A special “Appalachian Music Showcase & BBQ Dinner” featuring Americana/folk duo Anya Hinkle and Libby Weitnauer will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, April 17, at the Balsam Mountain Inn, located in Balsam right off the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway.

Asheville-based roots artist Anya Hinkle (vocals, guitar) teams up with Nashville-based fiddler/vocalist Libby Weitnauer for an intimate exploration of acoustic music rooted in the sounds of Appalachia and seasoned by travels around the globe. 

Jon Stickley is a pillar of the Asheville and greater Western North Carolina music scenes. He’s also a nationally-renowned guitarist, one whose skillset and scope goes far beyond the ancient mountains of Southern Appalachia. 

Regional Americana act Somebody’s Child will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City.

For more than a decade, Ashley Claxton and Cola Williamson have been filling the venues of Western North Carolina with their intrepid sounds. While minimalistic, these Smoky Mountain troubadours seamlessly blend both acoustic and electric melodies with renowned vocal harmonies. 

I first laid eyes and ears on Americana/roots act Old Crow Medicine Show at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. At the time, I was a 20-year-old college student on my first solo road trip from my native North Country of Upstate New York — in search of the sound, the way. 

The first time I ever spoke to renowned Americana/country singer-songwriter Kelsey Waldon was in the spring of 2020. I’d only scratched the surface of her music and talent when we scheduled a phone interview. In truth, I was an instant fan from what I’d heard. And I’ve never forgotten that interaction. 

Approaching the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville last Wednesday evening, a mob scene had overtaken the sidewalks surrounding the venue. 

The entry line stretched down the hill on Flint Street, across the Interstate 240 overpass and around the Asheville Skatepark on Cherry Street. Thousands of joyous faces aiming to witness one of the “must-see” live acts of the modern era — Billy Strings.

The Asheville Mountain Boys’ self-titled debut album drops on Feb. 12, heralding the arrival of a new era of old-school bluegrass from the Buncombe County quartet. 

Recorded at The Shop Studio with master bluegrass engineer Van Atkins (Doyle Lawson, Balsam Range, Town Mountain), the record blends heartfelt originals about love and loss with a hand-picked selection of bluegrass standards and deep cuts from the catalogs of the band’s musical heroes. 

Whirlwind. Virtuoso. Rollicking. Heartfelt.

Those were some of the sentiments I had ricocheting around my mind watching Bronwyn Keith-Hynes perform earlier this winter at The Orange Peel in Asheville. A renowned fiddler/singer, Keith-Hynes is headlong into a solo career with the recent disbanding of her former band, the Grammy-winning Americana/bluegrass act Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. 

In truth, there are two camps when it comes to Texas singer-songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey: you’re either completely obsessed with his music, with his tunes becoming a pillar of the soundtrack of your life, or you’ve never heard of him. 

It’s been 20 years since the inception of The Infamous Stringdusters, the Grammy-winning string act whose tone and swagger encompasses an acoustic majesty coupled with a full-blown rock show attitude. 

“When you’ve been a band for 20 years, a lot of things change, including your perspective on how to create music and art,” said dobroist Andy Hall.