Cajun Cook-Off Gets Mardi Gras Enthusiasts Fired Up

Get your taste buds ready for a sampling of Asheville's finest Cajun cuisine at Asheville Mardi Gras' Fourth Annual Cajun Cook-Off and Art and Oddities Auction. This year's event takes place on January 21 at 2 p.m. This mouth-watering event is held at Tressa's Downtown Jazz and Blues on Broadway. The Cajun Cook-Off and Auction is open to the public and ... read more

AIR Gets Greener

As the calendar turns to 2012, Asheville Independent Restaurants (AIR) are reaching a milestone in completing an important stage in the green restaurant initiative. A significant number of AIR restaurants participating in the green restaurant certification, have either completed or are in midst of installations of solar panels for hot water usage ... read more

Kitty Love Brings Her Vision to Asheville Area Arts Council

Kitty Love, an Asheville resident for 16 years, has traveled a seemingly magical path of committed vision and passionate intention. On a blustery January morning, she sits at an intimate meeting table in the Asheville Area Arts Council artist's resource space, a small office area designated for artists to access free business resources such as meeting space and computers ... read more

Roots + Wings School of Art Flies High

Ginger Huebner’s dream of teaching art in Asheville has certainly taken flight. Roots + Wings School of Art, now about three years old, is based primarily at All Souls Episcopal Cathedral in Biltmore Village but also has roots at Ginger’s studio located in the Pink Dog Creative building at 344 Depot Street in Asheville’s River Arts District. As Roots + Wings School of Art continues ... read more

Alena Hennessey Comes Full Circle

Alena Hennessey believes that whatever you put your energy into, the universe responds. With a mom who’s an artist, Alena says she’s been drawing all her life. “I used to draw for hours,” she recalls. All of that artistic energy seems to be paying off for the Florida native who now has a studio in Asheville’s River Arts District. Alena says she loves what she does. Some may ... read more

Asheville's Red June Launches Tour

Sometimes music just doesn’t fit into a single genre. It rejects simplistic categories and instead melts qualities together. Listen to Red June, and you’ll understand. The group oscillates between bluegrass, folk, Americana, and country, dipping into the artistic backgrounds and musical passions of each member. John Cloyd Miller, Will Straughan, and Natalya Weinstein ... read more

Asheville's The Nova Echo

There’s more to the Asheville music scene than bluegrass. On Saturday, July 16, The Nova Echo, with its post-electronic space sound, will take the stage at The Grey Eagle for an all-ages performance. Uh-huh Baby Yeah! from Louisville and Roland from Asheville will open for The Nova Echo, which artfully explodes with synth effects ... read more

Simple Life Revealed at Black Mountain Show

Annual festivals such as the Black Mountain Arts and Crafts Show remind us of the “good ol' days” filled with creative leisure and passed-down traditional skills. In these Arcadian environments, people could find consolation in their artistic designs and implementations. Where, however, do people have the time for such activities ... read more

Nonprofit Group Promotes Local Agriculture

With signs in nearly every downtown business window promoting local—as “the new black,” for instance—Asheville residents appreciate the significance of local small businesses. For Ashevillians, the concept of fresh produce and local food isn’t an exotic one either. But somehow, that message of where and how to obtain local produce must be heard ... read more

Singer-Songwriter Darrell Scott Plays In Asheville

"The Grey Eagle is a great listening room for me," Darrell said in a phone interview. "It's very relaxed. They've got good food. They've got good draft beers. It's just a casual no-big-deal kind of thing." The multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter offered compliments for our state’s audiences in general: "North Carolina audiences ... read more

Asheville Celebrates Mardi Gras 2011

Okay, we know Asheville isn’t as warm as New Orleans, but this was ridiculous. Asheville's Mardi Gras parade was set to start on Sunday afternoon, March 6. The morning began with a formidable wintry mix of snow, freezing rain, and rain. Parade organizers, however, said the parade would go on, rain (or apparently snow) or shine ... read more

Asheville Choral Society Spring Concert: Be Here Now

Even a surprise snowfall couldn’t chill the warmth in Central United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 6th. As if on cue, sunlight broke through the clouds and streamed through stained glass windows into the sanctuary, as the Asheville Choral Society, led by guest conductor, Dr. Melodie Galloway, took the stage for their spring performance ... read more

Asheville's Mad Tea Party Opens for Southern Culture On The Skids

Since Southern Culture on the Skids (sometimes referred to as SCOTS) is widely known as a wacky, kitschy band, it seems apropos that Asheville’s own wacky, kitschy rock duo Mad Tea Party opened the SCOTS’ March 18 show at The Grey Eagl. The Mad Tea Party—consisting of Jason Krekel and Ami Worthen - played a 15-song set ... read more

Pulp to Squeeze Out More Entertainment

The team at The Orange Peel had an idea for the building’s cavernous basement which had gone unused for years. Thus was born Pulp. Pulp has made a name for itself by offering entertainment separate from its big sister upstairs.Liz Whalen, Orange Peel’s marketing and special events manager, explains that Pulp is a separate entity and a private club ... read more

Lucinda Williams Plays to Packed Asheville Venue

Lucinda Williams has been performing for more than three decades. The Louisiana-born singer/songwriter released her first album in 1978, but it was not until her third album ten years later that she began to garner national attention. The self-titled release included the song “Passionate Kisses.” Even then, it took four years and the song being ... read more

Lights, Camera, ActionFest!

