Nine-time Grammy Award winners Asleep at the Wheel will be in concert at Isis Restaurant & Music Hall at 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 5. Established in 1970 in Paw Paw, West Virginia, this talented country music group now hails from Austin, Texas.
Along the way, they’ve garnered a lot of awards, including “Best Country & Western Band” (Rolling Stone), “Touring Band of the Year” (Academy of Country Music), and “Lifetime Achievement Award” (Americana Music Association).
In addition to more than 25 studio and live albums to their credit, the band has toured with Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, George Strait, Merle Haggard, Alice Cooper, and others. “Everything this act has ever released is simply spectacular,” according to Billboard Magazine.
“We’re a dance band. That’s what we’re about,” says front man Ray Benson. “And that’s plenty.”
Tickets for Asleep at the Wheel are $30 in advance, $35 at the door.
At 8 p.m. on Friday, April 1, Isis presents Jay Ungar & Molly Mason. They are a living, entertaining example of the attraction of opposites. Jay is from the Bronx, and Molly is from the state of Washington. He grew up loving the pop music of the 1940s and 1950s, while she preferred traditional fiddle music from the 1930s and 1940s. His regular haunts were Greenwich Village coffeehouses. At the same time, she was playing clubs and colleges on the West Coast.
Following a chance encounter at a rural New York club, the two hit it off musically and began playing together occasionally. But then she headed off to Minnesota to work on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio show, and he remained in New York and assembled a band called Fiddle Fever. Later, in need of a bass player, Jay reconnected with Molly and convinced her to join the band.
Jay and Molly (they married in 1991) have appeared on NBC’s The Rosie O’Donnell Show, NPR’s All Things Considered and A Prairie Home Companion, and BBC’s Transatlantic Sessions. They also helped provide music for Ken Burns’ PBS documentary titled The Civil War.
Tickets for Jay Ungar & Molly Mason are $22 in advance, $25 at the door.
Another show you’ll want to catch is Alan Doyle at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16. Alan is an actor, producer, and author, and is perhaps best known as the lead singer for Newfoundland’s Great Big Sea for the past 20 years. He is one of Canada’s most revered musicians and storytellers. “I always want people to have the greatest night of their life when the houselights go down,” says Alan.
Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door.
Isis Restaurant & Music Hall is located at 743 Haywood Road in West Asheville. For tickets and more information about these and other performances throughout the month, visit isisasheville.com or call 828.575.2737.
