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The Traditional Artist Directory, located on the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area website, blueridgeheritage.com serves as a vehicle to promote artists found along the Blue Ridge Music Trails of NC. This week we want to introduce you to Michael Reno Harrell. Just seeing Michael Reno Harrell would be hard to forget. His trademark long, white hair and glasses cut a striking figure. But for those able to enjoy a performance of the “songs he makes up and yarns he spins,” Michael is unforgettable.

You know Travis as the bassist and co-singer in The Infamous Stringdusters…. Here’s a very different side of his music! The journey to Book's first solo album began when he invited his fellow Brevard area friends Jeff Sipe (Aquarium Rescue Unit), Mike Ashworth (Steep Canyon Rangers), and Tommy Maher (Fireside Collective) for a casual collaboration during one of his weekly pandemic-era gigs, “The Travis Book Happy Hour”. “…I’d cultivated a weekly gig and played with everyone I could, in every style I could. From some of those sessions emerged a theme and an aesthetic for a grand gesture in the form of an album.

As Brazilians head to the polls to vote for president, they're being deluged by a wave of falsehoods that echo Donald Trump's claims of a stolen election.

She’s been on nearly 200 albums, ever since her 1965 debut and four subsequent albums with the band Mother Earth. Having been absent from the studio for roughly a decade, however, she’s back with this mix of blues-flavored Americana. She has guests on here, too: “Top of my bucket list was singing with Willie (Nelson) again. No, it was singing with Charlie (Musselwhite) on harp. No, it was singing with Marcia (Ball) and Irma (Thomas) again. Top of my bucket list was all of the above.”

The trio of Joe Bellanti, Corey Kertzie and Dave Ruch met in 1983 as members of a Buffalo, New York Grateful Dead cover band called Wild Knights. Then in 2020 they pivoted to this funky organ-based trio Organ Fairchild. Their latest album is an eclectic reworking of classics by Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, and (of course) the Grateful Dead, among others. They’re tour for this new album brings them to One World Brewing in Asheville on June 20th, and the Toe Down in Green Mountain on the 21st.

You can tell by the various influences that shine through his work with his power trio that Jon Stickley has some pretty eclectic musical tastes. We'll…

Asheville/Weaverville's own Malcolm Holcombe is one of WNCW's favorite regional -- make that national -- songwriters. Darrell Scott spearheaded the…

Ketch Secor and company are back, with the vigor and passion that is certainly an Old Crow trademark! Appalachian stringband meets roots rock and even punk on this album that features a few new members, new production, and a new label (ATO). New songs address abolitionist John Brown, early-20th Century Black harmonica Country great DeFord Bailey, the new Mississippi flag, environmental desecration, and a lil’ “urban revitalization”. Also, an Asheville landmark graces the cover image!

Pharis and Jason Romero — whose old-time, country-folk, and early roots music has made them three-time JUNO Award and seven-time Canadian Folk Music Award winners — have their seventh album out as a duo. Jason plays seven different banjos on the album, and Pharis plays one gourd banjo guitar—all handmade by Jason in his shop. They were even given names reflecting their individual character and identity: Papillon, Big Blue, Clara, Birdie, Mother, Bella, Gourdo, and The Beast. The photographs them in the CD liner notes are absolutely exquisite!

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Dan Bern. And it wasn’t just the Covid pause, either, though that contributed to his absence. “In the middle of the pandemic, Jonathan Plaut (from the Boston-based band Jane’s Great Dane) suggested I come out to Connecticut and record some songs with them. I hadn’t been in a room with other musicians for over a year! Those sessions let to a second session, some months later, and eventually, Starting Over.” In addition to his music, Bern is a painter, the author of several books, and has his own podcast and internet radio station.