Amy Ray Band
The tenth solo effort from Amy Ray, If It All Goes South is an album born from deep devotion to creating music that strengthens the soul. Over the course of 10 gracefully crafted and galvanizing tracks, the Georgia-bred musician reflects on our collective history and shares her vision for a better future, threading every song with both intensely personal storytelling and clear-eyed observation. Recorded live to tape at Nashville’s Sound Emporium and mixed to tape by Tedeschi Trucks Band sound engineer Bobby Tis, the album owes much of its freewheeling vitality to the potent chemistry between Ray and her longtime bandmates (including guitarist Jeff Fielder, a Seattle-based musician known for his work with artists like Mark Lanegan) as well as such esteemed guests as Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, The Highwomen’s Natalie Hemby, I’m With Her, and more.In keeping with the spirited eclecticism that’s always defined Ray’s work (the cathartic punk of her 2001 solo debut Stag, the finespun country of 2014’s Goodnight Tender), If It All Goes South encompasses everything from gospel to punkabilly to folk, each handled with equal parts unruly ingenuity and extraordinary precision. Mainly produced by her frequent collaborator Brian Speiser, the album brings that unbridled sound to Ray’s nuanced exploration of matters both emotional (loss, family life, the work of living with joyful intention in endlessly chaotic times) and political (the climate crisis, racial equity, homophobia’s poisonous impact). Rooted in the warmly incisive songwriting Ray has long brought to her role as co-founder of Indigo Girls—the seminal folk duo now in their fifth decade—If It All Goes South ultimately provides the kind of forward-thinking perspective needed to carry on with purpose, hope, and irrepressible joy.Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
School of Rock Chapel Hill’s Winter Showcase (Part 1)
12:30 – DOORS1:00 – THE ROLLING STONES’ EXILE ON MAIN STREET2:15 – BEST OF BLACK SABBATH & OZZY OSBOURNE3:30 – LADY GAGA VS. MADONNAWebsite | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | RSVP
School of Rock Chapel Hill’s Winter Showcase (Part 2)
12:30 – DOORS1:00 – BEST OF PETER GABRIEL / EARLY GENESIS2:15 – BEST OF PEARL JAM & SOUNDGARDEN3:30 – BEST OF MY CHEMICAL ROMANCEWebsite | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | RSVP
Riverside
Limited Seating Available. Throughout over 20 years, this Warsaw-based Polish band have released seven studio, a few live, and two mini albums. Their music, inspired by Pink Floyd, Rush and Porcupine Tree, has evolved towards their own characteristic, recognisable style. Riverside’s eighth studio album called “ID.Entity” will be out on January 20th, 2023.”Before we started working on the new album, I asked myself a few questions,” says Mariusz Duda, the leader of the band. “Some personal ones, some about the current times, but most of all, questions about the band, for instance, ‘What is our strongest suit?’ There were two answers: ‘Melodies and… live performances!’ ‘What is the most comfortable setting for Riverside?’ Again, the answer was pretty obvious: ‘the stage’. Ironically, we haven’t really spoilt our fans with live releases, so I thought perhaps it was time to record a studio album which would musically reflect the character and dynamic of our live shows. Especially that we really wanted to say goodbye to the decade of sadness and melancholy, which dominated our recent releases.”What will Riverside’s most live studio album sound like… live? Let’s get ready for double impact in February!Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Eliza McLamb
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Cosmic Charlie – High Energy Grateful Dead from Athens, GA
“Cosmic Charlie really is a great band – these guys do this music the way it should be done: having the conversation in their own voices.” -David Gans, Grateful Dead archivistCosmic Charlie was born in the musical Mecca of Athens, Georgia. From its summer 1999 inception, the band swiftly cemented its reputation as a band that puts a unique and personal twist on the Grateful Dead catalogue, a Dead cover band for folks that are ambivalent about Dead cover bands. Rather than mimicking the Dead exactly, Cosmic Charlie chooses to tap into the Dead’s energy and style as a foundation on which to build. The result is healthy balance of creativity and tradition, and both the band and its audience are taken to that familiar edge with the sense that, music is actually being MADE here tonight. Moving and shaking even the most skeptical of Deadheads, Cosmic Charlie storms into a town and plays with an energy that eludes other bands, an energy that sometimes eluded the Dead themselves. Those precious moments during Dead jams when the synchronicity is there and all is right with the world, these are moments that Cosmic Charlie relishes and feverishly welcomes with open arms. Clearly, Cosmic Charlie’s audiences are also eager to arrive at those moments, and together with the band, they have indulged in many memorable evenings. Website | Facebook | YouTube
Chatham County Line
Come 2021, Chatham County Line will have been a staple of the North Carolina music scene for over two decades. Embracing the heart-worn songwriting and rough-hewn voice of leader Dave Wilson the band has graced stages all across the U.S. as well as Europe, Scandinavia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. With eight studio albums of original material to pull from, CCL has a sound all their own and a stage show to match. Songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Dave Wilson pulls tunes out of an ether that is inspired by a shelf bending collection of vinyl records from the 1920’s to the 2020’s. One listen to their all covers release “Sharing the Covers” from 2019 will give you an idea of those inspirations, with songs from the likes of Wilco and Beck shared with those of John Lennon, Tom Petty and John Hartford.With the recording of 2020s Yep Roc Records release Strange Fascination the band decided to push their sound a little bit more into the modern world and embrace the use of drums both in studio and onstage. “We’ve had drums on several albums, most notably Wildwood, and our audience always responded well to those tunes” says Dave Wilson. John Teer who rotates from Mandolin to Fiddle all while singing soaring harmony adds “We’ve done an Electric Holiday Tour for the past 12 years that features an expanded group of musicians on the stage so we’re no stranger to a backbeat.”With 20 years behind and clear skies ahead, look for Dave Wilson (acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica), John Teer (mandolin, fiddle), and Greg Readling (Standup Bass, Pedal Steel) as well as North Carolina staple Dan Hall on drums to keep traveling the highways, byways and airways to share their special canon of songs with the world.Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