“No one honors the men and women who put the action into action films, and it’s about time,” says ActionFest cofounder Aaron Norris. “For me, giving these unsung cinematic heroes the respect and recognition they deserve is the heart of what ActionFest is all about.” ActionFest 2 will honor 2010’s Machete from director Robert Rodriguez as “Action Film of the Year,” ... read more

Makin' It: Asheville's Town Mountain

The guys from Asheville-based band Town Mountain are feeling pretty good right now. They will celebrate the local release of their new CD, Steady Operator, with a big bash at Asheville’s Grey Eagle on Saturday, March 19, and they’ve recently been signed to Pinecastle Records, based in Columbus, North Carolina. Although Pinecastle will release ... read more

The Dirt on Gardening: Potatoes

Early spring is the time to plant seed potatoes and many varieties thrive in this region, including Kennebec, Red Pontiac, and Yukon Gold. Potatoes are among the most productive and easiest to grow crops in the plant kingdom. They have sustained people around the world for hundreds of years and have been a traditional crop in Appalachia ... read more

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings Funk-Soul Revival

Harkening back to the live performances of James Brown and Ike & Tina Turner, the 54-year-old singer showed tireless energy as she danced and paced the stage in a set that lasted nearly two hours. Some singers are not entertainers, and some entertain a lot better than they can sing. Sharon Jones, however ... read more

Asheville's Blue Ridge Rollergirls Ready to Rock

They come from all walks of life: an elementary school teacher turned independent health coach, a pet store manager, a body piercer, an accountant. From their early 20s to well into their 40s, they are moms and sisters, wives and significant others. And they skate—fast and furious. They are the Blue Ridge Rollergirls (BRRG) ... read more

Old 97s: A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll

The Old 97’s are a Dallas-based band and one of the early alt-country pioneers. Formed in 1993, the group has more than a dozen albums and mixes a bit of twang with pop sensibilities. The show opened with Those Darlins, now based out of Nashville, and just getting ready to release its second album in a genre one might call country punk ... read more

Asheville Community Theater Presents Rent

There are pros and cons to being familiar with a Broadway musical before seeing a local production. On the one hand, you know when your favorite number is coming up, but on the other, you’re bound to compare everything to the recording you know. Fortunately the Asheville Community Theatre (ACT) version of Rent is so well cast and the performance quality so high ... read more

Yann Tiersen Performs In Asheville

Known for varied and sometimes unusual instruments and lots of electronics, Yann and the band offered The Orange Peel crowd a cacophony of sound in a set lasting just under an hour and a half. Some songs had no vocals, and most of those that did offered vocals as part of the overall sound and not something that was front and center in the music ... read more

Gallery 262 in Waynesville

By summer of 2012, Aaron hopes Frog Level will experience similar success to that enjoyed by River Arts District in Asheville. "They turned things around quickly down there," Aaron says. "There's no reason we can't do that here. We have a lot of talented entrepreneurs here in Frog Level and we're excited about the potential." ... read more

Asheville's Anti-Valentine's Day Pillow Fight

As the designated time neared, such a large crowd of people had gathered near the monument that it was clear something was going on. Many people had their pillows hidden, while others had theirs in plain view. Suddenly there was a scream and a few folks charged into the crowd and the pillow fight was underway. Organizers had asked ... read more

Josh Ritter Plays At The Orange Peel

Though in his mid-30s, the clean-cut, baby-faced musician from Idaho looks like he could be an extra from a Leave It to Beaver episode. His second song, and first with the band, was "Good Man" from his 2006 album The Animal Years. The audience was already singing along with Josh and completely engaged in the performance ... read more

Angie West Celebrates Birthday And CD Release At The Grey Eagle

During the show, the Asheville resident and Cullowhee native sang and went from piano to electronic keyboard to harmonium to banjo while being backed by her band that consists of Seth Kaufman on bass, Michael Libramento on guitar and keys, and Evan Martin on drums. The show marked the release of Angi's new CD, Opportunity Cost, from which she performed ... read more

Galactic and Orgōne at Asheville's Orange Peel

While snow fell outside, the temperature inside The Orange Peel Asheville Wednesday, February 9, rose with the hot music being played inside. The Los Angeles-based Orgōne opened the evening promptly at 9 p.m. by laying down some funky grooves reminiscent of late 1970s and early 80s funk-infused soul. The band came out and hit the crowd hard ... read more