Shine your light: Patton Magee of The Nude Party

It’s a hot, early evening at FloydFest, the storied independently-run music festival held each July in the backwoods of rural Virginia. With live music radiating from stages positioned in seemingly every direction, indie-rockers The Nude Party finish its set to the deafening roar of the jubilant crowd begging for just one more tune before dispersing into the next melodic adventure. 

Haywood Community Band grows to regional ensemble

The Haywood Community Band will perform at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 16 at the Maggie Valley Community Pavilion, 3935 Soco Road.

Haywood County Jazz Festival

The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) will present the Haywood County Jazz Festival at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at Tuscola High School in Waynesville. 

A Different Kind of Green: WCU band finds cultural connections in Ireland

Western Carolina University’s Pride of the Mountains marching band recently returned from its first trip across the pond, where it was invited to perform in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland. 

Local rock, country act wins national award

With a hot sun slowly fading behind the Great Balsam Mountains cradling Waynesville, Outlaw Whiskey hopped onto the stage for a recent performance at Furman’s Burger Bar on the west side of town.

The uniforms are all part of growing up

Our son, Jack, is a senior in high school, which means that we are already well into the “season of lasts.” For us, the hardest one of all is the last marching band season.

Back to near normalcy is a treasured gift

When practice begins each year for the new high school marching band season, summer is still bearing down, the sun boiling high in the August sky as a bunch of confused teenagers take their first tentative steps toward learning what will eventually become an intricate show with about 10,000 moving parts.  

Swain’s band blossoms despite budget constraints

Karen Williams only had a handful of students in her beginner class when she first took the band director position for Swain County Schools 14 years ago, but today she has an average of 50 beginner students a year and the program continues to grow.

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