Name: Godspeed You! Black Emperor (NEW DATE)
Start: 2025-06-22T20:00:00
End: 2025-07-21T23:00-05:00
Location: Haw River Ballroom

This show is standing room."I've been in the game a long time, but I've always considered myself a student," says G. Love. "Finishing this album with Keb Mo' felt like graduation."Recorded in Nashville with a slew of special guests including Robert Randolph, Marcus King, and Roosevelt Collier, 'The Juice' is indeed diploma-worthy. Co-produced and co-written with GRAMMY-winning icon Keb Mo,' it's an electrifying collection, one that tips its cap to more than a century of blues greats even as it offers its own distinctly modern pop spin on the genre, mixing programmed beats and hip-hop grooves with blistering guitar and sacred steel. G. Love's lyrics are both personal and political here, artfully balancing his appreciation for the simple joys in life with his obligation to speak out for justice and equality, and his performances are suitably riotous and rousing to match, with infectious call-and-response hooks and funky sing-along choruses at every turn. Easy as it is to succumb to cynicism these days, the songs on 'The Juice' refuse, insisting instead on hope and determination in the face of doubt and despair.“I've always tried to make music that's a force for positivity," G. Love explains. "It was important to me that this album be something that could empower the folks who are out there fighting the good fight every day. I wanted to make a rallying cry for empathy and unity."Born Garrett Dutton in Philadelphia, PA, G. Love grew up equally enthralled with folk, blues, and rap, devouring everything from Lead Belly and Run D.M.C. to John Hammond and the Beastie Boys. After migrating to Boston, he and his band, Special Sauce, broke out in 1994 with their Gold-selling self-titled debut, which earned widespread critical acclaim for its bold vision and adventurous production. Over the next twenty-five years, G. Love would go on to release seven more similarly lauded studio studios albums with Special Sauce (plus four solo albums on his own), solidifying his place in music history as a genre-bending pioneer with a sound The New York Times described as "a new and urgent hybrid" and NPR called a "musical melting pot." G. Love's magnetic stage presence, meanwhile, made him a fixture on festival lineups from Bonnaroo to Lollapalooza, and his relentless appetite for tour and collaboration landed him on the road and in the studio with artists as diverse as Lucinda Williams, Dave Matthews, The Avett Brothers, Jack Johnson, and DJ Logic.While G. Love has covered considerable sonic ground during his prolific career, he's always found himself drawn back to the blues, and to one bluesman in particular."Keb Mo' and I got signed to the same label at the same time back when I first started out, and we toured together early on in my career," G. Love remembers. "He used to introduce me onstage as 'a true American original,' and I could tell that he got a kick out of what I did. We didn't see each other for a while after that, but a few years ago we reconnected and did a co-headline tour, which was really special for me."Two decades after they'd first hit the road together, the unlikely duo picked up right where they left off, and after a couple late-night jam sessions, G. Love pitched Keb Mo' on producing his next album. The pair decided to test the waters with a writing session first, teaming up with GRAMMY-winner Gary Nicholson (famed for his work with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Willie Nelson, and Ringo Starr among others) for a week in Nashville, where they penned a handful of tunes based on phrases G. Love had saved in his phone or rough demos he'd recorded at home on Cape Cod. Those tracks quickly became fan favorites on the road, and G. Love knew he was on to something special."I got wrapped up in touring and in my Jamtown project with Donovan Frankenreiter and Cicso Adler after that first session, and even though I really enjoyed working with Keb Mo' and Gary, it was a year-and-a-half before I was able to get back down to Nashville to finish writing the album with them."When it came time to record, Keb Mo' was meticulous, working closely with G. Love in the studio on nearly every aspect of his performances. While G. Love was used to creating raw, loose albums by the seat of his pants, Keb Mo' worked in a much more deliberate, methodical fashion, building songs up like a hip-hop producer. He'd create a beat on his keyboard, lay down a bass line, and then coach G. Love through the tracks sometimes line-by-line."He was always impressing on me where to place the emphasis and how to phrase my lyrics and guitar playing in relation to the beat," G. Love explains. "He'd tell me to sing like I had a shovel in my hands and I was digging on the one."The resulting mix of G. Love's idiosyncratic style and Keb Mo's old-school influence proves intoxicating on 'The Juice,' which opens with the shuffling, anthemic title track. "We got the juice / We got the love / We got the dreams / We had enough," G. Love sings, setting the stage for an album all about recognizing your power to impact the world around you in ways both big and small. The infectious "Birmingham," for instance, is an ode to perseverance when , while the funky "Go Crazy" cuts loose in the face of our maddening 24-hour news cycle, and the relentless "Shake Your Hair" rattles off a head-spinning list of modern ills before declaring "donate, don't wait, spread love don't hate.""I've never been the kind of guy who thinks he's going to change the world with his guitar," reflects G. Love. "But maybe I can write the kind of songs that give strength and encouragement to the people who are out there doing the work to make this planet a better place. Those are the people I want to lift up with my music."When G. Love sings about making the world a better place, he's not just singing about politics, though, and 'The Juice' serves as a beautiful exploration of the ways we can brighten our own little worlds and the worlds of those we care about on a daily basis. The gritty "SoulBQue" is a celebration of community and friendship, while the rootsy "She's The Rock" pays tribute to all the little ways lovers can lift each other up, and the breezy "Diggin' Roots" spins cultivating a garden into a metaphor for the importance of tending to your home and family and neighbors."I was going through a tough time in my life when I met my fiancé, but my whole world seemed to turn around after that," says G. Love. "I started meditating, we had a son, and we moved out to the Cape. That's when I stopped writing breakup songs and started writing love songs and family songs and friendship songs."Life is good for G. Love these days, and he's not taking a moment of it for granted. In fact, in just the past few years alone he's launched his own beer collaboration with Oregon's Good Life Brewery (The Juice IPA), started his own festival in Massachusetts (The Cape Cod Roots &amp; Blues Festival), and founded his own record label, Philadelphonic, which he aims to use as an outlet for curating both music and visual art (the cover of 'The Juice' features a brand new work G. Love commissioned from renowned painter Greg Haberny)."I'm more inspired right now than I've ever been before," G. Love reflects. "I feel more thoughtful, seasoned, marinated, confident. I'm making the records I've always wanted to make."Cue "Pomp and Circumstance."

G. Love and Special Sauce

This is a costume party. Wear a Renaissance costume, some other historical costume from before 1600, or pick one from our rolling costume closet.<ul><li>All state and local laws concerning alcohol and contraband will be strictly enforced, of course.<h2>Activities</h2><h3>Dancing</h3>We will be learning and doing dances of a wide range of styles and speeds so there is something for everyone.<ul><li>Bouncy dancing – got it!</li><li>Courtly, elegant dancing – got it!</li><li>Weaving through other lines of people – got it!</li><li>Spinning about to show off your fancy clothes – got it!</li></ul><h3>Singing</h3>Between dance sets, we’ll sing some fun and easy rounds from the Tudor era.<h3>Runway</h3>If you like, saunter down the catwalk in your fancy outfit.<h2>Contests</h2><h3>Costume Contest</h3>Have you put together a great outfit? Tell us about it. Separate prizes for the most authentic Tudor outfit and the cutest kid outfit.<h2>Admission</h2>$25 Adults (18+)Youth 6-17 $15Children 0-5 FREE</li></ul>5:00 PM Doors &amp; costume closet open5:30 PM Orientation for new dancers6:00 PM First dance set6:45 PM Singing rounds7:00 PM Second dance set7:45 PM Costume Runway8:00 PM Third dance set8:45 PM Closing ceremonies9:00 PM Return borrowed costumes9:30 PM Doors close

Sir Walter Raleigh Costume Ball

Super Bowl viewing party on February 9. Doors at six -show on at 6:30. Come join your neighbors and watch the Super Bowl at the Haw River Ballroom. We will have chairs out on the main floor and the game on the big screen. You’re welcome to bring food inside and we’ll have a cash bar open downstairs. No outside alcohol is allowed. Halftime Kendrick Lamar dance party!

Superbowl Watch Party

Hailing from both the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the Rangers have long held traditional bluegrass paramount, while possessing an exceptional ability to bring it down the mountain, and to incorporate accessible influence from all walks of the region. With the band’s last few albums, they have gained recognition from well beyond the world of bluegrass, earning a reputation as some of the most influential songwriters in Americana today. Newcomer to this ship, Aaron Burdett, brings a soul-stirring element to the Rangers’ mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter, and a student of folk tradition. He provides a fresh, emotional context to the songbook, which “can reach out and touch your heart or slap you in the face,” to use the praise of drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Ashworth. Steep Canyon Rangers is made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals.Over the band’s esteemed career, the three-time Grammy nominees have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and appeared on some of music’s biggest stages. In 2013, Nobody Knows You won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012’s Rare Bird and 2020’s North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category.

Steep Canyon Rangers - Night 1 of 2

Hailing from both the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the Rangers have long held traditional bluegrass paramount, while possessing an exceptional ability to bring it down the mountain, and to incorporate accessible influence from all walks of the region. With the band’s last few albums, they have gained recognition from well beyond the world of bluegrass, earning a reputation as some of the most influential songwriters in Americana today. Newcomer to this ship, Aaron Burdett, brings a soul-stirring element to the Rangers’ mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter, and a student of folk tradition. He provides a fresh, emotional context to the songbook, which “can reach out and touch your heart or slap you in the face,” to use the praise of drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Ashworth. Steep Canyon Rangers is made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals.Over the band’s esteemed career, the three-time Grammy nominees have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and appeared on some of music’s biggest stages. In 2013, Nobody Knows You won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012’s Rare Bird and 2020’s North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category.&nbsp;

Steep Canyon Rangers - Night 2 of 2

This show is standing room.Born and raised in North Carolina, the Tan and Sober Gentlemen began taking in 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 and playing the internationally renowned festival Electric Picnic. Stateside, their resume includes festivals such as the IBMA Bluegrass Live!, Bristol Rhythm and Roots, Appaloosa Festival, Great Blue Heron, and Shakori Hills. This year they will be adding Merlefest and the Blue Ox Festival to their resume as well as Fleadh Cheoil na Héireann, the world's largest annual festival of Irish music. In January of 2024, in their home of Alamance County, they sold out their show at the Haw River Ballroom recording a live album with a crowd of 800 people. 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.

