Manna Foodbank Bluegrass Holiday Benefit with Town Mountain and Larry Keel & Natural Bridge at Isis on Fri 12/20

Bluegrass Holiday Benefit
Featuring Town Mountain and Larry Keel @ Isis Music Hall
Friday, December 20, 2013
A Portion of the Proceeds will be donated to MANNA FoodBank

Doors 5pm (dinner); show 9pm; $20; All Ages
General Admission Standing :: Some Balcony Seating
828-575-2737
Isis Music Hall 743 Haywood Road Asheville, NC 28806
www.isisasheville.com

As 2013 comes to a close, Town Mountain is excited to be joining forces with Larry Keel and Natural Bridge at Isis Music Hall on Friday, December 20, 2013 for a Bluegrass Holiday Benefit. A portion of the night’s proceeds will be donated to Manna Foodbank.

In Western North Carolina, more than 100,000 people seek emergency food assistance in a single year – that’s 1 in 6 of our neighbors. Of these, 37,000 are children. Local direct service agencies are facing a rapid increase in request for food assistance as food stamp benefits have recently been cut for many local families. Food banks and other non profits cannot close this food stamp gap without help. These types of events take on more importance as hard working families struggle to make ends meet.

“Something very special happens when volunteers, artists, and local business join together to create an event that entertains,  celebrates community and helps our Western North Carolina neighbors in need,” says Becky Upham, communications director at MANNA FoodBank. “MANNA’s work would not be possible without so many giving people in our community, and we are so grateful.”

Hard Drivin’ Carolina String Band-Town Mountain:
Town Mountain and their lead vocalist, Robert Greer, are honored to have been awarded two 2013 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Momentum Awards. Greer brought home the Momentum Award for “Vocalist of the Year” and Town Mountain takes the honor for “Performance Band of the Year.” The awards cap off a year of fantastic growth for the band which began with the release of their sophomore Pinecastle Records album, Leave the Bottle.

Town Mountain includes Greer on vocals and guitar, Jesse Langlais on banjo and vocals, Bobby Britt on fiddle, Phil Barker on mandolin and vocals and Jake Hopping on bass. Formed out of the fertile music scene found in Asheville, Greer and Langlais met at a jam one evening and they began to piece a band together over the next couple of years. “I’ve been here in Asheville for 12-plus years now and about 15 years ago it really started to blow up as a music town,” says Langlais. “We met through that music scene. “

The sound of Town Mountain can be described as traditional bluegrass, albeit with a rough-hewn side to it that is not too slick or glossy. They are definitely a band of the here-and-now, yet they have a groove that is based on the bluesy and swinging sounds made by the first generation of bluegrass pioneers.

“I feel like we’re closer to original bluegrass than a lot of bands out there today,” says Langlais. “I listened to a radio show recently that featured Ricky Skaggs and he flat-out said that Bill Monroe influenced rock and roll. He said that folks like Elvis and Carl Perkins and those guys were looking up to Bill Monroe. So, I feel like our band has a lot of that influence as well, of the blues and early rock. If you go back and listen to Monroe pre-Chuck Berry, those are Chuck Berry licks. A lot of music in the 1940s and 50s was so over-lapping. It is easy to put genre labels on it today, 60 years later. But to be honest, it was all so new and it was influencing each other at the same time.”

Town Mountain will release a new album in 2014 and will ride the wave of their newfound momentum with appearances at many venues and festivals around the country as the new year unfolds.  More information and tour dates can be found at www.townmountain.net.

Flatpicking Legend Larry Keel:
Larry Keel is described by some reviewers as the most powerful, innovative and all-out exhilarating acoustic flatpicking guitarist performing today. Keel has absorbed the best lessons from his Bluegrass family upbringing, both sides deeply steeped in the rich mountain music culture and heritage of Southwest Virginia. From there, he has always integrated that solid musical grounding and natural-born talent with his own incomparable approach to flatpicking the guitar and composing original music. He’s also got a knack for choosing interesting and appealing material from all realms of music with guts, whether it’s a tune written by a fellow song-writer/musician friend, or a tasty cover from any number of genres all over the map.

