Taylor Martin’s Album Release Celebration at Isis on Sat, Jan 10, 2015

Taylor Martin’s Album Release Celebration at Isis on Sat, Jan 10, 2015
8:30 PM show/ 5pm doors; $8 Advance / $10 At the Door
General Admission Seated Show :: Limited Tables Available with Dinner Reservations.
There will also be theater-style & balcony seating and standing available on a first come first serve basis

Isis Music Hall
828-575-2737
743 Haywood Road Asheville, NC 28806
http://isisasheville.com/events/taylor-martin-cd-release-celebration/

Taylor Martin’s Album Heartache or Bust Features Stuart Duncan, Cody Kilby, Aaron Ramsey & more
Honest and Raw Tales of Love, Barroom Nights & Heartache
Overlaid Onto a Tapestry of Stringed Instruments along with B3 Hammond, Drums & Horns

For the past ten years in Asheville’s own Taylor Martin has been one of the area’s premier singer-songwriters. His raspy, emotion filled voice is instantly recognizable and his lyrics have an unflinching sincerity. Taylor has released a new record — Heartache or Bust — featuring Grammy winning artists Stuart Duncan and Cody Kilby as well as members of bluegrass supergroup, Mountain Heart.

To recreate these recordings in a live setting as Taylor Martin’s Acoustic Band, Martin has assembled some of the finest instrumentalist in Western North Carolina. The Indomitable Lyndsay Pruett on fiddle, bluegrass ninja Drew Matulich on mandolin, and Rick Cooper (of The Honeycutters) on upright bass. They will be performing at Isis Music Hall in Asheville on Saturday, Jan 10, 2015 to celebrate the release of Heartache or Bust. Joining the band as special guest for the evening are also Josh Milligan (The Honeycutters) on drums, as well as other special guests. “Taylor’s songwriting and taste in good music definitely add strength to the reputation the Asheville area has for having one of the best music scenes in the country. Heartache Or Bust has got some great new songs on it” says WNCW’s Martin Anderson.

“After 2009’s Engine, I wanted to put out an album which would contain material that had a chance to mature through live performances.” Taylor Martin goes on to say, “The songs were coming fast and I wanted the recording to happen with the same intensity. With the help of my co-producer and engineer Eric Willson (Omni Records), I was able to gather some of my favorite local and national musicians and lay down the initial tracks in Echo Mountain Studio while they were feeling new and very inspired.” Much of the album was  recorded at Omni Artist Studios where the album was mastered and there is also one live track mixed in. There is one cover on the album “Once in a While” and was sung by Taylor’s grandfather Jack Baldwin. He recorded his vocals and piano in the late 1940s and Taylor decided to add some the instruments that would have been typically used in his day.

In the release of Heartache or Bust, Taylor Martin has created a wonderfully written, beautifully played, and well-recorded mix of fresh original music. All twelve tunes are played by some of the finest, most cutting edge musicians in acoustic music today — Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Cody Kilby (Ricky Skaggs) on acoustic and electric guitars, and Aaron Ramsey (Mountain Heart) on bass guitar, bouzouki, banjo, mandolin and dobro. The album also features tracks with Acoustic Syndicate’s Jay Sanders on bass; John Gardner on drums (James Taylor, Don Williams); Josh Shilling on B3 hammond, piano, and vocals; Drew Matulich on guitar; as well as wonderful vocalists, Molly Cherryholmes and Rorey Carroll amongst other musicians.

Even with all that studio musician prowess, the recording avoids the common pitfalls of “music business slickness” and “corporately modified arrangements.” While the songs are simple, they’re not simplistic. Engaging melodies, lyrics, bass guitar lines, and sonic choices allow the songs to breathe and maintain their evident roots influences of folk-rock and newgrass, and are topped off with the sweet singer-songwriter delivery of Martin’s adept vocals. This record covers a wide range of emotions and tells a story throughout to give the listener something new to hear with each track.

The sound is big but never loud, an almost living room rock ensemble that could fill both a small club and large theatre; a sonic balance hard to achieve in an acoustic ensemble with drums, yet they’ve done it. That the music is played together in ensemble fashion creates a kind of mountain-top chamber orchestra feel to some of the tunes. Martin’s singing is about the song. His voice is tender, vulnerable, and honest in nature, never losing the “eye contact” in his vocal delivery, a quality that is his hallmark throughout the recording. Acclaimed banjoist, Jeff Mosier, calls the album “one of the most fresh, organic, and original collections…I have heard in a long time…”

The lyrics are modern, yet firmly rooted in the deep traditions of Martin’s extended Southern heritage. Though you can hear the influences of early pioneers like Bill Monroe, the music is definitely one of the most fresh, organic, and original collections of songs and arrangements that I have heard in a long time. It represents to me what is still yet to come from the ever growing world of new acoustic, progressive, and alternative Americana. Taylor Martin will make his mark with this terrific work of original acoustic music. Taylor Martin says the album is ,”an invaluable lesson in songwriting: rely more on personal experience than on imagination….it was a real artistic awakening for me.”

