A pillar of the Americana, country and bluegrass realms, legendary singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is one of the few artists who has been able to seamlessly drift between three distinct, sacred genres of music.

Within its upcoming sophomore album, “American Pastoral,” rising Haywood County-based Americana/rock act The Brothers Gillespie has cultivated a vast, vibrant landscape of sonic and lyrical textures.

The beauty of the blues is that it’s a style of music you grow up alongside, one where you may pick it up early on and, perhaps, easily, but it’ll take a lifetime to journey down the rabbit hole of its intricate nature, endless depths of sonic textures and unlimited melodic possibilities. 

At age 51, acclaimed singer-songwriter Tim Bluhm feels like he’s just getting started. The creative well of inspiration remains deep and pure, where his band, The Mother Hips, are continually exploring further and farther down the rabbit hole as this melodic endeavor is now 32 years in the making.

With its latest album, the EP “Into the Blue,” Colorado-based jam-band icons The String Cheese Incident have offered up a glimpse at where the group currently resides on the musical spectrum — everywhere and anywhere inspiration strikes. 

Musician extraordinaire. Freelance sniper. Dancer.

Sitting at the bar counter of Boojum Brewing in downtown Waynesville one recent evening, John Duncan sips a craft ale, pauses momentarily, and ponders just what it means to be a conduit for the sacred traditions of Southern Appalachian music in the 21st Century — it’s preservation and, ultimately, it’s perpetuation.

Within his iconic melodies that have serenaded our hearts and minds for over a half-century, singer-songwriter Graham Nash is able to capture these vivid snapshots of a time and place, of people and things, these images we've hung up on the walls of our collective memory — the embedded signature of songs immortal.

It’s been a challenging year in Haywood County government circles, especially on the state level.

In terms of musical ambassadors within the melodic melting pot of a scene that is Western North Carolina, you’d be hard-pressed to find an artist as dedicated and inclusive as that of Andrew Thelston.