Carrboro Bluegrass Festival
Mason ViaLaurie Lewis and The Right Hands Trenton Wagler and Eric BrubakerJon StickleyCody SistersHolland Brothers Carolina Bluegrass Ensemble+ More VIP Festival Patron Pass — $85 Limited to 100 tickets Support the festival and secure the best experience of the day VIP Festival Patron Pass holders receive: Guaranteed early entry — doors open 30 minutes before general admission Reserved seating in the first 10 rows, clearly marked and held exclusively for VIP Limited-edition festival poster, exclusive to VIP ticket holders The peace of mind of knowing your seat is waiting — no lines, no stress VIP tickets are limited to 100 tickets and will not be expanded once sold out. Reserved Seating — $70 Enjoy the festival with the comfort of a guaranteed seat. Reserved Seating tickets include: Reserved seating in the designated section Standard entry at door time Access to all festival performances Ideal for attendees who want a great view without worrying about arrival time. General Admission — $55 Be part of the Carrboro Bluegrass Festival. General Admission tickets include: Access to all performances Entry to the general admission area Seating availability on a first-come, first-served basis
Jordan Smart + Willy Tea Taylor
This is a seated show.
Melt
Pulsing with the energy of their hometown, New York City, ‘If There’s a Heaven’ (2024) is the debut album from indie band Melt. Hear the band simultaneously at their most airtight and freewheeling—evoking the raw, communal spirit of Fleetwood Mac as well as the modern, danceable hooks of MUNA. Recorded live to tape with producer Sam Evian (Big Thief), the eleven tracks span existential, feel-good pop (“Plant the Garden”), classic love ballads (“Your Name”) and lush, soulful rockers (“Heaven”). Melt’s debut is a joyous, timeless soundtrack for coming of age and finding oneself and one’s community. Melt formed in 2017 and cut their teeth touring on the heels of their viral single “Sour Candy.” Called “one groovy superorganism” by NPR, the band’s ecstatic live set has led them to supporting slots with a wide array of artists from Grouplove, Lawrence, My Morning Jacket, and Grace Potter. Back with their first release since ‘If There’s a Heaven,’ the band’s new single “Stay for the High” is 2025’s “Yellow”—an early aughts heartbreaker with the edge of a queer rock band. Website
Geordie Greep
Is The New Sound a tonic for these times? Let’s ask Geordie Greep. “Music can be so much more than learning to play the same as everybody else. It can be anything you want. With recording The New Sound, it was the first time I have had no one to answer to. Being in a band (black midi), we often have this ‘we can do everything’ feeling, but you are also kind of limited in that approach, and sometimes it’s good to do something else, to let go of things.” Geordie’s debut solo album boasts a brand of high quality, all-embracing alternative pop fun not heard in a very long time, walking the line between the ridiculous and brilliant with a teflon-coated aplomb. How the record came about is a thing to marvel at. Over thirty session musicians were involved in its making, on two continents. Greep says, “Half of the tracks were done in Brazil, with local musicians pulled together at the last minute. They’d never heard anything I’d done before, they were just interested in the demos I’d made. The tracking was all done in one, maybe two days.” The spirit of Greep’s increasingly febrile and furtive soliloquies simultaneously calls to mind both Frank Zappa and Frank Sinatra, with a healthy dash of Scott Walker sprinkled throughout. The instrumental title track is a jazz-funk workout that could double as a soundtrack for a TV series or the intro music for a Broadway musical. Brass, wah-wah pedal and bass stabs, choruses and polyrhythms, all fizz and tumble around the place creating a sense of excitement and expectation. Tracks often oscillate from whispers to shouts, and start and end on a bang. The stories themselves act as a shopping list of the Active Male Imagination. A series of vignettes, where Geordie Greep plays the role of emcee and conductor. The characters we hear from are engaged in wild fantasies and situations in which they inevitably falter. “The main theme of the record is desperation; someone who is kidding themselves that they have everything under control, but they don’t.” Here Greep gives color to a set of imaginings which include cannibalism, being boiled alive, and a woman giving birth to a goat. Street life is all around The New Sound: the listener is thrown into a world of cafes, bars, rented rooms, cabarets and strange museums. Here we see our heroes carry out a series of naughty assignments, military cosplay or socio-economic triumphs. The lines between parody and sermon are often blurred. The urbane romantic fantasy of single ‘Holy Holy’ tells the story of an imaginary liaison in a nightclub, soundtracked by ’noughties indie chords and bravura Latin big band arrangements – including a three-piano attack. What next? “My plan is to ‘do a Keith Jarrett thing’, have a different group of session musicians in a different place and lean into the fact that we’re not going to get it the same.” How can anything ever be ‘the same’ with Greep at the helm? Website | Instagram
Ritt Momney
