Krooked Kings
In a world where authenticity is often sacrificed, Krooked Kings stand as a beacon of unabashed vulnerability and raw emotion. Their indie rock sound is a candid reflection of their influences, drawing from the ornate and biting guitar arrangements of The Strokes, the introspective depth of Bon Iver, and the easygoing charm of Peach Pit. But while these inspirations shape their musical foundation, it’s the band’s own narrative that sets them apart. At the heart of Krooked Kings’ music is a brutally honest portrayal of the twenty-something experience in America—capturing the restlessness, dreams, and disillusionments of a generation navigating the complexities of modern life. Their lyrics resonate with the tumultuous yet exhilarating journey of coming of age, making each song a poignant and relatable exploration of life’s ups and downs. Krooked Kings burst onto the scene with a fervor that quickly captivated audiences across Europe and North America, culminating in a debut tour that left an indelible mark on their fans. Their ability to connect on a profound level is evident not just in their packed shows but also in their impressive digital footprint. With over 70 million streams on their albums, their music has reverberated across the globe, cementing their status as a rising force in indie rock. Their presence isn’t just isolated to the realm of underground fans and loyal listeners, having gained critical acclaim and placements on some of Spotify’s most sought after playlists in the genre including “Today’s Indie Rock”, “Feel Good Indie Rock”, “Marrow”, and many more. With their fearless approach to songwriting and an ever-expanding fanbase, they’re poised to redefine the boundaries of indie rock and make their mark on the world stage. Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Knock on Wood – A Stax Records Tribute
This is a seated show. With Special Guests Steve Eisenstadt, Armand Lenchek, Thee Tim Smith, Lance White, Cyril Lance, Willie Painter, Whiskey Honeys, Rob Sharer, Kimmie Wilson, Glenn Jones, Emma Davis, Sara Lafone, Rebecca Newton, Nancy Middleton, Carter Minor, Michelle Belanger, Todd Jones, Alison Jones, Becky Lenchek, Julia Vo, Doug Guild, Teeyum Smith, David Shore, Mike Rosado, Larry Duckworth, Hugh Crumley, Kris Whitenack, Greg Bell, Rick Keena, Alan Wilson, Luis Rodriguez, Jeremy Boomhower, Arch Altman, Tom Anderson, Anastasia Maddox, Peter Holsapple, Bob Northcott
Iron & Wine
With Improvement Movement Iron & Wine is the musical project of singer-songwriter Sam Beam. Born and raised in South Carolina, Beam is a former film professor who got his start making home recordings before landing on Sub Pop Records. Iron & Wine’s 2002 debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle garnered both critical and popular acclaim, vaulting Beam into the spotlight of the burgeoning indie-folk/Americana scene as one of its new and leading voices. For over 20 years, Iron & Wine has captured the emotion and imagination of listeners with distinctly cinematic songs. His recorded output includes seven full-length studio records, collaborations with Calexico, Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), and Jesca Hoop, countless EP’s, singles and compilation/soundtrack appearances, a live concert documentary, and five GRAMMY nominations. Iron & Wine’s latest record, Light Verse was released in April 2024 with Paste Magazine noting “… Beam returns with an expanded sonic palette while also rekindling the bright spark that made 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog so magical.” Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify
Iron & Wine
With Improvement Movement Iron & Wine is the musical project of singer-songwriter Sam Beam. Born and raised in South Carolina, Beam is a former film professor who got his start making home recordings before landing on Sub Pop Records. Iron & Wine’s 2002 debut, The Creek Drank the Cradle garnered both critical and popular acclaim, vaulting Beam into the spotlight of the burgeoning indie-folk/Americana scene as one of its new and leading voices. For over 20 years, Iron & Wine has captured the emotion and imagination of listeners with distinctly cinematic songs. His recorded output includes seven full-length studio records, collaborations with Calexico, Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), and Jesca Hoop, countless EP’s, singles and compilation/soundtrack appearances, a live concert documentary, and five GRAMMY nominations. Iron & Wine’s latest record, Light Verse was released in April 2024 with Paste Magazine noting “… Beam returns with an expanded sonic palette while also rekindling the bright spark that made 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog so magical.” Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify
Fancy Gap, Lua Flora
Fancy Gap is a duo formed by Stuart McLamb (The Love Language) and Charles Crossingham, whose musical bond was forged during the pandemic in a mountain cabin in Fancy Gap, Virginia. Blending elements of country, pop, and classic rock, their sound draws from a wide range of influences, from ‘90s radio rock to timeless Americana. Their music captures the raw emotion of love, loss, and life’s fleeting moments, often with a nostalgic, free-spirited vibe. With an authentic, hands-on approach to songwriting and recording, Fancy Gap’s chemistry shines through in every note, inviting listeners on a heartfelt journey. Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Spotify Creating in a state of constant adventure, Asheville, NC-based Lua Flora has successfully unified sounds that typically don’t go together. Led by the expressive and intentional pen of songwriter Evan Button, the “roots pop” act seamlessly blends Americana, pop, and indie folk with the rhythmic undercurrents of Caribbean and West African traditions, crafting songs that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant. Taking the show from backyard parties to national stages, Lua Flora has supported artists like Satsang, Franc Moody, Arise Roots, and more, while appearing at festivals such as FloydFest, Rooster Walk, and Shakori Hills. Further cementing their reputation as a rising force in contemporary songwriting, Lua Flora recently released a collaborative single with singer-songwriter Brett Dennen, marking a milestone moment that underscores the project’s heart-first approach and growing influence in the modern folk landscape. “The musical embodiment of Asheville’s creative spirit” -Face The Current”…easy and melodic — a light, laidback recluse from the grind.” -Top Shelf Music Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube
Big Star Quintet – Celebrates Five Decades of the Influential Band’s Legacy
Featuring Big Star’s Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Chris Stamey (the dB’s), Jon Auer (Big Star/The Posies), and Pat Sansone (Wilco) After many years celebrating the music of Big Star via the collective known as Big Star’s Third, Jody Stephens (the last surviving member of the original Big Star lineup) had an idea. “I truly loved touring the world and performing Big Star’s Third with a core group, a variety of special guests, and a chamber orchestra playing the beautiful orchestrations created by Carl Marsh and Chris Stamey. But when the idea of celebrating the 50th anniversary of #1 Record came up, it was time to pare the production down to a five- piece rock band. So I called a few close and like-spirited musical friends.” Enter some of the legendary group’s biggest fans, who have long been associated with Big Star and related projects. The band now includes Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Jon Auer (The Posies), Pat Sansone (Wilco), Chris Stamey (The dB’s) and Stephens. Dubbing themselves the Big Star Quintet, it’s a lineup that is both personal and close in spirit to #1 Record and Radio City. When the newly-minted Quintet gathered at R.E.M.’s rehearsal spot in November of 2022 to commune with the music and workshop as a five-piece for the first time, none of them could have foreseen the rapturous receptions they would receive over the next few years: sold-out shows in the US, playing abroad (including two tours of Spain), both #1 Record and Radio City 50th-anniversary tours, and stellar reviews of their live shows in Uncut, The San Francisco Gate, and beyond. To call the members of the Quintet versatile would be something of an understatement. All five take turns singing lead and harmony vocals and deftly fill the different musical chairs required to accurately perform the multi-faceted Big Star catalog. Stephens shines just as brightly singing at the front of the stage on numbers like “Thirteen,” “Blue Moon,” and “Way Out West” as he does propelling the group behind the drum kit with visceral grace. Now a well-oiled and well-traveled outfit, the Quintet’s unabashedly high-energy band vibe and mutual appreciation on stage is the way to experience the essence of Big Star’s music live. That said, it’s more than just the songs and sounds that the five musicians share in common. “Playing Big Star’s music with Mike, Pat, Jon, and Chris is a joy,” says Stephens. “We travel together as friends and have so much fun with this music and with our audiences. ABOUT THE BIG STAR QUINTET LIVE: “The enthusiasm of the five-piece was evident [at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass] in [San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park] as they seamlessly swapped instruments and vocal duties…at the conclusion of each song, the group grinned at one another like they shared a secret.”—The San Francisco Gate “The band treat the material with an enthused respect, like kids with golden tickets to a musical chocolate factory…the four-part harmonies gel like family, as if from a lifetime’s practice.”—Uncut
Wallice
In April 2023, Wallice found herself on stages in arenas full of strangers. The Los Angeles songwriter was on the other side of the world, playing shows to 10,000 or more people who had, in many cases, been standing in line for days to see their favorite band, The 1975. Wallice was the opener, playing the biggest shows of her life to crowds that mostly didn’t know her name. It was a thrill, of course, but there was dejection to it, too, to staring out at front rows of blank faces, struggling with the sleeplessness of a few days spent in line. So Wallice did what songwriters do: She turned the uncanny experience into “The Opener,” the six-minute gambit of her first LP, The Jester. As the track moves from tender ballad to defiant rocker, she considers all the bad things she might say about her own art — a Radiohead rip-off, too innocent, too determined — and moves forward, anyway. “Gonna get what I deserve/I’m still the opener,” she roars in the final seconds, balancing future hopes with present conditions across a razor wire of howling guitars. This push and pull between expectation and actuality animate much of The Jester, Wallice’s ultra-dynamic and charged 14-song debut. Though Wallice has been writing songs since she was a preteen playing cello and releasing them for almost as long, her career took shape during the last four years, when a series of singles and EPs suggested her as a new chronicler of early adulthood’s struggles and delights. Written while living with her mom and working in the eyelash extension business, that music — Wallice, 26, says now — was about coming of age. Now with a place of her own and a decade-long relationship, Wallice is making music that reckons with age and reality, that learns to find joy and meaning not in the life you wanted but in the life you have. As