Joining Keel to make up Natural Bridge are the vastly talented Mark Schimick on mandolin and vocals, Larry’s life-long picker pal (and fishing phenom) Will Lee on soulful, blues-grass style 5-string banjo and penetrating lead vocals, and wife Jenny Keel with her impeccable timing and solid, yet imaginative bass lines as well as tenor vocal harmonies.

Throughout his career, Keel has released 14 albums and is featured on 10 others. The most recent release, CLASSIC (2012) is the 3rd album recorded by Keel and his powerhouse ensemble, Natural Bridge. The project is filled with originals written variously by Keel, the band members or by musician/song-writer friends. For more about Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, please visit www.LarryKeel.com.

Manna Foodbank:
MANNA FoodBank is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving Western North Carolina since 1983. As an accredited member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, the mission of MANNA FoodBank is to involve, educate, and unite people in the work of ending hunger in Western North Carolina. MANNA serves 221 non-profit member agencies in 16 Western North Carolina counties and distributed more than 11 million pounds of food in 2012. To view MANNA’s Annual Report for 2012, or for more information, visit MANNAFoodbank.org or call 828-299-FOOD.

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The Deep Dark Woods Perform at Isis Music Hall on Fri 12/6 w/ Raising Caine

The Deep Dark Woods and Raising Caine at Isis Music Hall
Friday, December 6, 2013

$8 Advance / $12 Door;  General Admission Standing Room :: Some Seating
5PM Dinner :: 7PM Door :: 9PM Show
– All Ages Show –
828-575-2737
743 Haywood Rd. Asheville, NC 28806
http://isisasheville.com

Leave your map and lose your bearings in the swirling sonic forest of The Deep Dark Woods. The band returns from the wilderness with Jubilee, a celebration of community, camaraderie and feverish cabin creativity. With Jubilee, The Deep Dark Woods revel in the jangly, freewheeling days of psychedelic and electric folk while keeping their compass aligned with the magnetic, hypnotic north.

Made in a cabin in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains near Bragg Creek, Alberta, Jubilee journeys through folk and rock history, from California to the UK, from the 1970s to the present day. The album nods to genre pioneers such as The Byrds and Fairport Convention before heading into altogether new territory of soundscapes that bend and fluctuate underfoot. Jubilee moves the yardstick with its rolling layers of specialized keys, organs and analog rarities (e.g., novachord, celesta, vibraphone, and more) first used in the early days of psychedelic synth experimentation, and the results sound at once in and out of modern time. Jubilee was produced by Laurel Canyon-based folk revivalist Jonathan Wilson.

The tight-knit members of The Deep Dark Woods are old friends and trusted collaborators. Lead singer Ryan Boldt writes most of the lyrics, but songwriting credits on Jubilee are also shared with Chris Mason, Lucas Goetz, former bandmate Burke Barlow and new addition Clayton Linthicum. The band recorded Jubilee mostly live to tape, which allowed for a collective and often spontaneous approach to songcraft. Lyrically, Jubilee shows artistic growth and finesse, and the new album features some of band’s finest songs yet.

Fond of and adept at improvisation and experimentation on stage, The Deep Dark Woods have cultivated a moveable scene of like-minded artists. The desire to translate the intuitive aspects of their live performances to a record led them to producer Jonathan Wilson. As patron saint of the present-day Laurel Canyon folk revival, which breathes new life into California’s richly experimental musical history, Wilson is a going concern in the woozy world of neopsychedelic breakout acts, most notably as producer of Father John Misty’s 2012 success Fear Fun. “His involvement with some musicians who have had an influence on us also tipped us off that maybe this was the right guy. They had a vast knowledge of the equipment and techniques that were used to make some of our favourite records,” Goetz says of the choice to work with Wilson and engineer Bryce Gonzales, who both joined the band during the two-week cabin recording experience.

For more information about The Deep Dark Wood and their tour dates, please visit www.thedeepdarkwoods.com.