To make Base, Jack Rutter (who performs as Ritt Momney) had to let go of everything. He had to get to the point where he wanted to quit making music. Tear everything down and build it all up again. Rutter had to let go of all the shoulds, and all of the expectations he thought people had for him and his music. So he hit the reset button, forgot about all the noise, and made a record he truly wanted to make. It’s his most realized offering yet: beautiful and weird and cool. A record of lo-fi bedroom rock that radiates warmth and honesty. Rutter’s story is one of reinventing yourself after viral success. After the release of his debut, Her and All My Friends, Rutter put out a cover of Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On.” The song was an unexpected hit, taking off almost half a year after it was initially released, and landing in the Billboard Hot 100. In 2021, he released his second full-length record Sunny Boy, a record of warm-to-the-touch bedroom pop. And then Rutter started to fall out of love with music. “I was starting to feel like I was making music because I had to,” he says, “but then I realized, I didn’t have to make anything if I didn’t want to.” This release from expectations was like a lightning bolt: Rutter felt a kind of freedom he had not felt in years. Enter Base. Base is Rutter’s third record. Since Sunny Boy, he’s bought a house in his native Salt Lake City, gotten married, and started treating his hobbies with the same seriousness he treats his music (for a period of time, he was bowling every morning of the week). In other words: he’s made a life for himself. A life where he has created the perfect environment to make music. Base is the product of this freedom. And you can tell from first listen. Base is a roomy, elegant collection of songs. “I believe in base creativity,” says Rutter. “Some kind of pure being. A solid foundation.” This was the goal with Base: to make a record that is rooted in that sort of boundless creativity. To make it, Rutter joined up with his bandmates, Rick West and Chris Peranich. On his past two records, Rutter would write and produce everything. On Base, he wanted things to be more collaborative. He wanted the record to have more of a live, analog sound. Base was recorded on an 8-track. No screens allowed in the studio during the initial recording. They’d use computers a little bit after the fact, but the goal was to make something that sounded organic. Like “Gunna,” a song about waiting and not knowing what you’re waiting for. The song starts out with acoustic guitars, then Rutter’s voice comes in. “As soon as she gets home,” he sings, “I’m going to be so nice.” There’s a little distortion, cracking open the song like you do with an egg and a fork. Keys and big drums. It’s a little Radiohead, a little Alex G.
Cece Coakley
Cece Coakley is a rising singer-songwriter living in Nashville, whose music blends indie pop, folk, and country influences into a heartfelt, melodic sound. With introspective songwriting and a laid-back vocal delivery, Coakley has quickly made a name for herself in the indie music scene and a revered artist and songwriter. Her 2022 debut EP, Tender, was written while she was living at home with her parents in Knoxville Tennessee, a time of deep personal reflection and creative growth. She has since gone on to release two projects Happy Adjacent & Soft Again following her move to Nashville. Coakley has spent most of her budding career on the road supporting artists such as Medium Build, Stephen Sanchez, Field Guide, and most recently Hazlett and Nell Mescal. Touring allowed her to connect with audiences across the country, further developing her artistry and confidence as a performer. Coakley is set to release her next EP on March 6th titled, Pleasant Attack, which includes songs “Pleasant Attack,” “Marionette,” “Personified” and “Future Tense” among others. Coakley’s EP was produced by her frequent collaborator, Sam Westhoff. With her distinctive blend of indie pop and country-tinged storytelling, Cece Coakley is proving to be one of the most compelling new voices in the indie-folk scene, carving out a path that feels entirely her own. Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube
By Storm
In 2023 RiTchie and producer Parker Corey introduced By Storm with “Double Trio,” an impassioned and atmospheric first single that both honored the legacy of their former group Injury Reserve and opened a new lane towards the future. “Shit gon’ repeat if all you do is delay” RiTchie rapped on the track, underlining the momentum constantly pushing the rapper/producer duo forward. My Ghosts Go Ghost continues that trajectory, arriving almost by surprise but with maximum impact. My Ghosts Go Ghost is an album that is simple in its construction yet dense enough to get lost in. Created with a back-to-basics mantra (“what if we make nine really strong songs and put them in a good order?”) the album deals with themes of loss, fatherhood, capitalism, the weight of experience, and moving past difficult experiences. It is both a debut album and the continuation of a journey RiTchie and Corey started ten years ago when they first began making music in Phoenix. “This past decade we built our identity and every record has been us figuring out more about the kind of band we want to be,” says RiTchie. “That doesn’t change.” With My Ghosts Go Ghost, committed fans get to hear RiTchie and Corey hone their craft in increasingly refined ways, while newcomers benefit from the experience and clarity of thought that brings them to this point. Mention ghosts and many will think of hauntings, but My Ghosts Go Ghost is not an album troubled by history. If anything, the art of looking ahead colors RiTchie’s lyrics, specifically how to do so while holding what is dear from the past. That could be not forgetting people you have lost, or selfishly wanting to stick with what’s familiar in the face of change. “CIHYFM” finds him on the eve of becoming a father, excited for what lay ahead but knowing that his relationship with his partner will also be changing in the process. “I’m ready to grow, just feeling TKTKTKT” he raps over a somber