The Tan and Sober Gentlemen

These are partially seated shows.There is something warm and instantly familiar about the beloved roots duo, Chatham Rabbits. Partners in music and life, Chatham Rabbits’ Austin and Sarah McCombie blend their personal histories through deft songwriting and a history that comes from building a life together. Leaning into each other's strengths, their songs present a congenial, collaborative spirit that has captured the pure adoration of fans along the way and earned them praise from Garden &amp; Gun Magazine, American Songwriter, and No Depression.&nbsp;Their artistry hinges on a fervent desire to connect with others through the music that first brought the pair together. Steeped in the regional traditions of their North Carolina home, Chatham Rabbits’ musical pursuits represent a new age of roots music. Chatham Rabbits recorded and released their beloved debut album, All I Want From You in 2019. This set the standard for their sophomore release The Yoke is Easy, The Burden is Full—the centerpiece song “Oxen” was named “Top Folk Song of 2020” by Paste Magazine. Nurtured by central North Carolina’s fertile, influential music scene, Chatham Rabbits’ sound continues to evolve in their expansive third album, If You See Me Riding By (2022), which was simultaneously released with a television series, On the Road with Chatham Rabbits, on PBS-NC. The McCombies ingenuity during the Covid-19 crisis led to the creation of their mobile concert experience, The Stay at Home Tour, which took the duo to 194 neighborhoods in 2020-21. The pair is currently recording their fourth album of poignant original songs and continuing to foster their tight-knit fan community across the US

Chatham Rabbits - 2 Night Pass - Feb 22 & 23

This is a partially seated show.There is something warm and instantly familiar about the beloved roots duo, Chatham Rabbits. Partners in music and life, Chatham Rabbits’ Austin and Sarah McCombie blend their personal histories through deft songwriting and a history that comes from building a life together. Leaning into each other's strengths, their songs present a congenial, collaborative spirit that has captured the pure adoration of fans along the way and earned them praise from Garden &amp; Gun Magazine, American Songwriter, and No Depression.&nbsp;Their artistry hinges on a fervent desire to connect with others through the music that first brought the pair together. Steeped in the regional traditions of their North Carolina home, Chatham Rabbits’ musical pursuits represent a new age of roots music. Chatham Rabbits recorded and released their beloved debut album, All I Want From You in 2019. This set the standard for their sophomore release The Yoke is Easy, The Burden is Full—the centerpiece song “Oxen” was named “Top Folk Song of 2020” by Paste Magazine. Nurtured by central North Carolina’s fertile, influential music scene, Chatham Rabbits’ sound continues to evolve in their expansive third album, If You See Me Riding By (2022), which was simultaneously released with a television series, On the Road with Chatham Rabbits, on PBS-NC. The McCombies ingenuity during the Covid-19 crisis led to the creation of their mobile concert experience, The Stay at Home Tour, which took the duo to 194 neighborhoods in 2020-21. The pair is currently recording their fourth album of poignant original songs and continuing to foster their tight-knit fan community across the US

Chatham Rabbits - Full Band - Night 1 of 2

This is a partially seated show.There is something warm and instantly familiar about the beloved roots duo, Chatham Rabbits. Partners in music and life, Chatham Rabbits’ Austin and Sarah McCombie blend their personal histories through deft songwriting and a history that comes from building a life together. Leaning into each other's strengths, their songs present a congenial, collaborative spirit that has captured the pure adoration of fans along the way and earned them praise from Garden &amp; Gun Magazine, American Songwriter, and No Depression.&nbsp;Their artistry hinges on a fervent desire to connect with others through the music that first brought the pair together. Steeped in the regional traditions of their North Carolina home, Chatham Rabbits’ musical pursuits represent a new age of roots music. Chatham Rabbits recorded and released their beloved debut album, All I Want From You in 2019. This set the standard for their sophomore release The Yoke is Easy, The Burden is Full—the centerpiece song “Oxen” was named “Top Folk Song of 2020” by Paste Magazine. Nurtured by central North Carolina’s fertile, influential music scene, Chatham Rabbits’ sound continues to evolve in their expansive third album, If You See Me Riding By (2022), which was simultaneously released with a television series, On the Road with Chatham Rabbits, on PBS-NC. The McCombies ingenuity during the Covid-19 crisis led to the creation of their mobile concert experience, The Stay at Home Tour, which took the duo to 194 neighborhoods in 2020-21. The pair is currently recording their fourth album of poignant original songs and continuing to foster their tight-knit fan community across the US.

Chatham Rabbits - Duo - Night 2 of 2

Join us for the "Disenfranchised Disco" – a gathering celebrating the voices of 60,000 voters in North Carolina whose rights have been challenged. Dance, plan, rejuvenate, make friends, and make a difference, while connecting with fellow advocates, individuals and organizations, sharing stories, and empowering each other to stand and dance! for justice. Together, we will ensure that every vote counts!

Disenfranchised Disco

Join us for Appalachian Square Dancing at the beautiful Haw River Ballroom with a caller/ instructor to the fantastic live music of Big Fat Gap! Whether you are a pro or a novice all are welcome! Professional barn dance leader Dave Dobbins will hold a lesson for all before each dance and then the stomping and whirling begins! $15 per person or $40 for a family/party of 4.

Barn Dance

Introducing SECTION4: A Music Experience Like No OtherFor the first time, SECTION4 is coming to Saxapahaw, bringing a high-energy, immersive music experience like no other. Designed to blend the intimacy of a close-knit dance floor with the excitement of a major concert, this event is all about connection, energy, and unforgettable performances.The lineup features three incredible DJs:• Nick Rosen will kick off the night at 7:00 PM with an electrifying opening set.• Gunda takes over at 8:00 PM, delivering high-energy dynamic beats to keep the energy flowing.• Mora Odona headlines at 9:00 PM, promising a high-intensity, genre-blending performance that will have everyone jumping.SECTION4 isn’t just a concert—it’s an entirely new concept for the Saxapahaw music scene. Created by Mora Odona, the event is designed to deliver a raw, unfiltered energy while fostering a deep connection between the crowd, the music, and the atmosphere. Inspired by the iconic Boiler Room format, the event focuses on an intimate yet powerful shared experience.

SECTION4

Come see the best paddling films of the year from all around the world!In partnership with our friends at the Haw River Ballroom, we will be hosting a screening of select films from the 2025 International Paddling Film Festival. These world-class short films highlight the best of the paddling community, showcasing paddlers overcoming incredible challenge and adversity while forging deep bonds with both nature and each other.But more than just watching great films, we want to take this opportunity to celebrate and share our love of paddling and our local rivers! We'll be a hosting a "River Social" event before the film screening, where attendees will have a chance to learn from organizations involved in the creation of the Haw River State Trail and protecting, maintaining and educating about the river’s natural &amp; cultural history. There will also be organizations offering paddling opportunities, teaching about river safety and rescue, and providing new and used paddling equipment and gear for sale.<h2>Ticket Prices</h2><ul><li>$18 online</li><li>$22 at the door</li><li>20% off up to 2 tickets for members of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/hawrivercanoe/items/578044/?full-items=yes&amp;flow=856120">Haw River Paddle Club</a>!</li></ul><h2>What's included</h2>Admission to a 3 hour screening of back-to-back select films from the 2025 International Film Festival, including a 20 minute intermission. Attendees will be able to vote on their favorite films, helping determine the Best Film of 2025 award winner!Admission to a 90 minute "River Social" event before the screening, bringing together people and organizations from the local paddling and river-loving community.Food and beer will be available on-site for purchase.

2025 Paddling Film Festival

Kristian Matsson has never remained in one place for very long. Having spent much of the last decade touring around the world as The Tallest Man On Earth, Matsson has captivated audiences using, as The New York Times describes, “every inch of his long guitar cord to roam the stage: darting around, crouching, stretching, hip-twitching, perching briefly and jittering away…Mr. Matsson is a guitar-slinger rooted in folk, and his songs are troubadour ballads at heart.”Then came 2020, when Matsson left New York City and returned to his farm in Sweden. There, during that quiet, dreary time of isolation, he drowned out his thoughts by manically growing vegetables in his garden. When he tried writing again, during those many months of collective forced solitude, “I just found myself commenting on the darkness,” Matsson says. “I lost my imagination.” Playing live, music and inspiration returned near the end of 2021, and his produce became less of a priority. “When I’m in motion, I can focus on my instinct, have my daydreams again. When I was finally able to tour again, I started writing like a madman.” He eventually had twenty songs he wanted to record in ten days.Now, Matsson returns as The Tallest Man On Earth with Henry St., his sixth studio album following 2012’s There’s No Leaving Now, full of “vivid imagery, clever turns-of-phrase, and devastating, world-weary observations” (Under The Radar),2015’s Dark Bird Is A Home, his “most personal record… surreal and dreamlike” (Pitchfork) and and the self-released I Love You, It’s a Fever Dream in 2019. Henry St. notably marks the first time he recorded an album in a band setting. “My entire career I’ve been a DIY person––mostly fueled by the feeling that I didn’t know what I was doing, so I’d just do everything myself.” But now, longing for the energy that’s only released when creating together with others, Matsson invited his friends to come and play.Nick Sanborn (of Sylvan Esso) produced Henry St., which includes contributions from Ryan Gustafson (of The Dead Tongues) on guitar, lap steel and ukulele, TJ Maiani on drums, CJ Camerieri (of Bon Iver) on trumpet and French horn, Phil Cook on piano and organ, Rob Moose (of Bon Iver, yMusic) on strings and Adam Schatz on saxophone. “They opened everything up, and understood what the songs that I’d written needed: sounds that I couldn’t ever have thought of or created myself. We recorded so many of the songs live in the studio, playing, having fun and being really open with each other.”An overarching theme of Henry St., he says, is “how to be a person in this world.” The title track is about the deception that, “as individuals, we’re told that we should strive for success. But when we have it, it doesn’t solve anything. The song is about stepping away and thinking: why am I actually doing this?” While writing the song back in Sweden, he knew it would be the centerpiece of the album. “It’s the low point and the turnaround: the other songs are a reminder that I will always be a stubborn optimist, even at the darkest of times.” He was about to record the track as a solo piece, until Phil Cook came in on his first day in the studio. “I had Phil basically hanging over my shoulders at the piano while we were playing, and then he recorded it. He improvised that beautiful outro. When he did, our jaws dropped––I was in tears.”“Looking for Love” is one of those songs about Matsson’s stubborn optimism, and a shining example of Sanborn’s influence on the album. “The first day in the studio, Nick created this hissing noise while I was feedbacking electric guitar. We had so much fun jamming like that. Then Nick put down some piano to overdub my guitar, and we knew we had the song.” The tone for their collaboration was set. “Nick is so emotionally intelligent, and we share an almost childlike joy in things that can happen with music. He makes the songs come truly alive by keeping the performances and the humanity in––the kind of stuff that just happens during the session.”The song “Every Little Heart,” he says, came from a feeling of fearlessness, a confidence in making music after two years of relative silence. “But of course I still have little demons inside of me. I wrote some key changes in the song that came natural to me, but I worried they might sound unnatural to others. When TJ Maiani heard it, he straightaway went into this drumbeat that shocked me a little at first, but came completely natural to him. It fit the song perfectly.”Matsson’s longing for social interchange, after months spent with only his crops, led to the collaboration that delivered the warm, unique and sprawling sound of Henry St. “It’s the most playful, most me album yet, because it covers so many of the different noises in my head. When you overthink things, you get further away from your original ideas. And God knows I overthink things when I’m by myself.” The time in isolation also brought him some newfound peace of mind. “Having been away from it taught me that making music and performing is what I’m doing for the rest of my life, and I’m so grateful for it. It has given me new confidence and playfulness. This is what I do. It’s unconditional.”

The Tallest Man on Earth

The Dip is a Seattle-based Rhythm and Blues band that is known for its poignant songwriting, detailed arrangements, and vintage sound. Featuring a three-piece horn section, the group’s music harkens back to earlier soul and funk influences while hinting at the jazz foundations that brought the band’s members together. Along with singer and guitarist Tom Eddy, bassist Mark Hunter and drummer Jarred Katz are equally at home in a tight-pocketed groove as they are spacious free-improvisation. Trumpet player Brennan Carter joined by saxophonists Evan Smith and Levi Gillis serve as the band’s melodic counterpoint, playing off Eddy’s vocals to create a distinct sonic character that has drawn in millions of listeners to date.&nbsp;'Love Direction', the follow-up to 2022’s 'Sticking With It' (which landed at #1 on the Billboard Current R&amp;B Albums Chart) is the band’s fourth full-length studio album and second for Dualtone Records, is out now. This new record is the sound of the band taking their next step forward. The interplay of old and new is on full display throughout the album; and, the group augments their classic sound with an expanded instrumentation throughout. Eddy says of the album’s inspiration: “As you get further along in a relationship, sometimes you lose your way. The things that came easily in the beginning get hard. The love is still there, it’s just that people and life are complicated. Sometimes you don’t have the tools in the toolbox to figure out what you need to do to support the other person, so you have to get help and ask for directions.”Still, despite the title, this latest record isn’t a collection of straightforward love songs, but an investigation into the different angles and challenges that relationships can bring. Expanding on the album’s theme, Eddy further notes “These aren’t ‘Love Songs’ in the most obvious sense. They deal with the middle stages, the hinterlands of love and life together - figuring someone out and what they need, learning how to communicate, and examining your own faults. We set out to write music that felt more grown, a little wiser. The songs that emerged all pointed in the Love Direction.”Their last album cycle saw the band headline and sell-out shows at iconic venues across the country. They have also had the opportunity to support new friends like Lake Street Dive and The Black Pumas, while also appearing at major festivals including Bonnaroo and Outside Lands. No strangers to the road, this new album represents a reflection on the band’s touring gravitas as well as the promise of a new destination appearing on the horizon. Directions now in hand, The Dip is looking forward to furthering this exploration into all matters of the heart by bringing this expansive and detailed new recording to life in their next travels together.