 

 

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Donna the Buffalo Debut New Video on Relix, Announce New Years Tour, Link Up With Rusted Root

Donna the Buffalo Debut New Video on Relix, Announce New Years Tour, Link Up With Rusted Root

DtB Announce New Year’s Tour in Florida
Donna the Buffalo will be celebrating the New year at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa, then head over to the Green Parrot in Key West for three nights, before landing in Deland to play Cafe Davinci.

DtB Join With Rusted Root for Several Shows in the East
Donna the Buffalo is excited to team up with Rusted Root (who just released a new album “The Movement”) for six shows in January. The tour starts in Charlotte, moves along to Charleston, Englewood (NJ), Kent, Columbus and ends in Chicago. Donna will also be playing shows in Charlottesville and Asheville.

Relix Premiers Donna the Buffalo’s New Video for “Working On That”
WATCH the Video here on Relix.com→  http://bit.ly/1axBaNJ

Roots-music troubadours Donna the Buffalo are excited to release a music video for the song “Working On That” written by DtB co-founder Jeb Puryear for their new album Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday. Donna the Buffalo has been making socially conscious music for the last 25 years. Of this song, Puryear states, “There is a growing cross section of good people, crossing all lines of race, border, religion and economics that will triumph. Their triumph will have no loser, for the victory is peace.”

Directed by Craig Aspen, of The Believers, “Working On  That” by Donna the Buffalo features world champion hoop dancer Moontee Sinquah and his sons Sampson and Scott and was filmed in Nashville, TN and Trumansburg, NY. Though the hoop dance is a story-telling dance, it serves more than an entertainment purpose. The hoops themselves (which are hand-made by the artists themselves out of thin piping and colorful tape and ribbons) symbolize the great circle of life, an important concept in most Native American traditions, and most earth-based religious traditions around the world. The hoop dance is also a dance of healing, and is believed to have originated with medicine men, who would pass the hoops over a patient to identify a disease, and then pass them over themselves to cure it.

“Working On That” is their second video from, Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday [Sugar Hill Records], which is the group’s 10th studio album and proves the band as a consistent steward of Americana music, with their signature sound of traditional mountain music infused with elements of Cajun, rock, folk, reggae and country in an eclectic and extraordinary melting pot of such.  Donna the Buffalo is founding members and songwriter-vocalists Jeb Puryear (vocals, guitar) and Tara Nevins (vocals, guitar, fiddle, accordion, scrubboard) along with David McCracken (Hammond organ, clavinet), Kyle Spark (bass) and Mark Raudabaugh (drums).

WATCH “Working On That” at Relix.com→ http://bit.ly/1axBaNJ

For more information about Donna the Buffalo, please visit www.donnathebuffalo.com.

Donna The Buffalo on Tour:
Fri 11/29 – Jamestown, NY – Herman Kent Post 777 American Legion
Sat 11/30 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Mauch Chunk Opera House
Thu 12/5 – Bayshore, NY – YMCA Boulton Center
Fri 12/6 – Fall River, MA – Narrows Center for the Arts
Sat 12/7 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street
Sun 12/8 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Casino – Wolf Den
Thu 12/12 – Harrisonburg, VA – Clementine Café
Fri 12/13 – Wilmington, NC Ziggy’s By The Sea
Sat 12/14 – Winston-Salem, NC – Ziggy’s
Fri 12/20 – Ardmore, PA – Ardmore Music Hall
Sat 12/21 – Washington, DC – Howard Theater
Tue 12/31/13 – Tampa, FL – Skipper’s Smokehouse
Thu-Sat 1/2-4/14 – Key West, FL – The Green Parrot
Sun 1/5/14 – Deland, FL – Cafe Davinci
Tue 1/14/13 – Charlotte, NC – Amos’ Southend*
Wed 1/15/14 – Charleston, SC – The Music Farm*
Fri 1/17/14 – Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theater
Sat 1/18/14 –  Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Tue 1/21/14 – Englewood, NJ – Bergen County Performing Arts Center*
Thu 1/2/14 – Kent, OH – Kent Stage*
Fri 1/24/14 – Columbus, OH – Woodlands Park Street Saloon*
Sat 1/25/14 – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall*
Thu-Sun 2/20-23 – Miami, Fl –  Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival
Sat-Sun 3/22-23 – Live Oak, FL – Suwannee Springfest
Thu 3/27 – Boulder, CO – eTown Hall
Fri 3/28 Denver, CO – Oriental Theatre
Sat 3/29 – Albuquerque, NM – South Broadway Cultural Center
Sun 3/30 – Phoenix, AZ – McDowell Mountain Music Festival
Thu-Fri 4/10-11- Driftwood, TX – Old Settlers Festival
Thu-Sun 4/17-20 – Silk Hope, NC – Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival
Fri-Sun 4/25-27 – Wilkesboro, NC – MerleFest
Sat-Sun 7/5-6 – Sherman, NY – Great Blue Heron Music Festival
Fri-Sat 7/11-12 – Harbour Springs, MI – Blissfest Festival Farm
Thu-Sun 7/17-20 – Trumansburg, NY – Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival
Sat 7/26 – Floyd, VA – FloydFest

