Hiding Places, Kid Fears
Hiding Places is a folk band from Asheville, NC and Athens, GA. The outfit is composed of Audrey Keelin Walsh, Nicholas Byrne, Henry Cutting and Anthony Cozzrelli, who all share writing and instrumentation responsibilities. Nicholas, Audrey, and Henry met while studying at UNC Chapel Hill. Reflection, inquiry, and enthusiasm sit at the heart of the group; Hiding Places represents growth. The four-piece write of gratitude, presence, childhood, groundedness, and transformation. The band’s debut EP “The Fly” was released in mid July and is available wherever you stream your music. , In moments of sparse clarity, and in those shrouded behind layered blankets of distortion, these songs each approach the elusive human truths that lie just outside the scope of understanding. Rose Ewing writes with moving honesty and gentleness, weaving together everything from ineffable grief to quiet encounters with the sublime, as Emma Shaw, Michael Whelan, and Ben Ewing join to create the lush sonic environment in which the songs unfold.Website Kid Fears evolved out of Rose Ewing’s solo songwriting project, and began playing shows as a full band in Atlanta in 2021. Their musical style draws influence from slowcore and shoegaze giants Low and My Bloody Valentine as well as contemporary songwriters like Grouper, Midwife and Gia Margaret. Website
Lydia Loveless
Lydia Loveless (she/her/they/them)Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way AgainBloodshot Records Endings are messy. Falling in love is messy. Change is messy. Perhaps, change is the messiest of them all. Especially when eyes are on you; when you blast out of adolescence onto stages across the country, then into your twenties, onto more stages and, finally, into your thirties—all on those same stages. The stages that Lydia Loveless has sung her heart out on, has collapsed on, and laughed on, all mirror the stages of her life thus far for the world to see. When Loveless released her first album over a decade ago, she was still a teenager whose songs of debauchery, guzzling alcohol and doing cocaine were an audio wet dream for a certain type of listener who not only wear their music tastes on their (tattooed) sleeve, but in the lifestyle that they emulate: “outlaw” music with brains – akin to Steve Earle, Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams, vintage country heart with a heartland rock soul. In the end, the music industry is still sadly a man’s world and, as such, Loveless grew up in the spotlight (or perhaps, more accurately, the bar lights) while she was placed on a pedestal. Her voicemail greeting is a tongue-in-cheek ode to this: “Hi, this is Lydia Loveless, savior of cowpunk. Please leave a message and I will get back to you.” The time between their late adolescence to now is defined by a shelf full of records, hundreds of thousands of miles on the road, and a ribbon of heartbreaks pockmarking their trail. Loveless is a fiercely brave writer who bluntly assesses their life in song: their struggles with alcohol and depression, and the uncertainty of not only the future, but what piecing together the past will mean for the present. In 2020, they put out their excellent fourth full-length Daughter on their own label, Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records, with encouragement from their friend Jason Isbell, but could not tour behind it; the one consistent throughline in Loveless’ life was impossible due to the pandemic. They were living in North Carolina with their boyfriend at the time, stuck, away from the stages they grew up on, isolated from their family, and going stir-crazy. As the world came undone and then back together again, Loveless returned to Columbus, where their career first began. Starting anew, Loveless found part-time work at a recording studio (Secret Studios) and began processing the last two years of their life. The title of their new album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again, came easy—like a mantra from the heavens. Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again continues the evolution of Loveless. The artist who once sang that she would rather stay home and drink gallons of wine is now on the other end of the bottle, where a bit of resignation resides. She sings on “Feel”: “I’m getting older and my jets are starting to cool, if I ever get sober it’s really over for you fools.” Though a melancholic weight rests on the record—as it was written after the breakup with her longtime boyfriend and following a period of isolation and depression during the pandemic—it also feels like a triumphant moment from an artist who’s continuing her stride. Loveless has always been a brutally honest songwriter, one whose articulation of love, heartbreak and bad habits is wrapped not only in catchy melodies but also her finesse with words. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Southern Culture on the Skids
Southern Culture On The Skids has been consistently recording and touring around the world since 1983. The band (Rick Miller – guitar and vocals, Mary Huff – bass and vocals, Dave Hartman – drums) has been playing together for over 30 years. Their musical journey has taken them from all-night North Carolina house parties to late night TV talk shows (Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show), from performing at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to rockin’ out for the inmates at North Carolina correctional facilities. They’ve shared a stage with many musical luminaries including Link Wray, Loretta Lynn, Hasil Adkins and Patti Smith. Their music has been featured in movies and TV, parodied by Weird Al, and used to sell everything from diamonds to pork sausage. In 2014 the band was honored by the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with an exhibition featuring their music and cultural contributions. Their legendary live shows are a testament to the therapeutic