The Dip

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://bit.ly/Superbowl25HRB">This is a standing room show.</a>The New OutlawsListen: For some of us, maybe even most of us, it’s been a rough year. As I write these words,it’s mid-November in Chicago, the warmest autumn on record, and the bad news keepscoming. Family and animals and homes washed away in the rural south. A wildfire seasonthat never ends. Too much water in some places, not enough in others. Back in my homestate of Texas, pregnant people, some barely out of childhood, are dying for lack of medicalcare. And Lord have mercy if you, or someone you love, is an undocumented immigrant, orif you’re trans, queer, poor, Black, and the list goes on (and on and on). Sometimes it feelslike the whole damned world has made up its mind to destroy itself once and for all. So Ifeel it in my bones when Julien Baker sings, That it can’t get much worse depends on whoyou’re askin. Maybe you feel it, too, and maybe you could use the good company of thismuch-anticipated country album by critically acclaimed artists Julien Baker &amp; TORRES (akaMackenzie Scott).Send A Prayer My Way has been in the works for years. Imagine two young musiciansplaying their first show together at Lincoln Hall, a much-loved venue here in Chicago. It’sJanuary 15, 2016, and bone chillingly cold outside, especially for a couple of southerners.When the show is over and they’re shooting the shit, one singer says to the other, “Weshould make a country album.” This is the origin story, the stuff of legend in the world ofcountry music, and the beginning of a collaboration between two artists already admiredfor their spare, elegant lyrics as well as the courage to share their struggles with those wholove their music. It’s also the beginning of creating a work that, like the most enduringcountry albums, sustains and inspires, reminding both singer and listener that not one of usis ever totally alone in this world, that music is a steady companion. Why are you weeping?Whom are you seeking,” they sing in “No Desert Flower.” I can take more than a little rain/If the going’s tough I will not cower/And all the passing years won’t wash me away.I’ll lay my cards on the table from the get-go: Send A Prayer My Way is a damn fine country album, written and sung in the best of the outlaw tradition—defiant, subversive, working class, and determined to wrestle not only with addiction, regret and bad decisions, but alsowith oppressive systems of power. (In the best outlaw country, The Law is no friend ofyours, and neither is The Man; in TORRES and Baker’s music, neither are religiousblowhards or mothers who can’t stomach their daughter’s sexuality.) These are songs aboutwrapping up a long shift and driving home bone tired, just hoping for a little weed and aquiet place to put your feet up; or falling off the wagon (again) and wondering if this time itwill finally drag you under the wheels; or thinking that bad decisions are the only decisionsyou know how to make. If you ask how I’ve been doing I won’t lie/More than half the time I’monly skatin by/Waiting for the ice to melt beneath me, Baker sings in the opening song “Dirt,”and a few lines later, this beauty: Spend your whole life getting clean/Just to wind up in thedirt.Mercifully, this is only the beginning of the stories TORRES and Baker are determined totell. Because these are also songs about radical empathy and second chances, and thirdchances, and while there’s plenty of struggle and regret in here, there’s also humor anddefiance. In my book there’s no such thing as guilty pleasure/As long as your pleasure’s notunkind, TORRES sings in “The Only Marble I’ve Got Left.” On “Tuesday,” she turns her gazebackward, remembering a love affair long in the rearview mirror, and the harm done whenpassion meets shame. And if I could only go back in time/I’d rewrite our whole story…Andnow I know that your shame was not mine/And I am perfect in my Lord’s eyes. There is clarityin time’s passage, at least sometimes, and whatever grace some of us can muster oftencomes from taking the irreverent, and much funnier, low road. And in this way, Send aPrayer My Way reminds me of Lucinda Williams’s Happy Woman Blues (1980), or LorettaLynn singing about The Pill in 1975. And just like those badass women, Baker and TORRESaren’t asking for anybody’s tolerance, or forgiveness, and they sure as shit aren’t asking forpermission.And I’m here for every word of it. Because some of us sinners (and I mean that as acompliment of the highest order)—the criminals and cheaters among us, the addicts andlonely-hearted, those of us who, in the words of that brilliant and mad old outlaw, TownesVan Zandt, wear your skin like iron, your breath as hard as kerosene—were nursing our ownprivate heartaches long before the world started its most recent long skid. Some of us havelearned the hard way that leaning on poetry, stories, and songs ain’t a bad way to save yourown life.So listen: Whatever your story—if you’ve been staying up late and sleeping in, dodging callsfrom old friends and wondering how many times you can break your own heart throughevery fault of your own; if you’ve been missing work, or skipping school, or blowing pastdeadlines like they’re four-way stop signs on the highway to hell; and most especially, ifyou’re feeling afraid for your life, or the lives of those you hold most dear—I hope you willfind some comfort in these twelve songs. I hope you will put a little sugar in the tank and letthese two singers love you all the way to hell and back. Because here’s the thing about goingto hell and back: You came back.Elizabeth WetmoreAuthor of Valentine

Julien Baker & TORRES

After an impressive 2010s run of albums that earned him a devoted fanbase, accolades from outlets like The New York Times, Fresh Air, and Pitchfork, and a place in the upper echelon of modern Americana singer-songwriters, John Moreland has already taken two unexpected turns this decade, both of which highlight his fierce artistic independence. First, he released a brilliant and sonically layered folk-electronica meditation on modern alienation, 2022’s Birds In The Ceiling, that took some of his fans by surprise. Then, after wrapping up a difficult tour behind that record in November 2022, he stopped working entirely. He took an entire year off from playing shows and didn’t use a smartphone for 6 months. “At the end of that year, I was just like ‘Nobody call me’. I needed to not do anything for a while and just process,” Moreland says. After nearly a decade in the limelight, constantly jostled by the expectations of his audience, the music industry, and anonymous strangers online, he carved out some time to rest, heal, and reflect for the first time.&nbsp;The result of that unplugged year at home is 2024’s Visitor, a folk-rock record that is intimate, immediate, deeply thoughtful, and catchy as hell. Moreland recorded the album at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma, in only ten days, playing nearly every instrument himself (his wife Pearl Rachinsky sang on one song, and his longtime collaborator John Calvin Abney contributed a guitar solo), as well as engineering and mixing the album. “Simplicity and immediacy felt very important to the process,” he says.&nbsp;This is a return to the approach Moreland took on his breakthrough albums, 2013’s In The Throes and 2015’s High On Tulsa Heat, both of which were largely self-recorded at home with a small cadre of additional musicians. Echoes of these early albums can be heard on Visitor (Moreland makes a passing reference to In The Throes’ opening track “I Need You To Tell Me Who I Am” in two different songs on Visitor), which finds Moreland shutting out the noisy world outside, and the even noisier digital world in his pocket, to reconnect with a muse that’s had to increasingly compete for his attention in the intervening years. Visitor charts his journey back to this muse. If Birds In The Ceiling’s theme was alienation, Visitor’s theme is un-alienation.&nbsp;Moreland begins the album where he began his year-long process of healing: doomscrolling past images of political turmoil, war, and environmental destruction, in a trio of surprisingly hooky folk songs that address present-day social realities more directly than any previous John Moreland songs. On opening track “The Future Is Coming Fast”, Moreland describes the perpetually logged-on life in a time of rolling catastrophe over gentle fingerpicking: “The news keeps steady coming in / Our condition shows its teeth again / A nightmare we all thought would end.”

John Moreland with Ramsey Thornton

Hadreas, a Seattle native, began his music career in 2008 and released his debut album, Learning, in 2010 via long-time label home Matador. The album immediately captured critics’ attention, with Pitchfork praising its “eviscerating and naked” songs, marked by “heartbreaking sentiments and bruised characterizations delivered in a voice that ranges from an ethereal croon to a slightly cracked warble.” These descriptors became the hallmarks of Perfume Genius - Hadreas’ unique ability to convey emotional vulnerability not only lyrically, but with his impressively nuanced vocals.&nbsp;In 2012, Hadreas released Put Your Back N 2 It, further growing his audience and critical acclaim. His 2014 album, Too Bright, marked a bold evolution in production and confidence. Co-produced by Adrian Utley of Portishead, it featured the standout single “Queen,” which quickly became a queer anthem and powerful statement of identity. Hadreas later performed the track on Late Night with David Letterman.&nbsp;In 2017, Perfume Genius released the GRAMMY-nominated No Shape, a breakthrough album that expanded his global fan base and brought mainstream recognition to his art. Produced by Blake Mills (Fiona Apple, Alabama Shakes), the record earned high praise, with The New Yorker noting, “The center of his music has always been a defiant delicacy—a ragged, affirmative understanding of despair. No Shape finds him unexpectedly victorious, his body exalted.” During the album’s campaign, Hadreas appeared on multiple late-night shows and graced the cover of The Fader.&nbsp;In 2020, Hadreas released Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, a critical masterpiece on Matador Records that garnered worldwide acclaim. Produced by GRAMMY winner Blake Mills, the album featured contributions from Phoebe Bridgers, Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino, Matt Chamberlin, Rob Moose, and longtime collaborator Alan Wyffels. It explored and subverted concepts of masculinity and traditional roles, introducing distinctly American musical influences.Hadreas promoted the album with performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (“Jason”), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (“Whole Life”), and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (“On The Floor”). He followed with Ugly Season, a project born from his collaboration with choreographer Kate Wallich on The Sun Still Burns Here, a dance piece commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA and performed across major cities in 2019. &nbsp;The release included a stunning 30-minute film, Pygmalion’s Ugly Season, created with renowned visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite, blending surreal visuals with Hadreas’s music.&nbsp;Mike Hadreas is now based in Los Angeles with his partner in life and music, Alan Wyffels.&nbsp;

Perfume Genius

This show is standing room.Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a string of albums from 1997-2002 widely recognized as redefining what protest music can be, where longform instrumental chamber rock compositions of immense feeling and power serve as soundtracks to late capitalist alienation and resistance. The band’s first four releases—especially&nbsp; F#A#∞ (1997) and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)—are variously regarded as classics of the era and genre. Godspeed's legendary live performances, featuring multiple 16mm projectors beaming a collage of overlapping analog film loops and reels—along with the distinctive iconography, imagery and tactility of the band's album artwork and physical LP packages— further defines the sui generis aesthetic substance, ethos and mythos of this group. GY!BE has issued two official band photos in its 25-year existence (the second, left, a 2010 recreation of the first from 1997) and has done a half-dozen collectively-answered written interviews over that same span. The band has never had a website or social media accounts. It has never made a video. Few rock bands in our 21st century have been as steadfast in trying to let the work speak for itself and maintaining simple rules about minimising participation in cultures of personality, exposure, access, commodification or co-optation.Following a seven-year hiatus that began in 2003, Godspeed returned to the stage in December 2010 (curating the UK festival All Tomorrow’s Parties) and the band’s post-reunion period has now lasted over a decade, marked by hundreds of sold-out live shows and three additional albums, all of which have been met with high acclaim.G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! – the band’s fourth post-reunion album (and eighth overall) –&nbsp;was released&nbsp;on April 2nd, 2021.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (NEW DATE)

Celebrate Black History Month at the Haw River Ballroom on February 23! Featuring music from a live DJ, dancing, games and fun!

