This old engine makes it on time: The Great Smoky Mountains Music Train departs
One of the most beautiful, poignant sounds to echo out into the ancient mountains of Western North Carolina is that…
Read More
Buddha becomes an ‘enlightened person’
Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part review of “Buddha.” The first installment can be found here. In…
Read More
‘Concerts on the Creek’
The Town of Sylva, Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department and Jackson County Chamber of Commerce are proud to present…
Read More
Stecoah ‘Drive-About Tour’
The annual “Arts & Crafts Drive-About Tour” will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 26-27 at featured…
Read More
Mountain Layers goes Americana
Regional Americana act Somebody’s Child will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson…
Read More
Mountaintop Art & Craft Show
The 20th annual Mountaintop Art & Craft Show will be held June 27-28 at Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park in downtown Highlands.…
Read More
Taste of Scotland Festival
The 27th annual Taste of Scotland Festival will be held June 19-21 at a variety of locations around Franklin. The…
Read More
Art fundraiser for local schools
The annual QuickDraw art fundraiser will once again be held from 4:30-9 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at Laurel Ridge Country…
Read More
HCAC presents ‘Threads’
Celebrating the beauty, creativity and versatility of fiber art, “Threads,” the latest exhibition at the Haywood County Arts Council, will…
Read More
‘Community Contra Dance’ in Franklin
A “Community Contra Dance” will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 18, at the Macon County Public Library in…
Read More
HART presents ‘Peter & The Starcatcher’
A special stage production of “Peter & The Starcatcher” will be held on select dates and times through June 28.…
Read More
Arts and agriculture: Rare Bird Farm
Situated on a 98-acre farm that’s cradled by the Blue Ridge Mountains, just outside the small town of Hot Springs…
Read More
Who was the man known as Buddha?
(Editor’s note: This is if the first in a three-part review of “Buddha.”) Curious about the man known as the…
Read More
Asheville Mountain Boys return to Sylva
A rising Americana/bluegrass act, the Asheville Mountain Boys will perform at 10 p.m. Friday, June 12, at Bread Heads Tiki…
Read More
Dillboro festival set for June 13
The annual Front Street Arts & Crafts Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 13,…
Read More
‘Conversations with Storytellers’ series
A prominent regional storyteller, Davy Arch will join the “Conversations with Storytellers’ series at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at…
Read More
Poetry reading at City Lights
The following readings will be held at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. • Maria E. Lyons will host a reading…
Read More
'Cherokee People and the American Revolution’
A first-of-its-kind exhibition centering Native voices, perspectives and creativity in response to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the…
Read More
Macon couple donates works of art to WCU museum
A Macon County husband and wife already providing financial support of the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum in Cullowhee and…
Read More
Book lust and ‘paradise as a kind of library’
Though I had assured my Smoky Mountain News editor I’d deliver a real book review this week — my to-read…
Read More
Waynesville’s ‘Shop, Sip, Stroll’
The monthly “Waynesville First Friday: Shop, Sip, Stroll” will take place from 5-8 p.m. Friday, June 5, in downtown. The…
Read More
Ready for dinner ‘Under the Stars’?
