
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Crafting together community: How craft beer impacted WNC
According to recent numbers, there are around 75 breweries within Asheville and greater Western North Carolina. And 19 of those…
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Just look at us now: Kenneth Pattengale of The Milk Carton Kids
It’s part Simon & Garfunkel, part Abbott & Costello. When you listen to The Milk Carton Kids, you’re hearing some…
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Whole lotta highway (with a million miles to go): A conversation with Marty Stuart
When you find yourself in the presence of Marty Stuart, you find yourself in the presence of the entire living,…
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This must be the place: Ode to my grandfather, ode to soldiers past and present
The first time I was aware that my grandfather, Frank Kavanaugh, served in the military was being nine years old…
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Comedy star Ken Jeong brings stand-up to Harrah’s Cherokee
Actor/comedian Ken Jeong will be performing live at 9 p.m. Friday, May 31, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort Event Center.
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