it pivots from soft acoustic waltzes to fluorescent electronic bounces, from warped piano drifts to unabashed rock anthems, The Jester holds fast to that thread: gratitude for what you’ve got and hope for what might yet come. A year before those shows across the globe, Wallice returned from her first substantial tour with similar questions about her path forward. Having first found widespread attention online, she struggled with the novel notion of putting on a show each night, of performing for a crowd no matter what else was happening. On April 1, 2022, during their first writing session together, she told Ethan Gruska & her longtime collaborator Marinelli about those feelings; together, they stumbled upon the concept of “The Jester,” or about sometimes having to mask what’s inside for the sake of entertainment. They hatched the first half of “Heaven Has to Happen,” a confession about suffering from imposter syndrome even while you’re living your dream. “How many more jokes can I make before the wool gets pulled out from over my eyes?” Wallice sings just before a brief, mid-song outburst of distorted bass. For the better part of two years, that’s where Wallice and Gruska left the track. Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok | Soundcloud | Spotify
Gatlin
Even when you try to outrun it, the past has a way of slithering out of the shadows and coiling up over your shoulders. Gatlin Thornton had long since left behind the conservative, religious upbringing in the American south and was living her life on her own terms as a young queer woman—but then there it was, inescapable. In combing through old memories, Gatlin unlocked something in her creative process. She had been writing and releasing music since high school, but actually wading through time and re-experiencing all those strong feelings helped catalyze what would become her debut album as Gatlin, The Eldest Daughter (due October TK). The result is a set of songs about rejecting the path laid at your feet and needing to build your own way forward, a record that both embraces nostalgia and knows its inherent pain. Gatlin spent her early years in Florida, fully entrenched in her conservative Christian private schooling—but her parents encouraged music as an outlet, where she excelled in guitar, piano, and singing. When it came time to start college, Gatlin had already begun bristling at the strictures of her upbringing and questioning how her burgeoning queer feelings would impact that life. She struck out to study songwriting, but after two years instead decided to drop out and work full-time in the heart of the music industry—first for a stint in Nashville, and then relocating to her current home in Los Angeles, while adding in frequent trips to London to collaborate with songwriters and producers. It was while packing for one of her trips to London when the past first caught up with Gatlin via an old journal she’d stumbled upon. In one entry, she detailed her first realization that she was having feelings for a girl: “If she was a boy I’d be in love.” Gatlin had been amassing tracks full of clever lyricism and grand emotionality inspired by her new life, but that elegantly simple phrase brought a new depth and intensity to Gatlin’s songwriting on lead single “If She Was a Boy.” Not only was she able to recapture some of the most intense memories and feelings of her life, but to also then take those forward and see her fulfilled present and hopeful future in a whole new light. Co-written with Chloe Kraemer and Amanda Cy, the track opens on a shimmering rhythm section and a slinky synth progression, Gatlin quickly pulls her youthful self forward—the naive lines delivered with a healthy dose of sensual romance. “I’m too afraid of what you think and who’s above/ But if she was a boy/ I’d be in love/ I’d be in love,” she sings, the song recounting a time of tragic distance from one’s heart but also somehow dizzy with potential. “Writing this song in a room in the middle of London with two other queer women was incredible,” Gatlin explains. “It’s not often I’ve gotten to make a track with all women, and I’m addicted to that energy.” The Eldest Daughter brims with contributions from other talented women, including Jennifer Decilveo (writer and producer for the likes of Miley Cyrus, Lucius, and Hozier), singer-songwriter Liza Owen, and indie rocker Tessa Mouzourakis of English duo Tommy Lefroy. But at its core the album is truly a statement of Gatlin carving her own path and taking control of her narrative, both musically and philosophically. Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify
Never Ending Fall
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Clover County
Clover County grew up under the sweet orange blossoms and the spiky palms of sunny Central Florida. She began songwriting at the age of 13, teaching herself to play from her dad’s collection of 1980’s songbooks. She drew inspiration from documentaries and interviews with influential women in music, such as Stevie Nicks, Carol King, Taylor Swift, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dolly Parton. The name “Clover County”, is a tribute to all the places she’s called home. After moving from Orlando to Denver, Atlanta to Birmingham, to Athens, Clover grew tired of seeking a sense of home and relying on the next city to be the “lucky one” where things would fall into place. “Clover County” represents a state of mind, no matter where you’re planted you have the choice to grow. With every open mic and backyard show, the Clover County following rapidly expanded, despite no official music releases or means to afford recording. Clover turned this to her advantage, performing weekly in Athens, building her audience the old-fashioned way. Website | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify
