Willow Avalon – Pink Pocket Pistol Tour
Originally from Georgia and now based in Nashville, Willow Avalon’s musical journey began with her first word, “Elvis.” Raised by her mother and grandmother in a small Southern town, she grew up playing piano in church and taught herself guitar at age 12, using songwriting as both an escape and a means of self-expression through a life-journey that has been anything but straight-forward. Her much-praised 2025 debut album, Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell, cemented her as one of country music’s most compelling new voices, blending classic country, Americana, and pop influences. She has performed at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Mornings, and the Grand Ole Opry, as well as festivals like Stagecoach, C2C, CMA, and Lollapalooza, bringing her electrifying presence to global audiences. With a sharp wit and rebellious spirit, she has shared stages with legends and rising stars alike, including Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Zach Bryan, Cage the Elephant, Paul Cauthen, Charles Wesley Godwin, and more. Solidified by sold-out headline tours in North America, Europe, and Australia, as well as hundreds of millions of views across social content, Willow Avalon is redefining what it means to be a modern Southern storyteller. Website · Facebook · Instagram · YouTube · TikTok · Spotify
Bird and Byron
Bird and Byron – rock & soul duo – are based out of Nashville, TN. The duo have gained viral success from their “One TakeTuesday” weekly series reaching millions of viewers; translating into loyal followers worldwide. The raw video posts are of the duoperforming clips of original songs or covers in their own styling. Since the inception of the video series, Bird and Byron have garneredattention and reposts from the likes of James Taylor, Willow Smith, Coldplay, Noah Kahan, Mt. Joy, Brittany Broski, andmany others. The momentum created by the “One Take Tuesday” series permitted Bird and Byron to record their debut EP at the Bomb ShelterNashville. With the support of esteemed producer Andrija Tokic ‘producer of the Alabama Shakes debut record’ the groupcreated an authentic first project that sealed them as an important part of the new rock and soul genre. Bird and Byron’s first EP released on October 15, 2021 – followed by festival appearance, sold out shows and growing radio support. Their authentic writing style stands out w/ Bird’s powerful melodic vocals to Byron’s electrifying blues soul guitar. Since moving to Nashville in May 2022, they have quickly assimilated into Music City and are creating valuable connections within themusic industry. The duo are currently collaborating with notable Nashville producers, Je Trott (Grammy-nominated for work withSheryl Crow) and Andrew Petro. The duo (w/ full band) have recently performed to packed audiences on a multi-city tour, including stops in Austin, Carolinas,Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, NYC and Mississippi. They released their second EP in early 2023 – which has pushed their Spotify streams to over 7,000,000+ and 220,000+ monthlylisteners. The EP release also earned them a global licensing deal to all Abercrombie and Fitch storefronts. Top listener cities:Chicago, Denver, London, Los Angeles and NYC. Top listener countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and USA. Bird and Byron’s social media presence has amassed 96,000+ followers on Tik Tok nearing over 3 million total likes throughthe #birdandbyron tag , and a growing 11,400+ follower base on Instagram. The duo has delved into sync – landing deals with aLondon-based sync firm A&G that represents artists Beabadoobee and The 1975. Bird and Byron’s self-produced debutalbum is out now. Instagram · Facebook · TikTok
The Milk Carton Kids
On their seventh studio album, *Lost Cause Lover Fool* (due April 24 on Far Cry/Thirty Tigers), The Milk Carton Kids offer nine songs that, more than ever, invite listeners to lean in close and linger inside the small moments the record quietly magnifies. When Los Angeles–based singer-songwriters Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan first emerged in 2011, they did so with a sound as unassuming as their “marketing” plan. They recorded their ten-song debut, *Prologue*, with just their two guitars and two voices. They posted it online as a free download, sending the link to friends via email. Even amidst the foot stomps and hand claps carrying Folk into the mainstream, hundreds of thousands of people managed to find *Prologue* in that first year. From the beginning, The Milk Carton Kids were more interested in precision than volume. “We were very conscious back then of trying to make our two voices sound like one thing,” Ryan recalls. “And we wanted our guitars to sound like one instrument too.” That instinct toward unity and understatement became the foundation of a career that steadily expanded without ever losing its center. Fast-forward fifteen years, through chaotic world events, a global pandemic and its aftermath. Through Ryan’s two children and Pattengale’s move to Nashville then back to LA, his bout with cancer. The pair went from