New Found Glory
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The Church – The Hypnogogue Album Tour
Few bands enter their fifth decade of making music with all the fierce creative energy of their early years. Few bands are like The Church.The Australian psych-guitar masters are deep into recording the band’s 25th studio album over 40 years after their formation.The 2021 epic line-up is bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey; with longtime collaborator timEbandit Powles drummer and producer across 17 albums since ’94; guitarist Ian Haug who joined the band in 2013 and Jeffrey Cain, touring multi-instrumentalist who is now a full-time member of The Church since the departure of Peter Koppes in early 2020. The band have also recently recruited one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists Ashley Naylor (Even, The Grapes). Ashley and Steve have collaborated on many different projects over the years and now was the perfect time to bring Ashley into the band. Kilbey says: “A band is like a family and over 40 years it is only natural that families will change. It’s too big a body of work not to keep exploring it.”That body of work stretches back in a continuous line to classic early albums ‘Of Skins and Heart’ and ‘The Blurred Crusade’, which revealed a distinctive soundscape of sharp pop hooks and towering guitars complementing Kilbey’s lyrics and vocal tones. The more intricate arrangements of ‘Heyday’ gave way to the wide-open atmosphere of ‘Starfish’ the 1988 album which broke into the mainstream and gave them the international hit ‘Under the Milky Way’. The hit single has been regarded as one of the most influential and recognisable Australian rock anthems of all time. Starfish also gave us ‘Reptile’, a song that never seems to date, and is a live favourite around the world.In 2010 The Church were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame and reaffirmed their status as one of the world’s great live bands with the ‘Future Past Perfect’ tour, performing their Untitled #23, Priest=Aura and Starfish albums to rapturous audiences in the US and Australia.The five-year gap after the release of Untitled #23 became the most extended break between new albums in the band’s career. Haug, formerly of Australian rock icons Powderfinger, joined after the departure of Marty Willson-Piper, sparking a renaissance with Further/Deeper (2014) and Man Woman Life Death Infinity (2017) and introducing new anthems like Miami to the set.In 2018 the band played the Meltdown Festival in London at the invitation of curator Robert Smith of The Cure. The Church went on to play sold-out shows in the UK, US, Canada and Australia celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of Starfish.VIP Meet & Greet add-on tickets available here.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Fruit Bats
Eric D. Johnson, the creative force behind Fruit Bats, doesn’t spend a lot of time looking in the rearview mirror. “Maybe it speaks to some Midwest thing,” he says. “Don’t be overly reflective or navel-gazing. And as a songwriter, you always want to be looking forward, not backward.” But with the 20th anniversary of his first Fruit Bats release (2001’s Echolocation) on his mind, it seemed as good a time as any to take stock of his work—and he’s doing so in the form of Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001–2021), a two-disc collection that tracks the history of Fruit Bats from its earliest days to right now.Thoughtfully compiled by Johnson himself, this set is split in two distinct halves. Set in reverse chronological order, the first disc cherry-picks from Fruit Bats’ official releases, including fan favorites—“Humbug Mountain Song” from 2016’s Absolute Loser and “The Bottom of It” from his 2019 Merge debut Gold Past Life—alongside some of Johnson’s more personal choices like “Glass in Your Feet” from Echolocation. “I was 25 when I made that record,” Johnson remembers. “I was even younger than that when I wrote that song. I think I hadn’t yet learned to write from the heart. I was trying to create a sound. It wasn’t even so much about the song at that point.”To emphasize both his reticence at dwelling on the past and to showcase how far he has grown as a songwriter, the first disc kicks off with a brand-new track, “Rips Me Up.” Recorded with Josh Kaufman, who helped produce Fruit Bats’ 2021 full-length The Pet Parade, the song is a soulful strutter about, as Johnson says in the liner notes for this set, how love “paralyzes and wounds us.”If the first disc of this set is “the collection that you buy for your friend that’s Fruit Bats-curious,” according to Johnson, the second disc is for longtime fans that want a deeper dive into Fruit Bats lore. To put this half of Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud together, Johnson dug into several hard drives’ worth of material. “Much of it is horribly unlistenable,” he says with a laugh. “I wouldn’t necessarily say there was a treasure trove. At least to my ears because I might be my own worst critic.”Considering the wonders that Johnson did uncover for this set, there may be a call for a further mining of the archives. Included here are lovely early versions of “Rainbow Sign” and “The Old Black Hole,” recorded to a Tascam 4-track just as Fruit Bats was becoming a reality. There’s also a rambling take on the Steve Miller Band’s classic rock mainstay “The Joker,” and some wonderful never-before-heard original tunes.For Johnson, two of the most exciting tracks are “WACS” and “When the Stars Are Out,” both recorded during the sessions for 2011’s Tripper. The former is a standout for an appearance by Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis who applies a perfect psych-soul solo to the mix. The latter features another special guest, the late, great Richard Swift on piano. “I didn’t even know Richard was on that song until I was approving the masters,” Johnson says. “This was before his production career had really taken off. You could just bring him in for a session and he would just vibe out.”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
