Tan & Sober Gentlemen, Driftwood
Born and raised in North Carolina, the Tan and Sober Gentlemen began taking the songs, stories, and tunes that make up their beloved state’s musical tradition before they could talk. The music of the Carolinas, (and Appalachia in general) stems from the marriage of the Irish fiddle and the African banjo, which first met in the American South before the Revolution. The Tan and Sober Gentlemen aim to bring these traditions full circle. They play Irish tunes, ballads, and pub songs right next to the Appalachian fiddle tunes of their youth, melding the two into what they call “Irish-American hillbilly music.” Meanwhile, they have earned a reputation as one of the South’s hardest-hitting live acts, playing at blazing tempos, and putting every last bit of energy they possess into the show. The result is a raucous celebration of the Carolinas’ Irish heritage, with drinking, dancing, and merriment galore. Since their formation in 2017, the six-piece band has toured the US and Ireland, headlining legendary Irish clubs such as Whelan’s and the Roisin Dubh. Stateside, their resume includes festivals such as Bristol Rhythm and Roots, Appaloosa Festival, Tartan Day South, and Shakori Hills. In January of 2023, in their home of Alamance County, they sold 800 tickets to their show at the Haw River Ballroom. They released their sophomore record, Regressive Folk Music, in June 2022, and their debut record, Veracity, was named by Shite’n’Onions as one of the five best Celtic punk records of 2019 and 2020. Facebook | Instagram | YouTube Music has guided Driftwood to hallowed ground many times since its founding members, Joe Kollar and Dan Forsyth, started making music as high schoolers in Joe’s parents’ basement. Whether the Upstate New York folk rock group—which today also includes violinist Claire Byrne, bassist Joey Arcuri, and drummer Sam Fishman—are converting new fans on a hardscrabble tour across the country or playing to a devoted crowd at hero Levon Helm’s Woodstock barn, the band’s shapeshifting approach to folk music continues to break new ground. And yet in many ways Driftwood’s latest work, the transformative December Last Call, finds the group coming home. Recorded in that very same basement where the Driftwood dream began, December Last Call lyrically reflects on the recent past, musing on the ways the group grew up, together and apart, through curveballs like new parenthood or pandemic shutdowns. But sonically, the band’s sixth album looks confidently to the future, experimenting with new sounds while staying true to the bluegrass roots that built them. Across the album’s nine tracks, the band often leans into hard-rocking electric guitars and driving percussion: On “Every Which Way But Loose,” we get a foot-tapping beat and a sweeping chorus, and on “Up All Night Blues,” the band shines with an ambling, sing-along-able reflection on the challenges of new motherhood. But other tracks, like standout closer “Stardust,” take a simpler route, allowing bare-bones vocals and acoustic instrumentals to underpin a deeper emotional message. Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Soundcloud
Paul McDonald & the Mourning Doves
Paul McDonald’s voice is immediately recognizable and impossible to ignore. Often compared to legends like Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan, the poetic story-driven narratives and deeply catchy hooks in his music are delivered by a raspy yet refined voice reminiscent of another era that demands to be heard right now. He pulls off the rare feat of being a poet, visual artist, songwriter, adamant performer, and a powerful vocalist. Paul’s hope is to spread peace, love, and unity through his music. Connection & community through song. He’s currently writing for his next album and planning to tour extensively in 2024. Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Back to Back to Black: the Amy Winehouse Celebration
back to BACK TO BLACK: the AMY WINEHOUSE celebration is an exciting dedication to the life and music of AMY WINEHOUSE with a 12-piece band and revival of the entire 2006 Grammy Award-winning album BACK TO BLACK in its entirety, plus many other Amy selections. Including the hits “Tears Dry On Their Own”, “Rehab”, “Love is a Losing Game”, “You Know I’m No Good”, and many more, the show features a horn section, several vocalists, and musicians from many notable touring acts, making it the only revue of its kind in the US celebrating the music of Amy Winehouse, as noted and celebrated by ROLLING STONE Magazine. The evening is hosted and presented by acclaimed entertainer Remember Jones, who has shared stages with Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Spector, Dionne Warwick, Darlene Love, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, and many more. Website | Instagram | Remember Jones Instagram
Them Coulee Boys
Soren Staff and Beau Janke—co-founders of folk/rock/Americana outfit Them Coulee Boys—met as camp counselors in northern Wisconsin in 2011. Their weekend workshopping of Avett Brothers and classic country tunes led to original songs and adding Soren’s brother Jens on mandolin. As the years grew, the band turned into a more rollicking outfit, adding Neil Krause on electric bass and Stas Hable on drums. The band’s name is a nod to the glacial melt-carved river valleys they call home, known by early French fur trappers as coulees. Known for wild swings of emotion during sets, it is not unusual to see fans in tears and minutes later dancing with abandon. The honesty and ability to talk and sing about the feelings and emotions that shape them has endeared them to a growing group of fans and friends. With four full-length albums and an EP behind them, including 2019’s Die Happy (produced by Trampled By Turtles’ Dave Simonett on Lo-Hi Records) and 2021’s Namesake, the band has garnered international attention and earned press in American Songwriter, Ditty TV, Folk Alley, and The Bluegrass Situation. 2025 marks the release of a new album, No Fun In The Chrysalis, an expansive new collection that finds the band picking up where their 2021 release, Namesake, left off. The band’s co-founder, Soren Staff, wrote about his ongoing struggles with self-worth and anxiety on “I Am Not Sad,” the first single from the album. The band is once again working with Grammy-winning producer Brian Joseph (Sufjan Stevens, Humbird, Bon Iver), whose production on Namesake shepherded the band beyond their folk-grass, Americana roots to “go electric.” No Fun In The Chrysalis was recorded at The Hive in the band’s hometown of Eau Claire. The album has a warm, comfortable sound that is both intimate, and celebratory. Them Coulee Boys have built a loyal live following through their own relentless touring and as support for Trampled by Turtles (Dave Simonett produced 2019’s Die Happy), Los Lobos, Old Crow Medicine Show and Band of Heathens. Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
bodie – Murder My Ego Tour
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Jimmy Eat World
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Beth Stelling
This is a seated show. Beth Stelling is a comedian, writer and actress based in Los Angeles. Her new Netflix special “If You Didn’t Want Me Then” topped every ‘Best of 2023’ list. Her half-hour special is also on Netflix in the first season of The Standups. Conan O’Brien produced Beth’s previous hour special for HBO Max called “Girl Daddy.” Beth has been a writer for the following television series: Rick and Morty, Strange Planet, The Last O.G., I Love You America with Sarah Silverman, Another Period and Crashing on HBO. She’s a sought-after punch-up writer for feature films following her success as an on-set writer for the Universal hit, Good Boys. She has guest starred on Amazon’s Red Oaks, Corporate on Comedy Central, and she played Ms. Fish on the Peacock comedy Rutherford Falls. Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube
Melissa Carper
“I don’t think you can get this sound unless it’s borned in ya,” said bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, when asked about what he called “old-time mountain music.” When Melissa Carper heard those words, something jumped inside her. While staying in the country with a friend, she found an old DVD of Down From the Mountain, the documentary and concert film of the “O, Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack that featured this particular Stanley interview. She immediately jotted down “borned in ya” on a piece of paper. “I knew I had to write that song,” she recalls. In the Spring of 2023, Carper went back to East Nashville’s Bomb Shelter – the same “analog wonderland” where she’d recorded Ramblin’ Soul and its predecessor, Daddy’s Country Gold, and enlisted the help of her trusted co-producers – Dennis Crouch and Andrija Tokic. “Borned In Ya” would become the title track of the new album, out July 19th via Mae Music/Thirty Tigers. Like much of her writing, the song applies a homespun sensibility – and a bit of humor – to questions about life’s journeys. “I was turning over in my mind what it means to have something ‘borned in ya’,” she said. “The song evolved as I was writing it to be more about having your soul ‘borned it ya,’ and the more life experience you have, you hopefully grow to embody the highest version of yourself that you can be.” “Borned In Ya” could certainly stand as a reflection on Carper’s life in music. “Authentic” might be an overused word to describe an artist’s appeal, but there’s something so natural and true about Carper’s musicality that she must have been born with it: An easy sway to her singing, a precise, but laid back sense of timing. A feel. And, lyrically, she has an instinctive sense for storytelling, both observant and intuitive. As with the message of “Borned In Ya,” these traits have been sharpened by life experiences – including early music influences and the many turns of her career as a performer. Carper, born into a music-loving family, was raised on roots music, immersing herself in a family record collection that featured Hank Williams Sr., Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and more. The public school music curriculum in her home state of Nebraska gave Carper an opportunity to learn upright bass. “I remember wanting to play bass, to play the biggest string instrument, “ she recalls. Carper performed in her school orchestra – and also in her family’s country band. Led by her mother, the group played a mix of classics and the new country of the 80’s, but it was the old stuff that stuck with the young bassist. Along the way, Carper’s father gave her a collection of Jimmie Rodgers recordings, which made a defining impact. “He combined country and blues and jazz,” she recalls. “All of those elements, and the rawness of those recordings…I can’t quite put a finger on it, but I was obsessed.” Carper earned a music scholarship to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. College didn’t quite take, but while there, she spent hours in the music library, drawn to jazz vocalists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, and she discovered seminal blues artist Lead Belly. Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
WXYC Presents: Forget Him – It’s Valen-time to Dance
WXYC Presents… Forget Him – It’s Valen-time to Dance $5 with UNC One Card, $8 without
Wyatt Easterling, Rod Abernethy
This is a seated show. Wyatt Easterling has always considered himself primarily a songwriter. Nevertheless, his experience in the music industry began long before he began recording on his own. He served as Chief of A&R for Atlantic Record’s Nashville division, and in that role, he signed such artists such as Tracy Lawrence, Michael Johnson, Neal McCoy, and John Michael Montgomery, and co-produced the latter’s multi-platinum debut album, Life’s A Dance. He then partnered with Miles Copeland, and helped found the Nashville Division of Bugle Publishing Group and Firstars Management. After leaving the company, Wyatt decided it was time to focus on his own songwriting efforts. He signed with DreamWorks Publishing before establishing his own publishing company, Terra Nova Music, which employed eight staff writers. He found his own success by writing “Modern Day Drifter” for Dierks Bentley), “Life’s So Funny” for Joe Diffie, and “This Time I’m Taking My Time” for Neal McCoy to name a few. Wyatt’s current plan is to record a series of singles that will eventually be compiled into an album. A self-proclaimed “studio dog” at heart, Wyatt continues to produce two or three albums a year for his various clients. He also hosts his “Song Travelers Songwriting Retreat,” an event he initiated in 2014. The next retreat will be held in North East, Maryland from October 30 thru November 3 , 2025. Now living in North Carolina, Wyatt is putting more focus on performing. “I truly love giving a live performance.,” he says. “If I’m having a good time, that gives the audience permission to have fun too. Ya gotta love that!” Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify Rod Abernethy is a unique blend of an authentic southern folk troubadour, master acoustic guitarist, and award winning songwriter and composer for film, TV and video games and the Overall Grand Prize Winner of the 2021 International Acoustic Music Awards. In 2019 he was the Grand Prize winner of American Songwriter’s Bob Dylan Song Contest. His last album Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore, produced by Grammy nominated producer Neilson Hubbard (Mary Gauthier, Kim Richey, Glen Phillips), received rave reviews from No Depression, American Highways and The Wall Street Journal and was the Top 20 CD of 2021 at No. 11 on the Folk International Folk Charts. Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