darlings of the Americana Music Association Festival to hosting its annual awards show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. They started their own Sad Songs Summer Camp, helping songwriters dig deeper and darker through an intense workshopping process. They also founded the Los Angeles Folk Festival, spotlighting musicians and comedians in the broader Folk community. (In its first two years, the festival has featured performances by Emmylou Harris, Waxahatchee, Sierra Ferrell, Willie Watson, Valerie June, and more.) Along the way, the duo has received four Grammy nominations and their songs have been featured in numerous film and TV projects, from Gus Van Zandt’s *Promised Land* to Tina Fey’s goofball comedy series *Girls5Eva*. They’ve collaborated with a who’s who of players from Joe Henry and Rosanne Cash to Sara Bareilles and Josh Ritter. Through all of it, The Milk Carton Kids have remained committed to a deceptively simple idea: music can help turn down the volume on a chaotic world and make room for what matters most. *Lost Cause Lover Fool* is the clearest distillation of that idea yet. With roots-leaning arrangements and a deep trust in space, the album expands the duo’s signature minimalist sound while somehow making it even more focused. “This album is, at its core, a collection of songs about transformation,” Pattengale explains. “About the shifting terrain of consciousness and the stories we build to understand who we’ve been, who we are, and who we’re becoming. Each song takes a single moment, sometimes examined with microscopic closeness and sometimes viewed from a great distance, and lets it expand until it becomes an entire world. By enlarging small feelings until they’re inhabitable, the record looks for eternity not in the sweeping or monumental, but in the intimate specifics that usually pass too quickly to notice.” The record opens with “Blue Water,” led by the lonesome pluck of a banjo. Handled with restraint, the instrument feels less like traditional bluegrass and more like morning light cast across a stretch of grass. Lyrically, the song captures a fleeting image: a man walking along a river, thinking about the child who once lay on his chest and now shares his worried mind. Website
Happy Landing
Happy Landing is an American band formed in Oxford, Mississippi in 2020 by Matthew Hendley (lead vocals, guitar), Keegan Christensen (vocals, keys), Jacob Christensen (drums, vocals), Andrew Gardner (fiddle, vocals), and Wilson Moyer (bass/guitar, vocals). The group pioneers a new wave of folk music, captivating audiences internationally with their energetic live shows and fresh sound, blended from the roots of southern rock, punk and folk. After debut festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Summerfest, the band’s sophomore album, Big Sun, comes in 2026 paired with a major headline tour of the US & Canada. Website · Facebook · Instagram · YouTube
Black Country, New Road
There are few contemporary bands who can do musical reinvention quite as consistently as Black Country, New Road. From their Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut For the First Time, which touched upon everything from jazz to post-rock via klezmer music, to the art-rock meets chamber pop follow up Ants From Up There (both top 5 charting albums). Then when singer Isaac Wood amicably left shortly after, they wrote an entire set of new songs to tour which ended up on Live at Bush Hall, an album The Guardian claimed was a “magical resurgence” in a triumphant five-star review. Now, on studio album three, the band are once again building from the ground up in yet another miraculous musical transformation. “Bush Hall was a really fun project to find our feet in,” says Charlie Wayne. “But we toured it to death and we were done with those songs. This album is a new statement of intent for us as a six-piece.” The band have now settled into a new shape in which vocal duties – and most of the songwriting – is split between Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw. “It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing,” says Ellery. “It’s definitely very different to Ants From Up There, because of the female perspective – and the music we’ve made also compliments that.” The band’s ability to respond to changing circumstances is not only down to their close-knit friendship but due to their talent, adaptability and long-standing relationship together as musicians. A mix of classically trained and self-taught, the multi-instrumentalists gathered steam as a band in the late 2010s, regularly playing The Windmill in Brixton alongside friends and peers such as Squid and Black Midi, and soon found themselves being labelled “the best band in the world” by The Quietus. Despite moving swiftly on after each record, and never having conventionally toured in support of a studio album, the band’s fervent following has only grown and grown regardless. By the time they found themselves in front of an ecstatic audience to record their live album, they were singing songs that reflected on the profound friendship that had steered them this far through an unpredictable journey, as they hollered