Americana/bluegrass act the Darren Nicholson Band will hit the stage for a special intimate performance at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24, at the Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley. 

The Pisgah National Forest has reopened the Pisgah Ranger District effective Oct. 18,, in coordination with local communities and governments. 

Appalachian/indie act Jackson Grimm & The Bull Moose Party will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, at The Scotsman in Waynesville. 

The sheer beauty and fundamental foundation of bluegrass music resides in one simple truth about the tones, textures and talents within the “high, lonesome sound” — its timelessness. 

The Highlands Biological Foundation is hosting its final Zahner Conservation Lecture of the season. Lori Williams, a Wildlife Diversity Biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), will present “All About Hellbenders!” 

On Monday, Aug. 19, the series “Where We Live: History, Nature, and Culture,” will present a screening of the film, “Clear Day Thunder: Rescuing the American Chestnut.” 

The Summer Music Series will continue with an evening of old-time and traditional music by Susan Pepper & Sarah Songbird Burkey at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. 

Rising singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alma Russ will hit the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at The Gem downstairs taproom at Boojum Brewing in Waynesville. 

Stories abound in these here mountains, almost as countless as the towering trees that cloak those familiar slopes. But beneath the canopy, if you look close enough and listen hard, there’s a whole other crop of them that rarely see the light of day. 

The word “Jewish” can be used to describe both an ethnicity and a religious faith; some people are one or the other and some people are both, but you don’t have to be either to appreciate the cross-cultural crunch Nefesh Mountain brings to the stage.