powers of foot-stomping, butt-shaking rock and roll and what Rolling Stone dubbed “a hell raising rock and roll party.”At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids is the latest full length album from the band and is due to drop into stores on March 12th. The album consists of 11 tracks recorded and mixed in Rick Miller’s living room with some additional tracks recorded at his studio, The Kudzu Ranch.The first radio single off the album is “Run Baby Run”—a rocking number with deep garage roots. SCOTS bassist Mary Huff provides an urgent vocal while the band pulls back the throttle on a full race fuzz fest—cause she’s gotta to go fast! Run Baby Run!The other songs on the album are a combination of the band’s unique mix of musical genres: rock and roll, surf, folk and country—all a bit off-center, what Rick proudly calls “our wobbly Americana”. Rick goes on, “We put a few more acoustic guitars on this one, as you would expect if you recorded in your living room, but it still rocks like SCOTS. So put your headphones on, get in your favorite chair/sofa/recliner, put on “At Home With” and let’s hang out for a while.” Guitar riffs as lumpy as a camel, rough as a jackhammer or smooth and bright as Tennessee sippin’ whiskey, all slung loose and loud over salacious beats – No Depression For over thirty years, Southern Culture On The Skids have played an eclectic range of Americana including rockabilly, surf rock, country and R&B, with a punk edge and heaps of humor. They are known for their legendary live shows and wacky antics…But it’s more than just great fun; they are fantastic musicians to boot. – Elmore Magazine This Chapel Hill-based trio is flat-out amazing. Without resorting to needless flash or attention-hungry showboating, Miller in particular is one of the most spectacularly gifted guitar players I’ve ever seen. He juggles a lot of styles – country, garage rock, surf, rockabilly and soul to name just a few. – Stomp & Stammer Website | Facebook | Instagram
Curtis Waters
At only twenty-two years old, Curtis Waters has already established himself as a talented musical triple threat: writer, producer, and performer, and he doesn’t miss the opportunity to flex his creative muscles on the violent delight that is “STAR KILLER”. Sonically addictive, the relentless and unflinching production serves only to increase the power behind Waters’ stark lyricism. At its core “STAR KILLER” is a personal commentary for Waters, who is navigating new success whilst also staying true to his identity as a first generation immigrant from Nepal.Following one billion streams on his debut album ‘Pity Party,’ Curtis Waters followed up with the electrifying post-punk single ‘MANIC MAN’ – a brutally honest reflection on identity, insecurity, and mental health. The 22-year old singer, songwriter, & producer has earned over 150K YouTube subscribers, 60K IG followers, and 138K on Tik-Tok – earning him over 100M views across platforms. After the growth of his viral hit ‘Stunnin,’ the Nepali-born creative was covered by the likes of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Pigeons & Planes. He quickly launched himself into collaborations with acts like renforshort, Kim Petras, and Brevin Kim alongside serving as the ambassador for major brands including MCM, Mercedes, and Haagen Dazs. After experiencing rapid online success, the multi-hyphenate spent time re-imagining his creative identity & sound, working with artists like TiaCorine, Shrimp, and greek as he built a new world. His forthcoming album is a true immigrant story, a reflection on a young, brown creative being thrown into the mainstream overnight, while navigating deep issues of self-doubt & cultural identity along the way.Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters
After staying close to home for most of 2023 and woodshedding some new material, Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters can’t wait to hit the road and spread some holiday cheer! The band will play new and old favorites, featuring songs from their 2019 EP “Christmas on a Greyhound Bus” as well as a selection of familiar holiday classics and original material from their six studio albums.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Crazy Chester: A Very Carrboro Tribute To The Band & The Last Waltz
Featuring: Jones Bell as Richard Manuel + Dr. John Charles Cleaver as Garth Hudson Rob DiMauro as Levon Helm Justin Ellis as Rick Danko Rafael Green as Robbie Robertson With Guest Appearances From: Owen FitzGerald as Neil Young Danny Grewen as Trombonist Jeremy Haire as Eric Clapton Charles Latham as Bob Dylan Glenn Jones as Van Morrison Jodi Jones as Emmylou Harris Georgia Moon as Joni Mitchell + Saxophonist Brad Porter as Ringo Starr Jacob Seyle as Paul Butterfield Alex Thompson as Ronnie Hawkins Formed in early 2020 for a series of one-off events, Crazy Chester is a homegrown tribute act to The Band, consisting of Carrboro musicians Jones Bell (Mellow Swells, Ravary), Charles Cleaver (Big Star’s Third, Scivic Rivers), Rob DiMauro (Heat Preacher, Mixtape Grab Bag), Justin Ellis (Slow Teeth, Ravary, Easter Island), and Rafael Green (Little Raven, Ravary), respectively recreating and playing the parts of Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Robbie Robertson.For the third year in a row, Crazy Chester will be performing most of The Band’s legendary farewell performance from Thanksgiving Day 1976, immortalized in the 1978 Martin Scorsese film “The Last Waltz” – complete with additional musicians and special local guests to play the songs originally performed in the film by Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and many more. Join for an unforgettable live performance of a Thanksgiving tradition, live at the Cat’s Cradle. Featuring performances from Charles Latham, Danny Grewen, Owen Matthew FitzGerald, Georgia Moon, Jodi Jones, Glenn Jones, Alex Thompson, Jeremy Haire, Brad Porter, and Jacob Seyle!