Rap & Spades: Celebrate Black History Month

This show is standing room.Donna The Buffalo is not just a band, rather one might say that Donna The Buffalo has become a lifestyle for its members and audiences. Since 1989, the roots rockers have played thousands of shows and countless festivals including Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Telluride, Austin City Limits Festival, Merle Fest, and Philadelphia Folk Festival. They’ve opened for The Dead and have toured with Peter Rowan, Del McCoury, Los Lobos, Little Feat, Jim Lauderdale, Rusted Root, and Railroad Earth to name a few. They also toured with Ben &amp; Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen to help raise awareness about increased corporate spending in politics. In 1991, the band started the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg, NY. The four day festival has become an annual destination for over 15,000 music lovers every year and was started as an AIDS benefit. It continues as a benefit for arts and education. To date, the event has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and is now one of three Grassroots Festivals; the Bi-annual Shakori Hills fest in North Carolina and Virginia Key festival in Florida. In 2016 GrassRoots Culture Camp was introduced in Trumansburg, New York as four days of music, art, dance and movement workshops, including nightly dinners and dances.

Donna the Buffalo (NEW DATE)

This show is standing room."The past isn't finished with us yet. Love can be like that, too. A couple of years ago I found love in different forms leaving my life at once. In a single month I lost my closest group of friends, my 13-year relationship ended, and my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I had just stopped touring to write the next Blind Pilot album, but instead I was watching each of my plans unthread as a new season pulled forward relentlessly."Avoiding suffering, is avoiding real happiness too. My reason to tell this story isn't because it broke me and pinned me breathless. There was suffering, but those two years, as I moved to my hometown to help my parents through my dad's sickness and eventually his death, also brought me true closeness, a deeper will to care and hope, and many moments of beauty I can barely describe."This album came from love for my family, my town, my friends, my community. We don't have to be so afraid of loss. We can speak and share its name, knowing we are together in it. If these songs are invitations to talk about loss and death, the invitation is to talk closely of the courage we find when we face loss honestly, cracked open and unsure of what we will become."- Blind Pilot's Israel NebekerBlind Pilot's 'And Then Like Lions' on ATO Records is the third LP from the Portland, Oregon-based sextet consisting of frontman Israel Nebeker, fellow founding member Ryan Dobrowski, Luke Ydstie, Kati Claborn, Ian Krist and Dave Jorgensen. The album was produced by Israel Nebeker and Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Neko Case, My Morning Jacket), and was written and composed by Nebeker. It comes five years after the band's well-received 'We Are the Tide' and three years after Nebeker thought he'd be starting the songs that would become the band's third album.'And Then Like Lions' opens with "Umpqua Rushing," the first single from the album and the track that most directly deals with the end of his relationship. It's inspired by memories of visiting the Umpqua River with his then girlfriend. The song connects images of a forest fire to the destruction and new beginning found in love's wake."Umpqua Rushing" has a strong, mid-tempo flow built on major chords and rich instrumentation that matches the river the song's named for. Nebeker's voice soars on strings to an uplifting ending, and it's as vulnerable and open as he's ever been.Packed Powder is an upbeat, solidly-driven song filled with elevated textures of guitar hooks and trumpets. It comes from an idea Nebeker had as a teenager, when he and his friends found they could repack fireworks to different outcomes: "We're all made of the same stuff, but who knows how we're packed and what we'll show as we burn across the black sky of our own time?" The song speaks lightheartedly of ironic outcomes when trying to better a life through different career paths, and then sings a chorus that surrenders and desires life to reveal what we are made of.'And Then Like Lions' ends triumphantly on "Like Lions," a song inspired by various stories of courage Nebeker has whitenessed in his recent years, including watching his father fight for life and, before the end, find strength enough to give himself and be at peace with his own mortality.Blind Pilot has performed on Ellen and The Late Show with David Letterman, at the Newport Folk Festival, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. The group has shared stages with The Shins, Local Natives, Andrew Bird, and more. The project began in 2007 when Israel and co-founding member Ryan Dobrowski went on a West Coast tour via bicycle. Blind Pilot's six members recorded for this new album and will tour through 2016.

Blind Pilot

This show is standing room.“The best and most emotionally direct album Umphrey’s McGee have ever made.” -David Fricke&nbsp;In the twenty-four years since eclectic improv-rock band Umphrey’s McGee formed, their sound has been an amalgamation of genres, moods, and tempos, effortlessly flowing from one feeling to the next throughout an album or concert—or sometimes within a singular song. But with time and repetition comes wisdom and maturity, both personally and musically, and in the case of the band’s new album Asking For A Friend, Umphrey’s McGee entered the recording studio with something to say and a wise, measured way to say it. The end result is an astoundingly cohesive fourteen-song album that feels like a fresh statement from a group of world-class musicians and friends reapproaching their craft with a new lens. But long-time fans will be happy to know that the Umphrey’s McGee they know and love is still very much present on Asking For A Friend, just more refined. More focused.C

Umphrey's McGee

Tycho is embarking on their first headlining tour since 2020. Following the release of Weather in 2019, the band returns to their roots, delivering their signature blend of electronic dance music and melody-driven instrumental post-rock. Scott Hansen’s creative vision, delicate melodies, and mesmerizing soundscapes take on new energy in the live setting, thanks to the incredible drumming of Rory O’Connor and an immersive visual experience. With guitarist/bassist Zac Brown and multi-instrumentalist Billy Kim rounding out the lineup, Tycho has been captivating fans for over a decade.

Tycho

In 2017 Holly &amp; Paige of Celestial Dreamers began as a duo in Southern California. They’ve dialed in their motivating and uplifting sound to include Progressive styles, Techno, and Trance; coloringtheir DJ sets with grit and darker sounds in contrast with euphoric melodies.In 2024 they were granted the Theresa Velasquez Memorial Fellowship with LP Giobbi’s Femme House label. The duo has been enjoying their music production journey and education - finishingoriginal music, remixes, and exploring Mixing &amp; Mastering techniques.This year they’ve supported Eli &amp; Furr, Manic Focus, Marsh, and Bexxie, and also premiered a new radio show called “Starlight Sessions” which releases new episodes every month on YouTube.

New Year's Eve Rave

The BFG Holiday Reunion is a over 20 year tradition!This show is standing room.

Big Fat Gap Holiday Reunion Show

Culture Mill's Tango &amp; Chill is a quarterly workshop offering that expands community through playful movement practice. To help us expand our community, please bring consider bringing a friend new to Culture Mill!Through Argentine Tango, we invite you to discover a practice that has deeply informed Culture Mill's leadership and followership style. We will start with a gentle warm-up that will bring awareness to the body and a sense of availability, finding balance and easefulness in basic exercises of tango alone and in connection to a partner. As you are guided you through this embodied experience, you will also learn how the basic principles of tango such as leading, following, deep listening, playfulness, centeredness, togetherness away from sameness, moment to moment presence, and posture that have helped shape Culture Mill's ethos.&nbsp;This workshop is open to all. No experience, no partner necessary!Tango &amp; Chill is donation-based (free for all Patreon sustainers and current supporters) -- pay what you wish via Venmo, PayPal or cash.

Tango and Chill

This show is standing room.When Rose-Garcia went into the studio with his band, he realized he didn’t have songs, but rather soundtrack ideas. “I sent them all a link to some of the soundtrack stuff. We came up with this way to record where we went through them like themes. I came up with the plot of an imaginary movie. And we started to treat it like a soundtrack to a movie.”“Movie Of The Week is definitely more on the lush side,” he continues. “I'm really excited about making this more like a project than an album.”The album also features the recently released “<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://shakeygraves.fanlink.to/RON">Ready or Not</a>,” a duet with rising star Sierra Ferrell. The song is already a streaming hit and continues to climb with over 15M spins globally.Shakey Graves has undergone a myriad of personal and sonic evolutions since its inception in 2011. Beginning as a solo music project, to now being accompanied by a full band, Rose-Garcia depicted the journey in ways such as changing his album covers from black and white to color, mirroring the musical growth. With beginnings in the folk-rock space—even winning “Best Emerging Artist” at the Americana Music Awards—he went on to move away from much of the stripped-down, folk sound and began drawing on influences such as The Beatles, The Kinks, Elliot Smith, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill and other 90’s indie rock bands.Through the years, Rose-Garcia has always found innovative ways to engage his fan base—from burning CDs and putting them in personalized bags, to building intricate scavenger hunts sending fans around the city following trails of clues to find exclusive tapes, to sharing Bandcamp-only releases in the age of the DSPs—he is intentional in everything he does and aims to create a unique experience and adventure for each fan.With Movie of the Week, Rose-Garcia will continue to expand upon the idea of his fans controlling the destiny of the music in an even bigger way—stay tuned for more info to come.

Shakey Graves

This show is standing room.The holiday tour spirit returns! No this is not a "holiday song review," CCL plays their rocking catalog of original tunes with special guest John Mailander who guested on the latest release "Hiyo." John will also play an opening set of music at 8pm. See you there!

Chatham County Line Holiday Tour

This show is seated show.Reared in Georgia and now settled in North Carolina, Jake Xerxes Fussell has established himself as a devoted listener and contemplative interpreter of a vast array of so-called folk songs, lovingly sourced from a personal store of favorites. On his latest album, When I’m Called—his first LP for Fat Possum, and his first as a parent—Fussell returns to a well of music that holds lifelong sentimental meaning, loosely contemplating the passage of time and the procession of life’s unexpected offerings.&nbsp;The album was produced by James Elkington and mixed by Tucker Martine. In addition to Elkington, it features the playing of Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), Joe Westerlund (Bon Iver, Califone), and others. Blake Mills contributes guitars on several tracks. Joan Shelley and Robin Holcomb provide backing vocals.&nbsp;“…Fussell is the rare contemporary to approach folk in its pure form, shunning self-penned compositions about bummer relationships to concentrate on material handed down from bygone, hardened times.” – The New Yorker“(Fussell) is one of the great magpies of American song, collecting forgotten, tarnished gems with a folklorist’s zeal… his renditions aren’t so much cover versions as composites…” – The Guardian“…maybe the leading interpreter of American folk music right now.” – Ann Powers, NPR

Jake Xerxes Fussell

xperience the joy and energy of the Slinky Kids dancers ages 3-10 in this lively performance, featuring a mix of jazz, hip hop and creative movement. Watch as they express themselves through vibrant choreography and contagious enthusiasm. Doors open at 5:30 and show begins at 6pm. It will be approximately 30min in length and is FREE to attend.

Slinky Kids Seasonal Dance Celebration

The annual Saxapahaw Holiday Market is back on Saturday, December 7 and Sunday, December 8!Hours are Saturday 12/7 9am-5pm and Sunday 12/8 9am-4pm.Admission is free!Shop with vendors at Haw River Ballroom, Culture Mill, Paperhand Puppet Project and the Hawbridge School!