beat replete with chopped-up vocal samples. Album closer “GGG” maintains that same perspective, asking questions about the speediness of moving on from a seismic loss. Intricate Spanish guitars act as the bed for RiTchie to wrestle with the notion of shedding the past only to realise how important it was to you. The desire to look forwards, it seems, only leads to looking back. Ultimately, My Ghosts Go Ghost underscores the belief that life in the present is most precious of all. An off-the-cuff DJ set in Stockholm, Sweden in 2019, improvised when technical issues meant performing live was impossible, acted as the blueprint to unlocking the sound of the album. Debuting new material in that environment was both fun and freeing for the pair, who tested multiple My Ghosts Go Ghost tracks in various embryonic stages at shows in Phoenix, London, L.A., and New York throughout 2025. The automatic feedback of live audiences was both a prompt when writing and a guide in the editing process. “There’s an element of being able to figure out certain songs better live and come up with ideas when you’re in that super emotional and reactive phase,” says Corey. “You do a lot less overthinking in that environment.” Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
Hiding Places
Shortly after forming, the members of the New York-via-North Carolina indie rock band Hiding Places noticed a secret power. During their live sets, no matter the loudness, scuzziness, or mayhem of the venues they played, their tender, atmospheric sound became the focus of the room, quieting their surroundings as audiences became hypnotized by their steady, rhythmic interplay and bittersweet vocal melodies. From these experiences, the band developed a credo of close listening. If one member plays too fast, they won’t try to nudge down the tempo; if someone’s volume rises above the rest, they adapt their levels accordingly. The goal, always, is togetherness—to maintain a unified whole, always in sync. This philosophy is part of what makes the quartet’s cozily intricate and hard-hitting Keeled Scales debut, The Secret to Good Living, feel like a bold introduction as much as a well-worn mixtape, passed down from a trusted friend. It makes sense that the band formed while three of its members were DJs at their college radio station at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They embrace music as a means of communication, identity-forming, and deeper understanding of human nature. Songwriters/guitarists Audrey Keelin and Nicholas Byrne alternate between fronting the band, sharing lead vocals and lending the 10-song record the tone of an intimate conversation with room for silence and deeper concentration. Rounded out by a rhythm section of drummer Henry Cutting and bassist/producer Michael Matsakis, they’ve developed a forward-thinking sound with a sense of nostalgia built into it: a blend that draws from the collage-like indie rock of Yo La Tengo, the elegant slowcore of The New Year, the riffy story-songs of Drive-By Truckers, and the analog hum of The Microphones. The Secret to Good Living, which bridges their fuzzy home-recorded demos with their first experience in a professional recording studio, helps translate their humble beginnings to the big stages for which they seem destined. It’s the product of hermetic late-night sessions, collaborative writing retreats in Athens, Georgia, and an evolving perspective on their singular dynamic. After years of working remotely, this record marks the collective result of the quartet living together in a city for the first time—an experience that amplified the band’s creative bond and connected them with fellow North Carolina transplants in the city. “We’ve built a Southern home in New York and simultaneously get to experience the cultures of the world that collide here,” Byrne says of their tight-knit community and enduring connections to their hometowns, where they frequently return. “Within 24 hours, I could be at Myrtle Broadway and then in rural Georgia sighting in a hunting rifle. Living between Southern landscapes and New York, and carrying those lessons and experiences with us, has been the story of this band.” On The Secret to Good Living, Hiding Places follow this thread, navigating their mid-to-late 20s and using songwriting as a portal for self-discovery and exploration. Tellingly, the concept raised in the title arrives not in a prescriptive philosophy but as an ongoing inquiry: “Oh, what’s the secret to good living,” Byrne and Keelin ask in unison. “How was I supposed to know?” Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Paulus Schaefer (Netherlands) Guitar Workshop
Paulus Schaefer is a Dutch Master musician who grew up immersed in the Sinti Jazz style of his family and friends. He is also an accomplished teacher, and hosts his own annual Sinti Jazz Guitar Camp with Stochelo Rosenberg in his hometown of Gerwen, Netherlands. Mini Documentary about Paulus’s camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJRlGPi36uk Rhythms Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKg6KdraOuc Open to all instruments and levels, though the focus is on guitar.
Voyage Hot Club, ft. Sam Farthing & Paulus Schaefer
Voyage Hot Club, featuring Sam Farthing (USA) is taking the international Gypsy Jazz scene by storm! At just 24 years of age Sam plays with incredible maturity, dexterity, and deep understanding of the music. Along with him is Jimmy Grant (USA, Spain) who is a frequent collaborator with top musicians around the world, Eva Slongo (Suisse) who channels Stephane Grappelli while incorporating a contemporary jazz violin sound, and Zachary Valentine (USA) on bass. WEBSITES: www.samfarthingmusic.com www.jimmygrant.net www.evaslongo.com
