Marigolds
Indie Appalachian folk band Tina and Her Pony released their full-length album Marigolds on March 1, with an album release show on Sunday, March 12, at The Grey Eagle. Band members are Tina Collins, Melissa Hyman, Ryan Furstenberg and Ross Montsinger. “Everyone in the current band lives and breathes music and has been doing it their whole lives,” Collins says. “We are close friends and have an incredibly fun synergy.”
The album grew out of the dark days of the pandemic, Collins says, when personal tragedies lined up alongside the isolation the pandemic brought universally. “It’s an album about the cyclical nature of change—of death and birth as initiation,” she says. “After major losses, we are never the same, and we are asked by the universe to allow ourselves to die and to subsequently recreate a new version of ourselves. This album is a collection of songs that tell the stories of the ways I have personally been asked to let go. Every song on this album is either about the pain of having to let someone go or the joy and the spark of rebirth/renewal.”
The Asheville band’s music owes much to Western North Carolina as a place of influence. In 2006, Collins “fell deeply in love with the mountains and the music of these ancient hills” when she thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. “I consider all of my favorite instruments to be the sounds of this beautiful slice of heaven we get to call home,” she says, “and all of these are heavily featured on the Marigolds album—pedal steel, dobro (Matt Smith of Amy Ray Band) and cello (Melissa Hyman of The Moon & You).” On Marigolds, she adds, there is the addition of bits of pop and soul with more electric sound. “We never had electric bass or guitar on our recordings before, so it was a fun new direction to play with in the making of this new album.”
The Grey Eagle is located at 185 Clingman Avenue, Asheville. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door, with $20 VIP tickets also available. The band will also perform at The Purple Onion, in Saluda, on Thursday, March 9. To learn more, visit TinaandHerPony.com.