Holiday Market (Day 2 of 2)

The annual Saxapahaw Holiday Market is back on Saturday, December 7 and Sunday, December 8!Hours are Saturday 12/7 9am-5pm and Sunday 12/8 9am-4pm.Admission is free!Shop with vendors at Haw River Ballroom, Culture Mill, Paperhand Puppet Project and the Hawbridge School! VENDOR SPOTS ARE FULL!HOLIDAY ALBUM-RELEASE SHOW + SINGALONG WITH THE PINKERTON RAID at 12PM, SAT, DEC 7, AMPHITHEATERDurham’s The Pinkerton Raid has a new Christmas(ish) album out this year,&nbsp;JAGGED VACANCE: Winter Songs by Other People,&nbsp;featuring timeless songs from Bon Iver, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Presley, John Lennon &amp; Yoko Ono, The Pogues, Counting Crows, Fleet Foxes and Paul Simon. For years, singer-songwriter Jesse James DeConto has been leading these tunes at his annual SONGS FOR HUMANS holiday singalong at Fullsteam Brewery. This year, the band will bring them to the Haw River Ballroom outdoor amphitheater for a concert and singalong coinciding with the Saxapahaw Holiday Market. The outdoor show will start at 12 noon on Saturday, December 7. They’ll bring lyric books for you to sing along and will take some requests. They may mix in some original songs for good measure.&nbsp;Donations will be accepted to support the musicians. To pre-order&nbsp;JAGGED VACANCE, visit&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://pinkertonraid.com">pinkertonraid.com</a>.Durham’s The Pinkerton Raid has a new Christmas(ish) album out this year,&nbsp;JAGGED VACANCE: Winter Songs by Other People,&nbsp;featuring timeless songs from Bon Iver, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Presley, John Lennon &amp; Yoko Ono, The Pogues, Counting Crows, Fleet Foxes and Paul Simon. For years, singer-songwriter Jesse James DeConto has been leading these tunes at his annual SONGS FOR HUMANS holiday singalong at Fullsteam Brewery. This year, the band will bring them to the Haw River Ballroom outdoor amphitheater for a concert and singalong coinciding with the Saxapahaw Holiday Market. The outdoor show will start at 12 noon on Saturday, December 7. They’ll bring lyric books for you to sing along and will take some requests. They may mix in some original songs for good measure.&nbsp;Donations will be accepted to support the musicians. To pre-order&nbsp;JAGGED VACANCE, visit&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://pinkertonraid.com">pinkertonraid.com</a>.

Holiday Market (Day 1 of 2)

This show is standing room.Seminal indie rock band the dB’s will have their first two albums, Stands for deciBels and issued for the first time on vinyl this spring and fall via Propeller Sound Recordings. Pitchfork cited Stands for deciBels among its 100 Top Albums of the 1980s. AllMusic applauded “a reverence for British pop and arty post-punk leanings . . . rarely is experimentation so enjoyable and irresistibly catchy” and said The dB’s were “the band that bridged the gap between classic ’70s power pop . . . and the jangly new wave of smart pop personified by R.E.M.”

The dB's

Join us for Appalachian Square Dancing at the beautiful Haw River Ballroom with a caller/ instructor to the fantastic live music of Big Fat Gap! Whether you are a pro or a novice all are welcome! Professional barn dance leader Dave Dobbins will hold a lesson for all before each dance and then the stomping and whirling begins! $15 per person or $40 for a family/party of 4.

Thirty years into a career of music making, 2024 finds Alan Sparhawk entering uncharted territory. Sparhawk co-founded the band Low alongside vocalist and drummer Mimi Parker, who passed away in late 2022. Their music derived elemental power from its fearless exploration of quiet, gentle places. Low released thirteen albums and influenced a movement of spacious, graceful, intimate, and ever-evolving music.Over time, Low’s anthemic songs heightened in urgency and tone, unearthing new layers of musical exploration and lyrical questioning. Their final album, Grammy nominated “Hey What,” was released in 2021 to universal acclaim and marked a high point in their musical evolution and trajectory.Sparhawk has recently been playing with various collaborators and projects with friends and family members, including guest appearances with Yo La Tengo, Trampled by Turtles, Peder Mannerfelt, Charlie Parr, and funk band Derecho Rhythm Section. He is performing solo shows and releasing the album “White Roses, My God” in fall 2024.

Alan Sparhawk (of LOW)

It’s obvious listening to Sarah Shook and the Disarmers’ clear-eyed, biting, and unafraid songs that integrity is the most important thing to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, country-punk outfit.“A lot of artists are in this industry for fame, recognition, and money but those things don’t mean anything to me,” says bandleader River Shook. “Songwriting is it for me. It’s the only real healthy coping mechanism I've ever had. It’s life-saving. I don't care about any superficial things when I’m making a record.” On their resonant fourth album Revelations, produced by Shook and out March 29 via Thirty Tigers, these raw and resilient tracks come first. Throughout, Shook’s deft storytelling documents regular people getting by and keeping on, all presented without filter or pretension.

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

By buying tickets and attending events at Haw River Ballroom, you agree to our Code of Conduct, which you can read here: <a href="https://bit.ly/HRBCodeOfConduct" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;">https://bit.ly/HRBCodeOfConduct</a>Never attended an event at our venue before and have questions? Please see our FAQs: <a href="https://bit.ly/HRBFAQs" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;">https://bit.ly/HRBFAQs</a>

Saxapahaw Halloween Party

<h1 style="text-align: center">ABOUT</h1>Sleepy Cat Records is proud to be entering our fifth year as an independent, label. To celebrate this milestone, we are joining The Haw River Ballroom in presenting our 3rd annual Sleepy Fest in the beloved community of Saxapahaw, NC on October 26th, 2024! Sleepy Fest provides a platform for emerging North Carolina-based artists, creates opportunities for our community to connect, and helps raise the funds we rely on to stay in operation. Furthermore, as in the past two years, we intend to use Sleepy Fest to elevate the social justice work that is already happening around us, as well as the kind of thoughtful work we hope to encourage moving forward - including but not limited to racial and environmental justice, anti-colonial/imperialist organizing and discourse, and queer representation/platforming.Sleepy Fest has become an integral piece to the puzzle of what we do. We’re tremendously grateful for the success of our first two years in Hillsborough with our family-farm host, Down Yonder, and are ready to bring our festival to a new town. We’ve been in community with The Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw for nearly a decade now and the timing couldn’t be better for us to come together to make something special happen.The day will kick off at 11am with a free-to-the-public arts market and performance at the Haywagon Stage in the spirit of the long-running Saturdays in Saxapahaw series. From 2pm to midnight, ticket holders will have access to the main festival grounds at the e Ballroom, enjoying feature performances between the Ballroom Main Stage and the Amphitheater, DJ sets, and other special programming. Saxapahaw’s main attractions like the Haw river trails, restaurants, and local businesses will be accessible to the public per usual. Local businesses will be in on the fun, offering special goods and services. Locals interested in more information: please reach out to Jess at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="mailto:sleepyfest@gmail.com">sleepyfest@gmail.com</a>.This year’s festival will feature a blend of performances from our Sleepy Cat Artists as well as non-label artists and friends. As in Sleepy Fest’s past, you can expect one-time collaborations and improvisations between artists. We’re planning visual installations and other non-music arts elements like last year’s immersive poetry room and ephemeral art installation, as well as an expanded vendor and artisan market, kids zone, and more! We believe that this event will once again bring a day of joy to attendees, and will continue to foster appreciation for the wealth of culture and community in our area.<h2>Lineup</h2>To celebrate our 5th anniversary as a label this year’s festival will feature a blend of performances from our Sleepy Cat Artists as well as non-label artists and friends. As in Sleepy Fest’s past, you can expect one-time collaborations and improvisations between artists.Magic Al, Blue Cactus, Lou Hazel, Chessa Rich, Tre. Charles, Setting, DUNUMS, Libby Rodenbough, Delver, SunSp.t, T. Gold, Andy Stack &amp; Jay Hammond, Aquarian Devils, Lover Boyz, Gibson &amp; Toutant, Owen FitzGerald, The Faces Blur, Calapse, Holden Xcess, Sleepy Cat House Band<h2>Arts &amp; Makers Market</h2>This year’s market will be located at Saxapahaw’s Haywagon Stage, home of the long running and family-friendly Saturdays in Saxapahaw. In keeping with that spirit, we will kick off Sleepy Fest with a free show and market from 10am-230pm. Our ticketed experience will then run from 2pm-12am at the main festival grounds between the Ballroom and Amphitheater.Market signup coming soon.<h2>Food &amp; Bev</h2>There will be food and beverage vendors to enjoy all day, including coffee, alcoholic and NA beverages, and vegan food options.Full food &amp; bev vendor list coming soon.*You’re welcome to bring your own food items if you have specific dietary preferences, though we encourage you to purchase food onsite from our great vendors and local businesses.<h2>Schedule</h2>10-230p Free Arts Market &amp; Show at Haywagon Stage2p-12p Ticketed access to festival grounds - Ballroom &amp; Amphitheater<h1 style="text-align: center">TICKET INFO</h1><h2 style="text-align: start">General Admission</h2><ul><li>General Admission Adult - $49.50</li><li>General Admission Kids 6-12 - $22</li><li>General Admission Kids 0-5 - FREE</li></ul>General Admission tickets provide access to the festival grounds for all programming from 2pm-12am, where you’ll enjoy feature performances between the Ballroom and Amphitheater, DJ sets, and other special programming.<h2>VOLUNTEER</h2>Our volunteers play a big role in making Sleepy Fest what it is. Volunteer for one shift (approx 2-3 hours) in exchange for free entry to Sleepy Fest. Volunteers are assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, and early signups receive first choice of preferred shifts.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="sqs-block-button-element--small sqs-button-element--tertiary sqs-block-button-element" href="https://form.jotform.com/242194644171153">»VOLUNTEER SIGNUP LINK»</a><h2>SLIDING SCALE</h2>We’re offering sliding scale tickets for ALAANA/BIPOC/SWANA** attendees. If this applies to you and you’d like to purchase sliding scale tickets, please visit our <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.venuepilot.co/events/111344/orders/new#/">Sliding Scale Ticket Page</a>. No proof required. Available for all ages. If you have questions or would like clarification on this matter please contact us at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://form.jotform.com/242194644171153">sleepycatrec@gmail.com</a>.**ALAANA - African, Latine, Asian, Arab, Native American // BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, People of Color // SWANA - South West Asian and North African<h2 style="text-align: start">Extra Donations</h2>Feeling extra giving? Make stand-alone or add-on donations in $5 increments.Your extra donation will go towards:<ul><li>Our sliding scale program, subsidizing affordable tickets, and helping make Sleepy Fest more accessible</li><li>Paying event staff and performers bonuses above base pay</li><li>Funding our label projects for 2025, should we have surplus beyond the above mentioned priorities</li></ul><h2 style="text-align: center">Thanks so much!</h2>More information and contact info at: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.sleepycatrec.com/sleepyfest">https://www.sleepycatrec.com/sleepyfest</a>Follow us on IG <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/sleepyfest/">@sleepyfest</a> to stay in the loop as we roll things out

Sleepy Fest

Gillian Welch’s rich and remarkable career spans over twenty-five years, and she and her musical partner David Rawlings are a pillar of the modern acoustic music world. They have been hailed by Pitchfork as “modern masters of American folk” and “protectors of the American folk song” by Rolling Stone.&nbsp;After moving to Nashville in the early 1990s, Welch was launched into the public consciousness when Emmylou Harris recorded a cover of Welch’s “Orphan Girl.” Her career continued to flourish as her 1996 debut Revival, produced by T Bone Burnett, was released to critical acclaim. Firmly on the roots music map following the release, Welch followed up that GRAMMY nominated album release with 1998’s Hell Among The Yearlings, a stark duet record with Rawlings, further solidifying the duo as a force in the folk music scene.&nbsp;For her work as executive producer as well as a performer and songwriter on the eight times platinum O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, Welch was awarded the Album of the Year GRAMMY, and was simultaneously nominated for her own Time (The Revelator) which Rolling Stone called one of the best albums of the 2000s and is widely considered by critics to be one of the best albums of all time. This release was Welch-Rawlings’ first on their own record label, Acony Records, helping to establish the duo’s fierce commitment to independent music.&nbsp;2003’s Soul Journey was the pair’s first experimentation with a fuller, electric sound, which paved the way for the Dave Rawlings Machine project, and their first release under Rawlings’ name (A Friend of A Friend, 2009), which was accompanied by a time period of heavy touring and headlining major festivals while biding their time to return to the duet sound the two were traditionally known for. 2011’s The Harrow and The Harvest&nbsp; was nominated for for Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Engineered Album at the GRAMMYs, and won Artist of the Year (Welch) and was nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year (Rawlings) at the Americana Honors &amp; Awards. The album garnered glowing reviews and topped multiple year end “Best Of” lists.&nbsp;In celebration of the twenty year anniversary of the Welch-Rawlings partnership, the two launched an archival branch of Acony Records, entitled Boots, dedicated to releasing outtakes, demos, bootlegs, and live recordings from their copious vault. Thus far they have released five album’s worth of music with more on the way.&nbsp;In&nbsp;2018, Welch was the first musician to receive the Thomas Wolfe Prize for Literature. The award is bestowed by University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Department of English &amp; Comparative Literature and recognizes contemporary writers with a distinguished body of work.&nbsp;2019 saw Welch and Rawlings nominated&nbsp;for an Academy Award for “Best Original Song” where they performed their singing cowboy duet, written for the most recent Coen brothers’ film, live on the show. In 2020 the duo released All the Good Times, the first album under both their names, and won the GRAMMY for&nbsp;the Best Folk Album.Recently, they were crowned with the Berklee American Masters Award and honored by Americana Music Association with a Lifetime Achievement for Songwriting.Welch and Rawlings continue to tour the world in support of their music while simultaneously writing and lending their talents to countless fellow artists’ projects. They are continuously working to release their acclaimed catalog on phonograph records of the highest possible fidelity.Singer. Grammy-nominated songwriter. Producer. Award-winning guitarist. Since kicking off his career with 1996’s Revival — an album billed under Gillian Welch’s name, but featuring the indispensable co-writing, harmony-singing and instrumental chops of her musical partner — David Rawlings has woven one of the most acclaimed paths in Americana music. He reaches a new destination with his third solo album, Poor David’s Almanack, whose songs point to a frontman who continues walking the fine line between rootsy revivalism and bold innovation.This is a modern folk album that wears its old-school influences on its sleeve. Like Bob Dylan’s early work, Poor David’s Almanack looks to archetypal songs of the American roots-music catalog for inspiration, using them as launching points for a wildly original tracklist. The high-lonesome harmonies and acoustic fretwork of “Midnight Train” jumpstart the album on an earthy note, while “Airplane” — a southern ballad featuring a string section arranged by Rawlings himself — reaches skyward. Rawlings even evokes the call-and-response format of old field songs during the chorus of “Good God a Woman,” then serenades a lover with the fiddle-fueled, countryfied “Come Over My House.” Throughout its 10-song tracklist, Poor David’s Almanack sounds both fresh and familiar, offering new music rooted in the tradition, texture and twang of the folk songbook.“This is new territory for me, with songs that stick much closer to classic folk melodies and classic folk structures,” he explains. “Before, if I’d wanted to sing a song like ‘Midnight Train,’ I would’ve covered a traditional song that already exists. This is the first time I looked at myself and thought, ‘Wait, if I want to play music like that, I should make it myself,’ because I love that kind of music and I want to be a creator of it. I want to try and inject some of myself into that folk bloodstream.”A leader of the contemporary folk revival, Rawlings began releasing albums with Gillian Welch in the mid-’90s, championing a more acoustic-based sound during the heyday of grunge. For more than two decades since, he has juggled multiple roles as a frontman, duo partner, sideman and behind-the-scenes producer. His vocals can be heard on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, whose multi-platinum sales and widespread popularity helped introduce old-time folk music to a 21st century audience, and his unique approach to the acoustic guitar has influenced a new generation of forward-thinking folkies, several of whom — including Dawes and Old Crow Medicine Show — have hired Rawlings to produce their own albums. Dawes’ Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith both make appearances on Poor David’s Almanack, as do multiple members of Old Crow’s past and present lineups, including Ketch Secor and Willie Watson. On an album filled with some of the brightest lights in Americana music, though, Rawlings’ star shines the strongest, whether he’s singing in a mercurial voice or leading his band through an instrumental section worthy of a front-porch picking party.Half of Poor David’s Almanack was written alone — a first for Rawlings, who typically co-writes with Gillian Welch — and songs like “Money is the Meat in the Coconut” have already become staples of his live show, tossed into his setlist days after they were completed. Later, while recording the album to analog tape at Woodland Studios in East Nashville, Rawlings experimented with overdubs and other layered effects. Assisting him were a pair of top-shelf engineers: longtime collaborator Matt Andrews and legendary studio hand Ken Scott, whose work can be heard on landmark albums by the Beatles, David Bowie, and Elton John.Influenced by new experiences, old sounds and classic books (including Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, whose title serves as the basis for Rawlings’ own album), Poor David’s Almanack nods to its source material without borrowing. It’s a nod to the past and a step toward the future. “Cumberland Gap,” with its electric guitar solos and coed harmonies, even evokes the California folk-rock of Fleetwood Mac, pushing Rawlings into ever-evolving territory.“That’s the beautiful thing about this kind of music,” he says. “It’s supposed to be a chain. Maybe it’s supposed to be a chain that looks like a circle. We’re all looking for our best way to contribute to the great musical landscape. We’re all trying to raise some little part of that building.”

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

For over two decades, Atmosphere has maintained a course of rigorous output, releasing over two dozen studio albums, EP’s and collaborative side projects in as many years. In that time, the venerated duo have built a legacy out of bringing honesty, humility and vulnerability to the forefront of their music, continually challenging themselves to evolve without straying too far from their roots. Slug has proven masterful at storytelling and writing compelling narratives, leaving a trail of his own influence while paying homage to the rappers and songwriters that helped shape him. Ant has skillfully molded the soundtracks with inspiration from soul, funk, rock, reggae, and the wizardry of hip-hop’s pioneering DJ’s and producers, creating his own trademark sounds while providing the pulse for songs about life, love, stress and setbacks. At its essence, Atmosphere has been a musical shepherd, and with each new album comes a new journey as they guide generations of listeners through this thing called life.

Atmosphere

Join community members, educators, students, parents and activists to get pumped, to connect, and DANCE to DJ Kai (student at NC state), learn about the issues facing schools and educators know how to get registered, and get involved to make sure we know what’s at stake and elect people who care about public education in NC!

EDM 4 EDU (Rescheduled Date!)

“It’s wild, the ways that humans try to make boundaries out of things.” With her third LP, COUNTRY, Gudasz interrogates borders of land and sea, mind and body: the limits of the lines we draw for ourselves.Gudasz has concentrated her attention on matters of the mind and heart, last issuing a solo record with 2020’s Cinema (“★★★★ a career-making star turn” —MOJO) after her 2016 debut Oleander (“the Joni Mitchell the South never had” —Bitter Southerner). Between her LPs, Gudasz has registered a long list of extracurricular credits, taking up playing in the live bands of Hiss Golden Messenger, Eric Bachmann, Big Star’s Third, and spearheading the Ask Me Anything super trio tour with Libby Rodenbough and Kate Rhudy. She’s staked out her own poetic corner as a songwriter, drawing upon influences that span rootsy surf, witchy rock and roll, cinematic Southern twang, and dreamy art-pop.A turquoise underdog of a semi-hollowbody guitar that Gudasz dug out of a closet became the songwriter’s conduit to an album as she worked out the shimmering “Fire Country,” around which eight more songs fell into place (“They followed me around like a humming cloud and I just tried to show up to finish them.”). Daily walks in the woods deepened the connections that Gudasz felt with the natural world. “A lot of the songs were written in movement, and then after walking, coming back, and putting them on the piano,” she says.&nbsp;Gudasz recorded most of COUNTRY with her longtime pal Ari Picker, whose self-built Goth Construction studio in nearby Pittsboro made for a potent outpost for their work. The pair occasionally recorded outside, giving numbers a glow of ephemeral ambiance.As Gudasz tangles with the contradictions and unanswerable questions of her being, COUNTRY pierces at the human desire—the need—to live free, unbound, unlimited.—Allison Hussey

Skylar Gudasz Album Release Show

Did you know there are over 30 businesses and organizations in Saxapahaw? And probably more that either all of us don’t know about, or are just starting up? Where can you join a group? &nbsp;Who is organizing teams? &nbsp;Where can you volunteer? What are the amazing resources right here in the village and what do YOU want to share? The Saxapahaw Business Collaborative is hosting a fun gathering for residents and close neighbors of Saxapahaw to come together, get to know each other and build community and networks of support, information and creativity! Starting out with a networking soiree and Saxapahaw street food on the Coffeeshop level of Cup 22 we’ll then move downstairs to the main ballroom floor for a guided group tour and interactive map of the village. You will get a ticket for a specially selected adventure and along the way learn more about all the things this village has to offer - as others learn about you and your hopes and interests. For those who want to join in we will end with a dance party that everyone is invited to join. We hope you will join in! Let’s get to know each other Saxapahaw!!

Saxapahaw Soiree

or Beginners: The Best of M. Ward is a collection for M. Ward fans of any vintage. Gathering together 14 tracks from across his Merge Records discography, including the newly recorded song “Cry,” For Beginners is both a primer and a mixtape of favorites sequenced in a way that gives them new life.&nbsp;Beginning with “Chinese Translation” and “Poison Cup” from 2006’s Post-War, For Beginners drops in on Ward as he expands his prowess in the studio. His singular cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” from 2003’s Transfiguration of Vincent, breaks out into the exuberant “Never Had Nobody Like You” from 2009’s Hold Time. Rather than the neat evolutionary line suggested by a chronological arrangement, what holds For Beginners together is Ward’s impeccable skill as a songwriter, which remains in focus as his sound expands from low-fi home recordings to electric, radio-ready stompers. Serendipitously timed for release during Merge Records’ 35- year anniversary, this celebration of one of the label’s most beloved artists includes “Cry”—his first new recording on Merge since 2018—a stripped-down cover of the Godley &amp; Creme pop classic featuring Melbourne, Australia’s Folk Bitch Trio.&nbsp;M. Ward on “Cry”:“Cry” was recorded in a Tasmanian modern art museum called MONA. I sat at the end of a long hallway a few feet away from Anselm Kiefer’s sculpture of a 20-foot-high stack of lead books, and standing to my left and right around a single microphone were Melbourne’s Folk Bitch Trio; we rehearsed and recorded “Cry” in about 30 minutes. A pleasure to add this song to a collection of some of my favorite memories of music-making during the first decade of record-creating with my friends at Merge.&nbsp;The song is the perfect capstone for a collection of this nature, summing up much of Ward’s power as a musician: the richness he’s capable of achieving in sparse recordings, his knack for collaboration, and his ability to see through to the soul of a meticulously crafted pop song—as much a means of looking forward to what’s to come of his own work as it is a callback to his past.&nbsp;

M. Ward

If you'd like to donate to this tour and Abuela Daira's work for justice and healing in Colombia, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-daira-quinones-on-tour" target="_blank" style="color: var(--paragraphLinkColor); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">visit our fundraiser</a> . All money raised after covering the material expenses of the tour goes directly to Daira Quiñones and her de ella community organization de ella AMDAE.

