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The bassist for Acoustic Syndicate has this to say about his first solo album: “This record has been years—even decades—in the making, with some compositions dating as far back as 1994. It is at once a meditation on impermanence and an exploration of my motivations and influences as an artist. Seven original compositions are accompanied by a tone poem dedicated to the Voyager spacecraft. My music is animated by my immensely talented friends and collaborators including Zack Page, Steve Alford, Jacob Rodriguez, Justin Ray, Evan Martin, Tyler Housholder, Casey Driessen, Julian Dreyer, and Clay Miller.” Jay celebrates the release of this album on Friday the 12th at AyurPrana Listening Room in Asheville.

It’s the follow-up to his album Almost Proud, which we’re awfully proud to play for you! 13 great bluegrass tunes here, including tributes to icons Kenny Rogers, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley. Molly Tuttle also guests here on a song, too, and Del and his son Ronnie produced it. "I get a big feeling of accomplishment when I get a new record out," says the 85-year-old legend. "I never get tired of it."

They’ve become international stars lately, and this year they play some of the most coveted stages in the country: Colorado’s Red Rocks, L.A.’s Greek Theatre, NYC’s Madison Square Garden, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. But we still remember their 2010 debut jazz-folk CD in a two-tone cardboard sleeve, and gigs at smaller venues like the Flat Rock Music Festival and the WNCW Air Studio… They’ve always been quite the tight, collaborative band, and this time they’ve perhaps gelled even further, by writing together in drummer Mike Calabrese’s Vermont home. “In the past we’d written pieces of songs and shared them with each other and built them up from there, but we always had the space to listen and reflect in total privacy,” details singer Rachael Price. “At first it was terrifying to write together in the same room, but as soon as we got started it felt so fun. We very quickly realized, ‘Oh, we need to do this again and again.’”

We’ve got the band’s 4th studio record, courtesy of Stax/Concord/Fantasy Records. Produced by Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver, Kevin Morby) it blends both sides of Rateliff’s immense talent: emotionally potent, vivid storytelling and the rugged, R&B revivalism that has powered the band to worldwide acclaim over the past decade.

Andrew takes us in a bit of a different direction on this one, as he pays tribute to a lifelong love for mid-century, small group jazz he used to hear on the radio. Together with Ted Poor on drums, and Alan Hampton on bass – plus additional guitar from Jeff Parker and piano by Larry Goldings – Sunday Morning Put-On finds Andrew Bird paying direct homage to Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rodgers & Hart, and others. Andrew Bird plays Rabbit Rabbit in Asheville on July 18th, along with Nickel Creek and Mike Viola.

We’ve come to expect greatness with every release from the soul/jazz/R&B label Colemine Records. This one is certainly no exception, due to the trio of guitarist Jimmy James (Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio), organist Adam Scone (The Sugarman 3), and drummer Tim Carman (GA-20.) Eleven tracks, ten originals, two sides. All killer, no filler, recorded straight onto a Tascam 388 tape machine. Out on July 19th, and featured here beforehand on WNCW!

“People are like, every time, ‘What’s a $10 cowboy?’ I’m like, well, a $10 cowboy is a guy that learned how to do all this … standing behind a guitar on a Louisiana street corner, on South Congress in Austin, and subway cars in New York and the BART Rail in San Francisco.” Yep, the man we might credit the most with restoring that genuine classic country sound we love, used to be a street busker, and now has his 13th studio album in nine years. No Depression magazine describes him as “a cross between Hank Williams, a low-key carnival announcer, and the Coen brothers’ Buster Scruggs.”

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.

In the height of lockdown in 2020, banjo extraordinaire Tony Trischka received a mysterious package in his mailbox that would significantly change his next few years. Its contents: an USB drive full of rare recordings of Earl Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, mostly taken from private gatherings at Earl’s house during the 80s and 90s. Naturally, Trischka began pouring over the more than 200 songs, transcribing the all-new solos, tones, and tricks from the man he’d been studying for over half a century. Now we have this new album, filled with wonderful collaborations from other artists including Del McCoury, Billy Strings, Sierra Ferrell, Molly Tuttle, and the Gibson Brothers.

We first met her thanks to her work in the trio the Stray Birds, but lately she’s been channeling her muse(s) in different directions, with various solo projects. “I’m not just making different music now. It feels like I'm breathing in a different atmosphere.” Get to know her latest, which will be released on July 12th. She’s bringing her band to Studio B this Friday at 11am! And their shows are at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte on Thursday, the Grey Eagle in Asheville on Friday, and Rogers Park for the Summer Tracks series in Tryon on Friday the 21st.