For more about Taylor Martin, please visit www.TaylorMartin.org

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

Bluegrass Holiday Benefit
Featuring  Larry Keel & Natural Bridge and Town Mountain
@ Isis Music Hall on Friday, December 20, 2013

As 2013 comes to a close, Larry Keel and Natural Bridge and Town Mountain are joining forces at Isis Music Hall on Friday, December 20, 2013 for a Bluegrass Holiday Benefit. Doors are at 5pm if you are coming for dinner, the show starts at 9pm. Tickets are $20 and it is all ages. A portion of the night’s proceeds will be donated to Manna Foodbank.  For more info, please visit: www.isisasheville.com

Flatpicking Legend Larry Keel & Natural Bridge:
www.LarryKeel.com

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 Mark Schimick on mandolin and vocals, Will Lee on 5-string banjo and lead vocals, and Jenny Keel on bass and tenor vocal harmonies.

Hard Drivin’ Carolina String Band-Town Mountain:
www.townmountain.net

The sound of the award-winning group Town Mountain can best be described as traditional bluegrass, albeit with a rough-hewn side to it that is not too slick or glossy. They are a band of the here-and-now, yet they have a groove that is based on the bluesy and swinging sounds explored by the first generation of bluegrass pioneers of the last century. Town Mountain includes Robert 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. The band plans on recording a new album in 2014.

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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Afropop Band, Zansa, Release New Music Video “Mi Wa”

Album Release Celebration at Isis Music Hall in Asheville on Sat 9/7
Zansa CD Release Brings Cultural Music to the Mountains

Afropop band Zansa is releasing their debut album Djansa, with a live performance at Isis Restaurant & Music Hall on Saturday, September 7, 2013. More details about the show are here: http://bit.ly/17hTGGc.  Senegalese griot musician Diali Cissokho and his band Kaira Ba will be opening the show. Robust and rhythmic, melodic and smooth, the music of Zansa presents a dynamic synthesis of centuries’ old West African songs and modern instrumentation. Zansa is a Nouchi slang word meaning “blend,” and the group’s debut album, Djansa, meaning “dance,” delivers a dance party vibe with a folkloric storyline.

Based in Asheville, NC, Zansa is led by Adama Dembele (lead vocals, djembe, and percussion), a 33rd generation musician from Ivory Coast, whose ancestry is recognized throughout West Africa as the House of the Djembe. Along with Dembele, Zansa is Patrick Fitzsimons on guitar and vocals; Sean Mason on the drumset; Ryan Reardon and bass and vocals; and Matt Williams on violins, guitar, and vocals.

Djansa is being released nationally online (iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby) and in select record stores on September 10, 2013, with performances throughout the Southeast to follow. Pre-order Djansa on iTunes and immediately receive “Mi Wa” single for free.

Stay tuned towww.zansamusic.com for more information.

“Mi Wa” Lyrics and Translation:

Mi Wa: A love song, about love near and far, and love lost and found.

ROUGH TRANSLATION:
Light of my heart, light of my life.
Even if I leave, far away from you.
You still know without you my life doesn’t make sense.
With your love you make me happy, my natural beauty.

You’re my love, you’re my joy.
You spoiled my life with your choice.
You know without you baby my life doesn’t make sense.
Your love just makes me happy, my natural beauty.

LYRICS:

Eh, eh eh eh, mi wa, mi wa gnoh…

Lumière de mon coeur, lumière de ma vie.
Meme si moi je vie, loin de ta presense.
Tu sais bien que sans toi chèrie
Ma vie na plus de sèance, a ton amour,
Vient me rend heureux ma beaute naturelle

Eh, eh eh eh, mi wa, mi wa gnoh…

Oh toi mon amour, oh toi ma joie due
Tu a gache ma vie, par un notre choix
Tu sais bien que sans toi chèri
Ma vie na plus de sans, a ton amour
Viens me rend heuruex ma beaute naturelle

“Eh, eh eh eh…”

Oh l’enfant, “Allez yako”

Zansa
“Mi Wa”
Recorded by Matt Williams at The Eagle Room, Weaverville, NC
Produced by Matt Williams and Ryan Reardon
From the album Djansa
©2013 Zansa Music

Music Video recorded and produced by Dark Energy Pictures.