Daira Quiñones

It was the silence as much as the disease that proved so unsettling. The world had gone inside, underground, taking with it some of its more destructive aspects. The clean and clear air in major cities was a jarring reminder of the airborne rot we had grown used to. Stuck indoors, we went stir crazy, imagined new worlds, dystopian worlds, apocalypses of the small and large variety. There were viral social media stories, most of them fake, about animals reoccupying cities, dolphins taking back the canals of Venice, elephants getting drunk in abandoned Chinese corn wine distilleries and passing out in tea gardens . In those first fearful days of the pandemic, we wrote ourselves out of existence and imagined what the world would be like without us. We missed the noise; we carried it inside us. We tried to find melody in the madness.Most of us have lived some inner Tropical Fuck Storm over this past year and a half. Gareth Liddiard, frontman for the Aussie band with a name perfectly suited to the times, was like the rest of us in feeling the malaise. On not writing any new songs for the first six months of the global shutdown, he says, “Why would I? Everything seemed pointless.” Even for a band that’s made a career out of crafting songs attuned to political and social crisis, there was a new bleak in the air, what the band calls “give-a-fuck fatigue.” A Laughing Death in Meatspace and Braindrops, Tropical Fuck Storm’s 2018 and 2019 records, probed the destructive force of consumerist culture, the imperialistic reaches of the United States, the threat posed by a warming planet. The band wedded a brave new worldview to an ever lively acid punk sound. Which made you sometimes despair. While still wanting to dance.Deep States mines familiar ground as well as new cultural terrains, while digging deeper into the subjective state of contemporary panic. Over the last five years, you didn’t have to be conspiratorial to see the conspiracies everywhere you turned; and Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin, Erica Dunn, and Lauren Hammel, the Tropical Fuck Storm collective, know how to make friends with the strange. They invite our paranoia and fatigue. “It’s a permanent state,” Liddiard sings, “war made the State, the State made war, what’s the point of worrying ’bout it anymore?” The band chronicles weird adventures in statecraft and surveillance, ponders the global infatuation with resurgent fascisms. Tropical Fuck Storm shines an incandescent light on a world in which corporate media, bad-faith leaders, and charismatics of all stripes lose the ability to recognize their own deceptiveness.At times we’re tempted to call Deep States a protest album, though it’s not, quite. The band is far too wary of the self-importance attached to songs in the didactic mode. “We make pop records,” Liddiard says, “that don’t deny we’re all in a bit of trouble here.” But Tropical Fuck Storm does their preaching on the sly, always cognizant of the fact they are making pop music, after all, no matter how avant-garde or “out there” it gets. Deep States comes complete with Q drops, nods to the January 6 th Capitol Riot, a riff on pizzagate, MAGAs squaring off with Antifas, waterboarded Martians, dangerous cults from Heaven’s Gate to The Shining Path and, not to be outdone, Romeo agents who bed us at night only to betray us by morning. We live in a world in which the bizarre has become the normative, and Tropical Fuck Storm plumbs that paradox.On “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” Jesus comes back from the grave to warn humankind off our collective bloodlust and fondness for the “end of days.” Deep States is rife with characters in a God-awful hurry to court catastrophe and global conflict. In that same vein, “Blue Beam Baby” offers a pining homage to Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot as she tried to breach the U.S. Capitol, her MAGA heart warped by that Blue Beam conspiracy theory involving NASA, Antichrists, and technology, presumably as updated by Q. And yet Tropical Fuck Storm, ever connoisseurs of the weird, makes us shed a tear for her. If a fanatic never broke your heart, just wait until you hear Liddiard playing the part of a MAGA martyr’s lover, crooning in Shane MacGowan-esque throaty blues while Kitschin and Dunn whisper eerie-sweet harmonies, like sympathetic brainwashing angels, beckoning us to follow into the blue light.What makes Tropical Fuck Storm so great is the intersection between their dark but satiric storytelling and musical arrangements intent on perverting received canons and wisdoms. Entering into a Tropical Fuck Storm song is like arriving late to a live show where everybody’s grooving and too far gone to notice you. Even though the track has already been cut, you feel as though the band’s still improvising, making it all up as you listen. These are songs as experiment, advancing and retreating at their own idiosyncratic, deeply unsettling pace. They hang on the slant beat and slide into jazzy, distortion-packed jams so tumultuous they’d make Charlie Mingus proud. Musically, Deep States goes wherever it wants, riffing on pop, R&amp;B, Talking Heads-style new wave, Delta blues, Tom Waits, and some of the band’s hip-hop favorites such as Wu-Tang Clan and Missy Elliot. Barriers aren’t just broken, they seem to have completely fallen away.In a world where everything is digitized there is no musical past. The record store bin has gone virtual, as vast as eternity. It’s all right here, right now, timeless in the most literal sense possible. Which is all the more reason why a song such as “New Romeo Agent,” with its glorious mash-up of contemporary and historical influences, ought to be topping the charts. At once spooky, sweetly sad, and off kilter — Erica Dunn doing a world-weary Debbie Harry — the song is a reminder of the melody within even the most feedback-heavy of the band’s arrangements.As we write this, parts of the world are opening up, or trying to. But Tropical Fuck Storm is here to remind us that many of our most urgent political and social problems have been around a long time now. Same as it ever was, as another genre bending band once sang. As the signs of latest crisis subside, and the dull ache of awareness with it, Deep States will be here to remind us that there is no foreseeable end to human folly, nor, fortunately, to the creativity that resists it. Over the past few years we’ve all heard the noise in our own heads. Tropical Fuck Storm has made music of it.-R. Clifton Spargo &amp; Anne K. Ream

Tropical Fuck Storm

<h2 style="text-align: start">SLAUGHTER BEACH, DOG</h2>From the Desk of Craig Finn Hey, I just got off the phone with Jake Ewald. He says hello. I called him to tell him I’ve been digging the new Slaughter Beach Dog album he’d sent me. I’d been playing it around the house a lot, and had a question about it. He picked up on the first ring and told me that it’s called Crying Laughing Waving Smiling and that it’s going to come out on September 22nd on Lame-O Records. That wasn’t really my question, but I guess it’s good to know. I actually called to ask him if his van really got stolen. He mentions it in one of my favorite songs on the record, called “Engine”. I’ve been a fan of Slaughter Beach Dog for a little while now, and I know that Jake can tell a fantastic story, though I also know a great storyteller can stretch the truth. But Jake said his van really did get stolen in 2020, right at the top of the pandemic. It’s also true that just a little while later he moved from Philadelphia, where he’d been living for a decade, to a house in the Poconos. Once there, he found he had less distraction and a calmer mind. He started going for walks and listening to music. He found some new appreciation for the “old guys”, as he said on the phone- Neil Young, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, those types. Personally, I’d call them the “classic guys”, but I’m a bit older so I’m probably somewhat defensive about age. Anyways, to me it seems like some of this might have led to an old school approach to making a record. In July 2022, the whole Slaughter Beach, Dog band (Jake, Zach, Ian, Adam, Logan) gathered at their long time studio The Metal Shop back in Philly with a bunch of songs Jake had written over the past two years. Jake would show them a new song, singing and playing an acoustic guitar, and then the band would all play what they were hearing for the song. Classic, human, and not overthought. They’d talked before entering the studio about this approach: emphasising the instinctual, not being afraid, listening to each other. The band caught fire. They captured fifteen songs in the first five days. The priority throughout was serving the song. I’ve been listening for days now. I can tell you these songs got served. There’s beautiful space in everything. It’s patient and aware. I’ve always admired Jake’s eye for detail, and it’s on full display here. It’s an album filled with gorgeous imagery and vivid worlds are built within each song. I see it all. He careens around the country (New Jersey, Baton Rouge, San Antonio, Florida, Georgia) and engages his tastebuds (spinach, cheddar, caviar, buttercream, margaritas). He’s tender in bars and funny in cars. And vice versa. Most impressively to me, he consistently finds the divine and sacred in the everyday: church pews in a diner, toast bearing the image of Christ. It’s my opinion that every record is about growing up- we all have to get a little older before we make the next one. But Crying Laughing Waving Smiling examines a particular weightlessness that is part of spreading wings, putting down roots, trying to grab a hold of something. This is how it feels when you’re making the moves that you make while becoming the person that you’re going to be. A few months back I watched Slaughter Beach Dog play a sold out club in Brooklyn. The band was awesome, and the audience sang every damn one of the words to their songs back to them. It was impressive. But I know it’s not effortless, and Jake Ewald has been persistent. Starting with Modern Baseball, he’s led two different bands over countless tours of this country. He’s gathered fans around the world. He’s dedicated his life to rock and roll. He told me that sounds dramatic. Probably, but it’s also true. So as much as it speaks to our own modern age, my favorite part of this record is its timelessness. Before I got off the phone with Jake, I told him that this sounds like a record we’ll listen to in ten years, twenty years, beyond. It should get more and more people into Slaughter Beach Dog and the already deep catalog of music they’ve built. Next time I see the band, there will be even more people singing every word of every song. I’ll be in the back of the room, raising a toast to my pal Jake, congratulating him on the success of this fantastic record. I just hope he’ll still take my calls.cf

Slaughter Beach, Dog

Doors open at 10:15am for a self-guided warmup&nbsp;Opening circle at 11am90-minute dance wave, followed by an optional closing shareIncluded with Soil Sky Event Pass. Option to purchase a dance-only ticket for $15 on the ticket page.No experience necessary.Newcomers please arrive for the opening circle.Dance in bare feet, socks or dance specific shoes.&nbsp;Please refrain from wearing scents.&nbsp;Bring an open mind and heart.&nbsp;Bring a water bottle.&nbsp;Dancing children are welcome with an attentive guardian. Please help kids preserve the conversation-free dance floor. Small children especially should be kept from running through the space to prevent collision and injury. Ecstatic Dance is an improvisational movement journey led by carefully curated music inspired by Gabrielle Roth's 5Rhythms. Generally, the score, or dance wave, starts slow, builds in energy toward a peak and descends again to stillness. With no verbal guidance or conversation on the dance floor, there is abundant space for presence, creativity, improvisation, feeling and synchronicity to unfold. Practitioners are encouraged to welcome and follow the body’s impulses toward authentic, spontaneous expression which can include a full range of feelings from grief and anger to ecstatic joy and celebration.Ecstatic Dance can be a profound, empowering, playful and prayerful practice for people of diverse bodies, ages, orientations, affiliations and backgrounds. Absolute beginners and long-time practitioners are welcome.&nbsp;In this session, we’ll begin with an opening circle to orient everyone to the practice and co-create a safe and sacred space for movement exploration and connection.If you find that you love the practice and would like to dance more frequently, we invite you to weekly ecstatic dance on Sundays at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://heartwardsanctuary.org/temple-dance-sunday-dance-service/">Heartward Sanctuary</a>, 20 minutes south of Saxapahaw.

