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Musings on folk, Americana, country, bluegrass and newgrass

Author Archives: lsnedeker


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Wild Ponies get back to their roots with ‘Galax’

What happens when you throw a group of Nashville and Galax, Virginia, musicians who have never played together in a barn behind a farmhouse nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains? Musical magic.

That’s exactly what happened a year ago this month when the Wild Ponies – otherwise known as Doug and Telisha Williams – decided to get back to their musical and geographic roots.

“I had spent a lot time playing on my grandfather’s farm and it’s just a beautiful place to spend some time,” Doug said in a recent phone interview. “We wanted to play with people who played with my grandfather and then get some people from Nashville to play as well. It just felt like something we needed to do.” Continue reading →


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Exclusive First Listen: Anna Tivel releases first single, ‘Illinois,’ from new album on Fluff & Gravy Records

I admit that sometimes all it takes to get me to listen to a new song by an artist that I have never heard before is a personal connection to the song title. In the case of today’s exclusive first listen, it’s because the song is called, “Illinois.” To know me is to know that I call “The Land of Lincoln” home and no, it does not mean I am from Chicago. I am from Illinois — a proud downstater, who will eventually inherit a portion of my homesteading family’s centennial farm, and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Springfield.

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Lucinda Williams to perform at Millennium Center as part of SECCA’s popular Crossroads series on Friday, Aug. 11

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UPDATE: The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) announces a venue change for the Crossroads #019 @ SECCA concert featuring Lucinda Williams on Friday, August 11, 2017. Due to inclement weather forecast, the concert will now be indoors at the Millennium Center downtown Winston-Salem, located at 101 West 5th St., Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Doors at the Millennium Center will open at 5 p.m. and music will begin at 7. Food trucks will be on site and a cash bar will be available inside the venue. No coolers, chairs/blankets, outside food or drinks, or pets are allowed at the venue. There are also several dining options in the downtown Winston-Salem area.

Free street parking is available after 6 p.m. and paid parking garages are throughout the downtown area. For more information including a detailed map of parking options, please visit the Millennium Center.

The Millennium Center venue provides unreserved seating and standing room areas. Seats are…

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Second annual Jam in the Trees set for Aug. 25-26, 2017, at Pisgah Brewing

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Americana fans, listen up: The second Annual Jam In The Trees will feature some of my favorite acts including Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Jeffrey Foucault, Front Country, Eilen Jewell, Cicada Rhythm, Zoe & Cloyd, The Infamous Stringsuters, Acoustic Syndicate, Peter Rowan, Larry Keel, Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius, Jim Lauderdale, Underhill Rose and Ken Tizzard.

Jam in the Trees is a two-day, Americana music-themed event that takes place Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25 and 26, 2017, on two stages — the Outdoor Stage and the Taproom Stage — at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

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Brewster Walk 2017 to feature Yarn, Josh Shilling, Mission in the Rain and Jason Springs Band on Saturday, Sept. 9

The third annual Brewster Walk Craft Beer Festival & Concerts will take place Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017, in uptown Martinsville, Virginia, in front of the historic Rives Theatre, on the 200 block of East Church Street.

The event will feature live performances from Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival perennial fan favorite Yarn, Mission in the Rain (a Jerry Garcia Band tribute set) and the Jason Springs Band of Danville as well as more than 60 craft beers. Special guest and Bassett-native Josh Shilling of Mountain Heart fame will sit-in with Yarn as well as Mission in the Rain. Continue reading →


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Time Sawyer hosts Reevestock on Aug. 4-5 in downtown Elkin, North Carolina

In what has become a trend for many bands, Charlotte-based folk-rock band Time Sawyer is once again hosting the Reevestock Music Festival in its hometown of Elkin, North Carolina, on Aug. 4-5, 2017, featuring none other than Time Sawyer, the Marcus King Band, Town Mountain, David Childers, William Wild and the Corey Hunt Band.

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Lucinda Williams to perform at Millennium Center as part of SECCA’s popular Crossroads series on Friday, Aug. 11

UPDATE: The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) announces a venue change for the Crossroads #019 @ SECCA concert featuring Lucinda Williams on Friday, August 11, 2017. Due to inclement weather forecast, the concert will now be indoors at the Millennium Center downtown Winston-Salem, located at 101 West 5th St., Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Doors at the Millennium Center will open at 5 p.m. and music will begin at 7. Food trucks will be on site and a cash bar will be available inside the venue. No coolers, chairs/blankets, outside food or drinks, or pets are allowed at the venue. There are also several dining options in the downtown Winston-Salem area.

Free street parking is available after 6 p.m. and paid parking garages are throughout the downtown area. For more information including a detailed map of parking options, please visit the Millennium Center.

The Millennium Center venue provides unreserved seating and standing room areas. Seats are provided on a first come, first served basis.

“We regret having to move the concert from outside on the SECCA grounds, but weather forecasts are predicting thunderstorms and lightning for Friday, which would make doing the show outside difficult and potentially unsafe.” said Andy Tennille, curator of the Crossroads @ SECCA concert series and a member of the SECCA Foundation board. “We appreciate the support of our sponsors, vendors and audience in this decision and thank Greg Carlyle and his team at the Millennium Center for their help.”

For more detailed information about the change of venue, please visit www.secca.org
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Experience Freedom at FloydFest 17 July 26-30

One of my favorite summer music festivals is FloydFest and this year’s lineup is one of its most eclectic ever assembled for this multi-day world music festival, FloydFest 17 — FREEDOM. Continue reading →


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Scythian, Forlorn Strangers to give Wide Open Bluegrass preview at Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh on Saturday, July 15

If you can hardly wait for Sept. 26-30 and the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) World of Bluegrass Festival and PNC’s Wide Open Bluegrass, the weekend festival on Sept. 29-30 in downtown Raleigh that takes place during the IBMA event, you’re in luck.

You can catch two of the Wide Open Bluegrass acts — MerleFest favorite Celtic roots rockers Scythian and Nashville’s Forlorn Strangers — at a “Save the Date” party beginning at 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 15, at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh. This all-ages show will also serve as a CD Release Party for Scythian’s newest album, “Dance All Night.”

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First Listen: Little Feather mixes it up with release of new single ‘Hillbilly Love Song’

If you took a salt shaker and threw in some Loretta Lynn, Patty Loveless and Little Big Town and shook it up, what just might come out is the sound of Curb Records’ newest act, Little Feather.

I have the pleasure of releasing the award-winning group’s debut single today, right here, right now.

“Hillbilly Love Song (Hey Y’all)” at first listen is an upbeat, fun tune that showcases lead singer Liz Sharpe‘s vintage-modern vocal skills along with the band’s organically optimistic acoustic playing.

The almost jauntiness of the genre-defying tune, however, belies the sadness and longing reflected in the lyrics and the rich harmonies. “I was born a miner’s daughter, how did i lose the girl I used to be?…Tonight i want to hear a hillbilly love song. I’ve been an uptown girl for way too long … I want to dance with nothing but my boots on.

Makes you want to listen, doesn’t it? And you’re in luck because you can hear it first here.

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