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John Driskell Hopkins & Balsam Range Debut at The Grand Ole Opry 3/8 And Perform Select Dates in The South

John Driskell Hopkins & Balsam Range Debut at The Grand Ole Opry 3/8 And Perform Select Dates in The South

John Driskell Hopkins and Balsam Range Performances:

Fri 2/1 Asheville, NC Isis Music Hall
Thu 2/14 Nashville, TN The Basement
Fri 3/8  Nashville, TN The Grand Ole Opry
Sat 3/9 Knoxville, TN The Shed
Thu, 3/14 Athens GA The Melting Point
More dates tba at www.JohnDriskellHopkins.com

******************************************

John Driskell Hopkins and Balsam Range are excited to perform at The Grand Ole Opry on Friday, March 8th! “I’m doubly honored to be able to play my own songs in one of the greatest music venues in the world,” says Hopkins. They will be performing music from Daylight, which was was independently released on Jan 22nd and will also be performing at select shows throughout the year.

Hopkins, widely known as a founding member and bass player for the Zac Brown Band, has been performing music for 20+ years. After hearing Balsam Range on Sirius XM one day, Hopkins, a lover of roots music of all varieties, called them up to see about accompanying him on his original tunes in a new album and a new musical bond was formed with outstanding results in Daylight.

Of performing with with BR, John says “Being on stage with Balsam Range is like body-surfing in warm butter-cream icing with hillbilly cherubs. Smooth…” Balsam Range is Buddy Melton (fiddle, vocals), Darren Nicholson (Mandolin, vocals), Marc Pruett (Banjo, Vocals), Caleb Smith (guitar, vocals), and Tim Surrett (bass, dobro, vocals).

What Folks Are Saying About Daylight:

“A twang-tastic new record… The chemistry between Hopkins and the band is smoking and they shine on the 13-track platter.”
–-Jeffrey Sisk, The Daily News

CMT’s Craig Shelburne listed “I Will Lay Me Down” as a recommended track in indie releases

“…what a great sound for John! I’m excited for people to hear him in this raw and broken-down format, his unique voice front and center!”
–-Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers)

“a voice huskier than Charlie Daniels after a hard night.”
—Jim Farber, New York Daily News, #5 in Top 10 picks in music for the week of Jan. 20, 2013

“John Hopkins is a serious student of all kinds of music, and I think it comes through well in the songs he writes. He really runs the gambit from soft, Gospel-sounding acoustic, to hard, driving rock-swing things. John is a ‘power singer,’ and man he can deliver.”
–Balsam Range’s Marc Pruett

“John Hopkins’ new album, Daylight, has rich vocals and excellent pickers that are wrapped around well-crafted songs. What’s not to love?”
–Jim Lauderdale

“An excellent group of songs that fits somewhere in the acoustic country/indie/roots area… If you drew line graphs plotting the changes each song brings to a CD – tempo, subject, mood … – some CDs would flatline and the majority would show moderate spikes up and down. Daylight’s graph would look like the EKG of a person on speed, and every song is a good one.”
–Larry Stephens, Lonesome Road Review

“What pushes this album past other examples of country singers adopting bluegrass trappings is the diverse capabilities of Balsam Range. They’ve never been a traditional bluegrass band, and the arrangements here are more like acoustic country arrangements than Appalachian bluegrass. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this sounds like one of the classic MTV Unplugged albums, which subverted the rock canon by killing all the electricity and forcing the performers to look inward for their power.”
–Devon Leger, Hearth Music, No Depression

“Daylight has some material in common with ZBB, but is even more rootsy, thanks to Balsam Ridge’s involvement on every track. Resonator guitar heads are going wild over ‘Runaway Train,’ with Jerry Douglas sitting in. Banjo innovator Tony Trischka guests on the title cut.”
–Philadelphia City Paper

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John Driskell Hopkins & Balsam Range Asheville Album Release Show at Isis Music Hall on Fri, Feb 1st

John Driskell Hopkins has walked the musical path for the last 20 years. As a bass player, guitar player, singer and songwriter for several bands of the rock variety, Hopkins rooted himself in the Atlanta, GA music scene in 1995, producing records and touring with his band Brighter Shade and later becoming a founding member of the Zac Brown Band to this day. Now he has teamed up with North Carolina bluegrass band, Balsam Range, to record and independently produce a new album, Daylight, which is set for national release on January 22nd. They will be performing an Asheville album release show on Friday, February 1st at the NEW Isis Restaurant and Music Hall.

A lifelong fan of bluegrass and gospel music, John became an instant fan of Balsam Range, an award-winning and unstoppable 5-piece hailing from Haywood County, North Carolina. As John’s plans for a solo record took shape, he realized that BR’s authentic style and approach could bring his songs new life, and a vision for his record became clear.