Patrick Droney
Patrick Droney grew up in the era of dedication lines and VHS tapes. He survives on sentimentality. It hits him every time he hears Delilah on the radio or passes by the Blockbuster sign near the bodega on his corner. The Brooklyn and Nashville based artist/producer/guitar sensation returns with his sophomore album, SUBTITLES FOR FEELINGS, which explores the idea that each frame of life holds a deeper context—a subtitle meant to be translated in time. Written and co-produced by Patrick Droney with collaborators including Foy Vance, Butch Walker, Jon Green, and Lori McKenna, the songs are a deepening of his timeless, cinematic pop sound. Rewind to May 2021, when Droney released his debut album, STATE OF THE HEART. With streams now in the hundreds of millions, the project was his own coming of age film, offering striking snapshots of the human condition in songs like “Glitter” and “The Wire.” Since then, he has toured extensively, selling out shows across the U.S. and making his U.K. debut with the Eagles at London’s Hyde Park. He performed at Super Bowl LVII, claims alumni status at Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has shared stages with Sheryl Crow, The Vamps, and more. He also released genre-bending collaborations with Kygo (“Say You Will”) and Billy F. Gibbons (“Rough Boy”). Droney is set to bring the music on the road this fall with THE RUNAWAY TOUR 2023, which ends where his journey began—in New York at Webster Hall.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World Time keeps moving and things keep changing, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fight back. Yo La Tengo have raced time for nearly four decades and, to my ears, they just keep winning. The trio’s latest victory is called This Stupid World, a spellbinding set of reflective songs that resist the ever-ticking clock. This is music that’s not so much timeless as time-defiant. “I want to fall out of time,” Ira Kaplan sings in “Fallout.” “Reach back, unwind.” Part of how Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew escape time is by watching it pass, even accepting it when they must. “I see clearly how it ends / I see the moon rise as the sun descends,” they sing during opener “Sinatra Drive Breakdown.” In the séance-like “Until it Happens,” Kaplan plainly intones, “Prepare to die / Prepare yourself while there’s still time.” But This Stupid World is also filled with calls to reject time – bide it, ignore it, waste it. “Stay alive,” he adds later in the same song. “Look away from the hands of time.” Of course, times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. Yo La Tengo made This Stupid World all by themselves, though. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. Another new thing about This Stupid World: it’s the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in a while. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. Take the signature combination of hypnotic rhythm and spontaneous guitar on “Sinatra Drive Breakdown,” or the steady chug of “Tonight’s Episode,” a blinkered tunnel of forward-moving sound. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has been made a touch more direct. The songs on This Stupid World were still journeys, though. An example is the absorbing, three-dimensional “Brain Capers.” To construct this swirl, the band blends guitar chords, bass loops, drum punches, and various iterations of Hubley and Kaplan’s voices into shifting layers. Simpler but just as dense is closer “Miles Away.” A dubby rhythm lurks below Hubley’s vocal, which brushes across the song like paint leaving bright blurs. Throughout the album, these touches, accents, and surprises intensify each piece. It’s a rarity – a raw-sounding record that gives you plenty of headphone-worthy detail to chew on. This Stupid World gives your brain a lot to digest, too. All the battles with time drive toward some heavy conclusions. In the gripping “Aselestine,” Hubley sings about what sounds like a friend on death’s door: “The clock won’t tick / I can’t predict / I can’t sell your books, though you asked me to.” In “Apology Letter,” time turns simple communication into something fraught and confusing: “The words / Derail on the way from me to you.” Not everything is so serious, though. The absurdist “Tonight’s Episode” helps McNew learn to milk cows, steal faces, and treat guacamole as a verb. And somehow Alice Cooper, Ray Davies, and Rick Moranis show up in “Brain Capers,” all telling us time isn’t finished yet.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World Time keeps moving and things keep changing, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fight back. Yo La Tengo have raced time for nearly four decades and, to my ears, they just keep winning. The trio’s latest victory is called This Stupid World, a spellbinding set of reflective songs that resist the ever-ticking clock. This is music that’s not so much timeless as time-defiant. “I want to fall out of time,” Ira Kaplan sings in “Fallout.” “Reach back, unwind.” Part of how Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew escape time is by watching it pass, even accepting it when they must. “I see clearly how it ends / I see the moon rise as the sun descends,” they sing during opener “Sinatra Drive Breakdown.” In the séance-like “Until it Happens,” Kaplan plainly intones, “Prepare to die / Prepare yourself while there’s still time.” But This Stupid World is also filled with calls to reject time – bide it, ignore it, waste it. “Stay alive,” he adds later in the same song. “Look away from the hands of time.” Of course, times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. Yo La Tengo made This Stupid World all by themselves, though. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. Another new thing about This Stupid World: it’s the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in a while. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. Take the signature combination of hypnotic rhythm and spontaneous guitar on “Sinatra Drive Breakdown,” or the steady chug of “Tonight’s Episode,” a blinkered tunnel of forward-moving sound. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has been made a touch more direct. The songs on This Stupid World were still journeys, though. An example is the absorbing, three-dimensional “Brain Capers.” To construct this swirl, the band blends guitar chords, bass loops, drum punches, and various iterations of Hubley and Kaplan’s voices into shifting layers. Simpler but just as dense is closer “Miles Away.” A dubby rhythm lurks below Hubley’s vocal, which brushes across the song like paint leaving bright blurs. Throughout the album, these touches, accents, and surprises intensify each piece. It’s a rarity – a raw-sounding record that gives you plenty of headphone-worthy detail to chew on. This Stupid World gives your brain a lot to digest, too. All the battles with time drive toward some heavy conclusions. In the gripping “Aselestine,” Hubley sings about what sounds like a friend on death’s door: “The clock won’t tick / I can’t predict / I can’t sell your books, though you asked me to.” In “Apology Letter,” time turns simple communication into something fraught and confusing: “The words / Derail on the way from me to you.” Not everything is so serious, though. The absurdist “Tonight’s Episode” helps McNew learn to milk cows, steal faces, and treat guacamole as a verb. And somehow Alice Cooper, Ray Davies, and Rick Moranis show up in “Brain Capers,” all telling us time isn’t finished yet.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Kelsey Waldon
Last August, just as her album No Regular Dog was about to drop, Kelsey Waldon was preparing to hit the road for the first time since Covid-19 had ground the world to a halt. The acclaimed country singer-songwriter was anxious—and not just because it had been two years since she had last set foot on stage. On top of the new album, she was breaking in a new band.But from the very first show, Waldon realized she was part of something special. Beneath the rhinestones of her trademark tailored suit, her flesh chilled with goose pimples. “I felt like a whole new life with the music,” she says. “Writing a song by yourself in your bedroom or on your back porch is one thing. But then to share it with an audience in a dark, sweaty club is really special. We were just having a lot of fun and the audience would feel it. I think everybody just wanted to be there.”The alchemy of their road show generated buzz on social media and in the pages of The Washington Post, which proclaimed No Regular Dog “easily the best [album] released by any country singer” in 2022. And now, it has been captured in live recordings of each track on a special deluxe version of the album, out April 14th on Oh Boy Records. The extended edition, which also includes live recordings of Waldon’s songs “White Noise, White Lines” and “False King,” features an unreleased studio version of John Prine’s classic “Spanish Pipedream.” That single, along with a live medley of “Season’s Ending/Sweet Little Girl,” was released on March 31st.Onstage, Waldon keeps steady time with her left boot. Her searing voice slices the ears and heart, and is often echoed by a sawing fiddle (courtesy of Libby Weitnauer) or the whine of pedal steel guitar (Muskrat Jones), and the interplay—underpinned by electric and slide guitar (Junior Tutwiler), bass (Erik Mendez) and drums (Zach Martin)—revs up entire rooms. The five of them, Waldon says, know how to “bring the heat up,” which has led to their moniker: Her Hot Band. “Everybody in the band is a heavyweight in their corner. And everybody plays like they got something to prove. I guess I do too.”That notion—of refusing to be counted out—helped to inspire No Regular Dog, and it is also woven into the deluxe version’s recordings. Waldon approaches “Spanish Pipedream” with a glimmer in her eye, tapping into the song’s whimsy and deeper meaning of “breaking away from social and societal norms to pursue true happiness.” She believe it’s just as relevant today as when it was released in 1971. “I think all humans at the end of the day just want to pursue this type of dream and freedom and also, they deserve to live how they want to and be treated just the same. It makes you think without preaching to you, something John was good at.”The live medley of “Season’s Ending/Sweet Little Girl” sizzles with electricity, the two songs fused with a fiddle tune Weitnauer traces to the great Kentucky fiddler John Morgan Salyer. As Waldon concludes the last refrain of “Sweet Little Girl,” Weitnauer reprises the tune, fiddling away as the band breaks out into a frenzied jam. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