The popular “Under the Stars, On the Rocks” culinary series is currently underway at the Oak Steakhouse at the Skyline…
Read More
Six strings of serenity: A conversation with Bryan Sutton
Hailing from Asheville, Bryan Sutton is one of the most intricately talented acoustic guitar players of the modern era. He’s…
Read More
Humanity and kindness in the face of change
“In the new science, the new worldviews, we are not nouns, we are verbs.” Rebecca Solnit’s book “The Beginning Comes…
Read More
Relationship is more than just pillow talk
One May evening in Holt, Colorado, septuagenarian and widow Addie Moore makes her way to the home of Louis Waters,…
Read More
Life after the mill: New film documents Canton mill closure
In the new documentary, “Papertown,” a film that immerses itself into the mountain community of Canton as it dealt with…
Read More
‘On the Lawn at Yonder’
The “On the Lawn at Yonder” 2026 season will return with legendary singer-songwriter Ed Snodderly at 4 p.m. Sunday, May…
Read More
Try another day: J & The Causeways to play Bear Shadow Music Festival
In a modern world seemingly gone mad, one of distraction and white noise, what emerges from J & The Causeways’…
Read More
A spy story worth infiltrating
One of the reasons I love writing book reviews is it keeps me from getting stuck in a loop of…
Read More
Out on a limb: The Hip Snacks make WNC debut
With its latest album, “Out On A Limb,” Denver, Colorado-based rock-n-soul outfit The Hip Snacks are taking the leap into…
Read More
Fruits of my labor: A conversation with Lucinda Williams
Lucinda. Before I even need to explain anything about people and things, time and place, you already know who I’m…
Read More
Making a meal of daily life
“Some historians would say that ‘thinkers’ are behind the ideas and mythologies people live by. I think it also goes…
Read More
Ready for dinner ‘Under the Stars’?
The popular “Under the Stars, On the Rocks” culinary series is currently underway at the Oak Steakhouse at the Skyline…
Read More
Remembering what it means to be human
Sometimes a book appears which changes the course of our nation’s history and culture. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”…
Read More
‘Concerts on the Creek’ nominated for award
The popular “Concerts on the Creek” summer music series at Bridge Park in Sylva has once again been nominated for…
Read More
As Richard Baker looks back, the canvas still beckons
Richard Baker is in an interesting place, looking back at a prolific body of work while also staring down an…
Read More
Coming together: Festival season kicks off in WNC
As the weather gets nicer and spring slowly transitions to those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, a bevy of…
Read More
Stumbling upon science fiction with ‘I, Robot’
When I was growing up, my father had a bookshelf with glass doors. Behind the delicate handles were elegant hardcovers,…
Read More
Intricate influences: Carolina Detour to play Merlefest
When she was just in elementary school, fiddler/vocalist Lake Carver graced the cover of the Down the Road magazine, an…
Read More
The mind’s connection to chronic pain
I find that more often than not, you don’t find the books you need to read, they find you. A few…
Read More
Home is where the heart is
If you want to feel how lucky you are, just read Brian Barth’s “Front Street (Resistance and Rebirth in the…
Read More
The Golden Rule: Biblical scholar says radical teachings of Jesus transformed altruism
When money, manpower and supplies from all over the world poured into Western North Carolina after the devastation wrought by…
Read More
Chain Yer Dragon: Rick Mitarotonda of Goose
In October 2020, amid the shutdown and about halfway through the first set of the sold-out Goose drive-in show at…
Read More
From Watergate to Lamontgate — ‘The Accident Report’
“On the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Ronald Truluck drove the long way to work so he could smoke…
Read More
Chords for Callum: Jon Stickley to lead powerhouse fundraising concert
Jon Stickley is a pillar of the Asheville and greater Western North Carolina music scenes. He’s also a nationally-renowned guitarist,…
Read More
Shabbat Shirah brings music, meaning to Mountain Synagogue
A tambourine-lover with creative tactics meant to take congregants outside of their comfort zone, Rabbi RuthE Levy of Mountain Synagogue in…
Read More
More strands for the tapestry
“Attention must be paid.” Linda Loman, wife of Willy Loman, delivers that well-known line in Arthur Miller’s play “Death of…
Read More
Back to the Roots: Old Crow Medicine Show celebrates early years, returns to WNC
I first laid eyes and ears on Americana/roots act Old Crow Medicine Show at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival…
Read More
Indigenous wisdom through the ages
“All things are bound together. All things connect.” — Chief Seattle "We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."—…
Read More
The space between: AyurPrana Listening Room offers transcendent music and spiritual exploration
Situated on the corner of Haywood Road and Swannanoa Avenue in West Asheville, the AyurPrana Listening Room has become a…
Read More