Of performing with with BR, John says “Being on stage with Balsam Range is like body-surfing in warm butter-cream icing with hillbilly cherubs. Smooth…..” Balsam Range is Buddy Melton (fiddle, vocals), Darren Nicholson (Mandolin, vocals), Marc Pruett (Banjo, Vocals), Caleb Smith (guitar, vocals), and Tim Surrett (bass, dobro, vocals).

Over the course of a year, the collective made use of their sparse days off the road and arranged to pow-wow and track basics at John’s home studio in Atlanta, GA or at Crossroads Studio in Arden, NC, eventually bringing the songs to form. John utilized the Zac Brown Band’s amazing new Southern Ground Studios in Nashville, TN for the final engineering and mixing, and in the middle of September 2012, the album was completed.

John is thrilled to have included several special guests on the album, including Zac Brown on “I Will Lay Me Down,” a sweet and sacred song; Levi Lowrey on “How Could I?” a song co-written by the two, and the heavenly Joey Feek of Joey + Rory on the autobiographical “Bye Baby Goodbye.” And of the musicians featured on Daylight, John could not have done better: the unmatched Jerry Douglas opens the record with dobro on “Runaway Train,” and Tony Trischka brings his banjo mastery to the title-track, “Daylight,” a longtime song in Hopkins’ repertoire about breaking through life’s troubles into brighter times.

If you’re a Zac Brown Band fan, you’ll hear a couple familiar songs, though most tracks are newly penned with BR’s talent and magic in mind, and a couple songs are some of John’s oldest tunes, written with his band of many years, Brighter Shade, and beautifully reworked for this special new project.

Show Details at a Glance:
John Driskell Hopkins and Balsam Range
Album Release Show for Daylight
Isis Restaurant & Music Hall
Friday, Feb 1, 2013
8pm doors, 9pm show; $12 ADV, $15 DOS; All Ages
828-575-2737
743 Haywood Rd. Asheville, NC 28806
www.isisasheville.com

For more about John Driskell Hopkins and Daylight, visit www.JohnDriskellHopkins.com.

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Kick off 2013 in Style with Red June at the New Isis Restaurant & Music Hall on Jan 12th

Kick off 2013 in Style with
Red June at the New Isis Restaurant & Music Hall on January 12th
Red June at the Isis Restaurant & Music Hall
Saturday, January 12, 2013
w/ special guests joining in tba!

Tickets are $10 advance/$12 at the door; Showtime is 9pm
Seated show downstairs with limited tablets of 4 available with dinner reservations
All ages show (828) 575-2737
743 Haywood Rd. Asheville, NC 28806
isisasheville.com
redjunemusic.com

Asheville NC’s Red June is well underway to becoming a long-time southern favorite, akin to the Appalachian heirloom apple from which they glean their name. 2012 was a big year for the band; they released their second studio album, Beauty Will Come, to high acclaim, and performed at dozens of other shows and festivals all across the country including the renowned Music City Roots show, Suwannee Springfest and the 25th Anniversary MerleFest. They also performed an official showcase to a packed house at the Station Inn in Nashville for the Americana Music Association conference and were featured with a full-page photo of band member John Cloyd Miller in Southern Living magazine.

Red June is Will Straughan on resonator guitar, guitar and vocals, John Cloyd Miller on mandolin, guitar and vocals, and Natalya Weinstein on fiddle and vocals. The three have been longtime friends, and first jammed together at an Asheville party in 2005.  In late 2008 they formed Red June and went on to release their debut, Remember Me Well, in 2010. The album was very well received, and was voted the #1 regional release of 2010 by the listeners of the southeast’s premier independent radio station, WNCW. With their dynamic, yet refined sound featuring striking three-part harmonies, tasteful instrumental work, and honest, soulful songwriting that seamlessly blends bluegrass, old-time, country and American roots, the band is constantly breaking new musical ground.

What the press is saying:

“Beauty Will Come by Red June just may be the most stunningly gorgeous country album in years” –Mike Greenblatt, Aquarian Weekly

“Will Straughan, John Cloyd Miller, and Natalya Weinstein possess a airtight harmony that will impress even the toughest critic. Listen to their vocal blend on “I’m Willing To Try,” and you may need to have your jaw surgically removed from the floor – they are that good!” –Chuck Dauphin, Music News Nashville

“Red June is one of our truly great bands.  They never fail to talk the talk and walk the walk.” –Acclaimed NC singer/songwriter Joe Newberry

WATCH  “I’m Willing to Try” Live from the Altamont Theater in Asheville
WATCH  “Piney Branch Breakdown” Live from the Altamont Theater in Asheville
WATCH  “Soul’s Repair” Live from Music City Roots

redjunemusic.com
twitter.com/redjunemusic
facebook.com/redjuneasheville
youtube.com/user/redjunemusic

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