*with Rusted Root

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Pierce Edens and The Dirty Work to Release Full Live Concert CD & DVD 12/10

 

A Sound Lab Studios Production, Pierce Edens and The Dirty Work, LIVE to Release as a Full Live Concert CD & DVD on Tuesday, Dec 10th

Based in Asheville, NC, Pierce Edens and The Dirty Work have been mainstays in the SouthEastern roots music scene for several years, and now the band is back again with the release of Pierce Edens and The Dirty Work, LIVE. In collaboration with Sound Lab Studios, the band recorded two nights at The Lexington Ave Brewery in Asheville in full Dolby digital surround sound in high definition on multiple cameras. Distilled now into both CD and DVD formats Pierce Edens and The Dirty Work, LIVE shows the band in their most raw, intense, and revelatory release to date and releases nationally on Tuesday, December 10, 2013.

Watch Pierce Edens Perform “Money” LIVE by Sound Lab Studios →

Singing, performing, and recording for several years, the songs of Pierce Edens resonate from a calling sparked within him to share a story. It’s a story inspired by old-time tunes, a rock and roll fever, and the downright rural, gritty mountain life of his upbringing. It doesn’t seem to matter whether he is singing a haunting, foothill-influenced ballad with a modern Americana twist, or writing a 21st century stomp-and-clap that calls back to the Appalachian churches, it all gets entangled in his unique storytelling.

“There are few who can touch Edens as a singer or as a songwriter,“ says Bold Life’s Robin Tolleson. “He’s blessed with a soulful, resonant growl that seems to mix Johnny Cash, Eddie Vedder and Citizen Cope.” It’s an eclectic mélange of sounds exemplifying the fact that this man can’t be contained by any one genre; he’s an American musical anomaly.

“Pierce Edens heard old-timey mountain music until his teens; that’s when he was steeped in punk and grunge. Both inform his music. His shadowy baritone has a dark, jazzy canter reminiscent of Tom Waits, while the percolating strings below it veer from bluegrass to closing-time cabaret,” says Indy Week. “The punk manifests in the rebellious free-spirited nature of ‘Montana’ as Edens demands, ‘Don’t speak, don’t think, just take my hand and come with. We can work out the details later, if we work them out at all.’”

Along with Pierce Edens’ lead vocals and acoustic guitar, The Dirty Work includes Matt Smith (pedal steel and electric guitar), Jesse James Hongisto (upright bass), Dane Rand (drums and percussion), and Jim Aaron (Harmonica). Special guest musicians on the DVD include Jacob Rodriguez (saxophone) and Justin Ray (trumpet).

Sound Lab Studios is an Asheville-based media production company that is a partnership between More Chi Films and Golden Manatee Productions. The footage was directed and edited by Peter Lutz; produced by Adam Johnson & Peter Lutz, with audio recording & mixing by Adam Johnson and front of house sound by Sean Mack. Greg Herman for the album artwork and digital motion design. For more information about Sound Lab, please visit http://www.soundlabstudios.com.