in unison: “look at what we did together / BC,NR, friends forever!” That deep-rooted attachment and connection are the foundations of their latest. And it’s also a hugely ambitious and singular record, which is glisteningly produced by James Ford (Fontaines D.C., Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Blur). “It’s pretty big and bold,” says Wayne. “There’s a lot of very full and rich creative decisions that went into it. Making this we were considering every single option and really opening up every possibility as we figured out how to operate in a totally different framework.” It’s a framework that includes everything from folk to prog via baroque pop and touches of alt rock – with nods to a variety of artists such as Joanna Newsom, Randy Newman, Fiona Apple and Janis Ian – yet all the while retaining that unmistakably unique sound that only this combination of musicians can come up with. Although hugely varied and expansive, the album also feels deeply cohesive and focused, as it takes three distinct voices and styles and seamlessly intersperses them into a new collective sound. “At the beginning, it was very random,” says Hyde. Website · Instagram · Facebook · Bandcamp
Feyleux, Jaguardini
FEYLEUX is a new dark alternative duo that emerged in mid-2023, seamlessly blending dream pop, darkwave, and post-punk to create their distinct sound. Their debut album, “ Midnight Hearts”, released via the Swiss Dark Nights label, showcases cutting-edge bass synthesizers, cascading guitar melodies, and ethereal harmonies, drawing on the vibrant gothic synth-pop aesthetics of the 1980s as well as modern darkwave. Bandcamp JAGUARDINI treats music like a science project, manipulating synthesizers, VHS, gameboy, vocoder, guitar and fervid vocals to create a live blend of energetic Dark Wave and LOFI EBM — with a CRT TV on his head. Mickey Sharp taking the lead on this tour. Bandcamp TIGER KNIVES Darkwave & Post Punk from Raleigh / Durham. Jake Craven. Brandon Howell. Glenn Miller. Mark Bettger. Bandcamp
Kevian Kraemer
Carried by breezy waves of live instrumentation, buoyant production, and instantly infectious choruses, Kevian Kraemer’s music sounds a lot like an endless summer. His bright mix of alternative, indie, and pop alternates between the kind of excitement usually brought on by June’s final school bell, sparks of energy perfect for a July night sky, and a fleeting longing typically reserved for August’s last days. Growing up in New Jersey, music surrounded him from every angle. Taking drum lessons at Lakehouse Music Academy in Asbury Park, NJ, he recognized his calling. His arsenal expanded to include piano, saxophone, bass, and ukulele. In high school, he finally opted to write and record original tunes of his own on GarageBand. He initially gained traction with releases such as “Rug,” “Sweater,” and “Buddy.” In 2024, a snippet of “Fly” went viral on TikTok, leading to over 2M global streams. 2024 also saw the release of Kraemer’s debut EP, Seventeen, highlighted by his breakthrough hit single, “Attention,” which quickly amassed more than 15M worldwide streams and counting. Kraemer further continued the momentum in 2025 with the release of his sophomore EP, Jersey or Mars, and a sold-out debut headline tour—catching the attention of outlets like PEOPLE, which touted him as one of its “Talented Emerging Artists for Your Fall Playlist.”Now, with his recent single, “i just get worse,” and upcoming EP, only if it matters, Kevian Kraemer shows no sign of slowing down, captivating fans everywhere with an undeniable and unshakable style all his own. Website
MAKE Album Release Show
MAKE have been haunting the central NC music scene since 2008, when Scott Endres and Spencer Lee began collaborating on thematic psychedelic noise-sludge. Drawing on themes of isolation, loss, hope, absurdism, and cataclysm, what started as a space-doom project has since evolved into something far more varied and expressive. During that time the band has been a signficant presence in the North Carolina music scene, performing on diverse lineups from Bull City Metal Fest to Hopscotch Music Festival, and touring with acts ranging from Crowhurst (Philadelphia harsh noise) to Dragged into Sunlight and Primitive Man. In 2016, MAKE joined forces with Accident Prone Records for the release of “Pilgrimage of Loathing,” and are thrilled to continue that collaboration with, “Exegesis at the End of Time”. MAKE’s fourth LP sees the band welcoming John Crouch and Aaron Smiithers as co-conspirators, making them a four-piece for the first time since their first EP (2010) and expanding the band’s cacophonous palate. On this album, the band have combined a diversity of influences in building both the music and the concept for the record. Droning repetition, angular noise rock, and massive sludge riffs combine to underpin literary themes spanning Pynchon and DeBord to Borges and McCarthy, forging a warning: The order that rules our world represents a cosmic violence that will destroy us if we don’t conquer it. Website · Bandcamp
WXYC Presents Give Me the Aughts: A 2000’s Dance
$5 w/ OneCard, $8 without.Buy tickets online, or pay at the door.
The Kilans