More information about Pierce Edens and his tour dates can be found at www.pierceedens.com.

CD & DVD* Track listing:
Jailhouse
Pretty
Montana
Good Man
Creeping Vines
Trouble
Money
Mischief
Can’t Sleep
Baby Doll
Ghost on the Radio
Black Shiny Shoes
Let it rain

*DVD also includes special features and additional solo performances of the songs “Queen of Hearts” and “Train Tracks”.

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Leftover Salmon Adds Bill Payne (Little Feat) and Fruition to Holiday Shows

Leftover Salmon Adds Bill Payne (Little Feat) and Fruition to Holiday Shows

Fri- Sat 11.29-30 Boulder Theater – Boulder, CO *
Sat-Sun 12.28-29 Park City Live – Park City, UT *
Mon-Tue 12.30-31 Neptune Theatre – Seattle, WA * +

* = with special guest Bill Payne (of Little Feat)
+ = with special guests Fruition

Tickets & info: www.leftoversalmon.com/site/tour/

Leftover Salmon is thrilled to welcome special guest Bill Payne (of Little Feat) to their Thanksgiving shows at the Boulder Theater and to the New Year’s shows at Park City Live in Utah and the Neptune Theatre in Seattle, WA. Fruition will also join the festivities in Seattle. Leftover Salmon is looking forward to these holiday shows and playing the new tunes they released through Breckenridge Brewery this year.

Stay tuned to the band’s social networks throughout the tour for special contests and parties through LoS and Breckenridge Brewery. All shows will be webstreamed live, pending a solid internet connection, and sets will be available for download within a few days of the show on LiveSalmon.com

Leftover Salmon Fall 2013. Photo by Susan Weiand

Leftover Salmon emerged on the scene in Boulder, CO in 1989 as one of the first bluegrass bands to add drums and tour rock & roll bars, helping Salmon become a pillar of the jam band scene and unwitting architects of the jam grass genre. “This is one fish that has only gotten better with age. Fiery solos and elements of country, bluegrass, jazz and jam rock combine into a heady mix of feel-good tunes — and some that carry a hefty message, as well,” said CMT.

Today, Leftover Salmon is: Vince Herman (vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin); Drew Emmitt (vocals, mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar, mandola, fiddle); Andy Thorn (vocals, acoustic and electric banjo, National guitar); Greg Garrison (vocals, acoustic and electric bass, acoustic guitar); Alwyn Robinson (drums, percussion).

Leftover Salmon on Tour
Nov 05  Tue – Charleston, SC – The Pour House
Nov 06  Wed – Charleston, SC – The Pour House
Nov 07  Thu – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle &
Nov 08  Fri – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club %
Nov 09  Sat – Richmond, VA – The National %
Nov 10  Sun – Louisville, KY – Headliners Music Hall #
Nov 12  Tue – Ann Arbor, MI – The Ark
Nov 13  Wed – Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
Nov 14  Thu – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre ^
Nov 15  Fri – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre ^@
Nov 16  Sat – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Nov 17  Sun – Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre
Nov 29-30  Fri-Sat – Boulder, CO – The Boulder Theater *
Dec 11-15 Wed-Sun Puerto Morelos, Mexico – Strings and Sol
Dec 28-29 Sat-Sun – Park City, UT- Park City Live *
Dec 30-31 Mon-Tue – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre *+
Jan 3-4, 2014 Fri-Sat – Girdwood, AK- Alyeska Resort
Jan 8-9, 2014 Wed-Thu – Kihei, Maui, HI- Stella Blues
Jan 10, 2014 Fri – Paia, Maui, HI – Charley’s
Jan 11, 2014 Sat – Makawao, Maui, HI – Casanova

* = with special guest Bill Payne (of Little Feat)
+ = with special guests Fruition
& w/ Jon Stickly Trio
% w/ Swear and Shake
# w/ Bawn in the Mash
^ w/ Big Wu
@ w/ Old Shoe

For more information, please visit: www.LeftoverSalmon.com

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