Soil and Sky Ecstatic Dance

The evening will include:<ul><li>An Intro to Argentine Tango Workshop with Culture Mill's Co-Directors</li><li>A screening of the full 10 years, 10 stories documentary</li><li>A screen printing party -- Bring your own T-Shirt to transform into Culture Mill swag!</li><li>Rodrigo's Burritos for sale + cash bar</li><li>Light bites, friends, and learn about the 2024-25 season</li></ul>See the Agenda for details. Come for what you wish and stay as long as you like!About tickets:We invite an expansive community, friends new and old, to join us for this event! Tickets are Pay What You Wish with a suggested sliding scale of $10-$30.Your entry includes access to the Intro to Tango Workshop, documentary screening, free Culture Mill screen printing (bring your own T-shirt!), and light refreshments. Rodrigo’s Burritos for sale and a cash bar will be available on-site.About Culture MillFounded in 2014 by dancers/choreographers Murielle Elizéon and Tommy Noonan, Culture Mill’s mission is to foster a creative and inclusive ecosystem through artist residencies, community-centered initiatives, and groundbreaking immersive artworks from local, national, and international artists. Stationed in Saxapahaw, NC, Culture Mill advances embodied interdisciplinary arts, cultivates community, and expands access to arts experiences. Reaching beyond rural Alamance County, the organization's work is shared across the greater Triangle/Triad region of NC. Culture Mill also engages in national and international collaborations through commissions, residencies, workshops, hosting artists from abroad, and touring Culture Mill works. At the intersection of a range of projects is sustained communal practices that center the body and claim the transformational power of art and storytelling. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://www.culturemill.org">www.culturemill.org</a>About the ArtistsMurielle Elizéon, Culture Mill Co-Founder/Director (she/her) is a French dancer, performer, choreographer and teacher. She grew up in Southern France and studied Italian Literature and Dance Aesthetics while completing her dance training. She began her professional dance career in Paris in 1995. As a dancer/performer/choreographer, she has toured her own work and with various dance companies across Europe. As a movement artist, she is interested in the ever-evolving condition of the body and the complexity of human experience, as well as in the creation of diverse temporary communities. She is a skilled, experienced and enthusiastic teacher, having taught for 20 years in across Europe and the US for a diverse public. Murielle has also danced, taught, and performed Argentine Tango for more than 10 years, using the form as a tool to access clarity of intention, body awareness, communication and connection to others.Tommy Noonan, Culture Mill Co-Founder/Director (he/him) is a director, choreographer, writer, performer, and organizer based in Saxapahaw, NC. His trans-disciplinary performances have been presented extensively throughout the US, Germany, France, Portugal, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Norway, and Mexico. His work engages rich and complex dynamics of power, belonging, and ambivalence that arise in the situation of performance itself. Drawing on a range of practices such as contemporary dance, theater, sound installation, somatics, and community facilitation, Tommy’s work circles around the felt sense of an embodied encounter in a specific place and the questions about commonality and difference that result. Tommy has toured smaller creations, his research and work in public space performance have appeared in the Guidebook of Alternative Nows, and his writings on collectivity and organizing have appeared in Fries Theater Journal (Austria), Revisita Obscena (Portugal), and The Performance Journal (NYC).

Culture Mill Season Launch

By buying tickets and attending events at Haw River Ballroom, you agree to our Code of Conduct, which you can read here: <a href="https://bit.ly/HRBCodeOfConduct" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;">https://bit.ly/HRBCodeOfConduct</a>Never seen a show at our venue before and have questions? Please see our FAQs: <a href="https://bit.ly/HRBFAQs" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;">https://bit.ly/HRBFAQs</a>

Saturdays in Saxapahaw Dance Season Finale

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

Caique Vidal & Batuque

Trio Huasteco

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.﻿Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

Country Soul Songbook

Fust

Join us for Appalachian Square Dancing at the beautiful Haw River Ballroom with a caller/ instructor to the fantastic live music of Big Fat Gap! Whether you are a pro or a novice all are welcome! Professional barn dance leader Dave Dobbins will hold a lesson for all before each dance and then the stomping and whirling begins! $15 per person or $40 for a family/party of 4.

"Reminiscent of the glorious sloppiness of Neil Young &amp; Crazy Horse." - Folk Radio UK Cosmic country-rock for weirdos! Wry lyricist and charismatic frontman Charles Latham leads the dynamic, high-octane Borrowed Band (which includes former members of Ben Folds Five, Shooter Jennings, Six-String Drag and more) on a wild ride from ballads to barnstormers. The band closed out 2023 with back-to-back single releases and accompanying videos; the video for "Last Great Never Was" features cameos from local luminaries such as Reese McHenry, Entrez Vous, and more. Charles Latham and the Borrowed Band are founding members of a new collective of alt-country/yallternative/americana bands in the SE, which includes Reese McHenry, Old Heavy Hands, Jack the Radio, the Gone Ghosts and more:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.allyallrecords.com/">All Yall Records</a>.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

Charles Latham and the Borrowed Band

<h3 style="text-align: start">Shirlette Ammons is a Black queer southern truth teller. She is a poet and musician who has also served as producer on Emmy and Peabody award-winning TV &amp; film projects. She is also an identical twin who hails from a tiny, wonderfully-named pocket of eastern North Carolina earth called Beautancus.</h3><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

Shirlette Ammons

Django Haskins

From the opening seconds of “Life Is,” it’s clear that Here in the Pitch is a very different kind of album from Jessica Pratt. The revered Los Angeles artist has become one of the most singular and distinctive songwriters of her generation, largely through the bewitching sound of her acoustic guitar and vocals: a mystical, elusive blend that conjures deep emotional responses from her devoted (and patient) audience. To introduce her first release in half-a-decade, however, we are greeted by neither her breathtaking vocals nor the delicate, sophisticated strum of her guitar. Instead, Pratt’s fourth album begins with a percussion roll that nods instantly to the grand, orchestral style of ’60s pop hits like the Walker Brothers’ “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.”“In a way, it’s kind of a false flag,” Pratt admits of this introduction, considering the rest of the record is just as emotionally intimate and stark as fans have come to expect. “But I also feel like it’s a statement of intention.”Indeed, five years after her breakthrough album, 2019’s Quiet Signs—which marked her first time working in a studio after years of home-recording—Pratt has re-emerged with new ambition and new parameters for what her music can be. Working once again at Gary’s Electric Studio in Brooklyn, NY, with her trusted collaborators—multi-instrumentalist/engineer Al Carlson and keyboardist Matt McDermott—Pratt enlisted the rhythm duo of bassist Spencer Zahn and percussionist Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Atoms for Peace) to help realize her vision. “Having done a studio record prior, I learned how to get to the things you want and how to communicate it to people,” she says. “The process this time was less about exploration of a new tool and more about taking what I learned and going further.”Pratt quickly envisioned a more expansive set of influences—“big panoramic sounds that make you think of the ocean and California”—and the results are evident in the dynamic repertoire of instruments accompanying her graceful, dreamlike melodies. Throughout these nine songs, you will hear timpani and glockenspiel, baritone saxophone and flute alongside robust, layered vocal arrangements that create a triumphant mood, even when the lyrics hint at devastation.To achieve this sense of musical resilience, Pratt cites Pet Sounds as her “north star” in pursuing a fuller production style. But where plenty of artists look to the Beach Boys’ 1966 landmark as the untouchable precedent for symphonic grandeur, Pratt found herself drawn to the shadowy outskirts of those recordings. “It’s the atmospheric silence,” she explains. “There are times when you feel like you’re just hearing the studio for a moment. Those were always so intriguing for me as a young person, feeling like you could reach out and touch the texture of the sound in the air.”If Pratt’s early albums—2012’s word-of-mouth favorite Jessica Pratt and 2015’s devastatingly beautiful On Your Own Love Again—seemed beamed in from a dimly lit bedroom somewhere in the distant past, these songs stand on more solid ground. The tone can range from comforting and even chipper (“When you’ve fallen out, get both feet on the ground,” she reassures during the chiming chorus of “Life Is”) to a haunted, malevolent quality that feels entirely new in her songbook. “I became obsessed with figures emblematic of the dark side of the Californian dream while making this record,” Pratt explains, noting the influence of Los Angeles’ strange, seedy history and the bleak end of the hippy era. This creeping doom and illumination is palpable in the twisted bossa nova groove of “By Hook or by Crook” and the cryptic, antagonistic lyrics on the otherwise sunny, Laurel Canyon-influenced “Better Hate.”“I spend a lot of time worrying and imagining bad things happening,” Pratt confesses. “So maybe the idea of creatively inhabiting a character who wields the power is interesting.” You can hear this playfully villainous perspective emerging in her imagistic lyrics, although the clearest shift is in her vocal performance. While Pratt admits to always seeking inspiration from voices that sound like they’ve been “drug through life,” she worked on these songs to develop a fuller, more physical style that draws from the dignified baritone of Scott Walker and the weathered theatrics of latter-day Judy Garland. Exploring her lower register on the dazzling “World on a String” and the otherworldly piano ballad “Empires Never Know,” esoteric themes and influences led to her most adventurous music yet.Nowhere is Pratt’s evolution clearer than on the closing track, “The Last Year,” which ranks among her most gorgeous and bittersweet compositions to date: a song that feels like it could have existed in the Great American Songbook for ages. “I think it’s gunna be fine/I think we’re gunna be together/And the storyline goes forever,” she sings, tapping into a universal resolution that offers what she calls a “weird optimism” at the end of a record that leads down some admittedly dark roads. (The “pitch” in Here in the Pitch refers to both “pitch darkness” and bitumen, the black viscous substance that forms deep below the surface of the earth.)If a sense of hope is clear in Pratt’s words, it’s even clearer in her performance: placing her voice at the forefront and creating an emotional immediacy that sets this record apart from all her past work. “I never wanted it to take this long. I’m just a real perfectionist,” she explains of the album’s long gestation, which spanned from summer 2020 to the spring of 2023. “I was just trying to get the right feeling, and it takes a long time to do that.” With Here in the Pitch, Pratt comes as close as she ever has to this feeling of perfection, to music you can reach out and touch in the air around you, to summoning with every note the hope and mystery, the horror and romance, that lingers within the silence. Through these songs, she suggests those qualities are precisely what keeps us listening, over and over again, on the edge of our seats.—Sam Sodomsky

Jessica Pratt with @

Established in 1987 by experienced local musicians, the Alamance Jazz Band serves as a member group of Alamance Arts, aiming to offer organized musical learning and performances centered around big band jazz. Comprising 17 instrumentalists and a vocalist, the band has performed everything from outdoor concerts to private events, not only in Alamance County but also in various neighboring cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro. Its diverse membership, spanning multiple professions and ages, rehearses regularly and presents a repertoire encompassing swing hits, jazz standards, contemporary pieces, and even some compositions by area composers<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

Alamance Jazz Band

now&amp;now is an improvisation collective offering accompaniment for spoken word sharingAlison Weiner on keys, Jeff Brown on saxes and Scott Screws on drums

now&now - a project of MahaloArts

"Guaranteed to burn, the Carolina Cutups bring you the best of the North Carolina Piedmont sound with&nbsp;hard-driving bluegrass standards and sweet old-time ballads."<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

The Carolina Cutups

Dance Party

Nat Myers

A natural soul singer and blues musician, Drew Foust’s music sounds like it’s made between thebleary hours of a rock bar’s last call and a southern preacher’s early morning prayer. Handmade, self-made and arranged in dramatic structure, the music is lyrical and rhythm driven,always pushing a feeling forward. His latest release, “Good Thing,” is inspired by the Memphissoul music from the 60’s and 70’s.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a> returns for an entire summer! The weekly festivities include performances by local bands and a thriving Farmer’s Market with fresh local produce, eggs, baked goods, flowers, honey, locally produced microbrews, handmade arts and crafts, food trucks, ice cream and more! Festivities take place every Saturday with the market opening at 5pm and music going from 6 to 8pm from the first Saturday in May through last Saturday in August. Admission is free though donations are appreciated, organizers will have our famous “Swan Buckets” on stage each week and Swan Venmo information posted for the bands! Please give what you can to these wonderful musicians!Things To Know About <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw</a><ul><li>Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are permitted</li><li>No Smoking</li><li>No Dogs or other animals allowed (sorry!)</li><li>ADA recognized Service Animals are allowed but only those trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability</li><li>No Guns allowed on the property (which is private)</li><li>No Soliciting</li><li>BE KIND and UNDERSTANDING to others! This is a free, fun, volunteer run community event. We do it because we love it - let’s all take care of each other and be safe</li></ul>Safety:2 members of the police department will be helping with traffic and and two EMS members of the Eli Whitney Fire Department will be onsite as well each week.Parking: (Scroll Down on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.hawriverballroom.com/saturdays-in-saxapahaw">Saturdays in Saxapahaw page</a> for Map)<ul><li>The main parking meadow of the past is now the new Hawbridge Upper School. There is parking in their lot outside the school.</li><li>Parking is available behind the Saxapahaw Museum in a gravel lot.</li><li>There are new designated parking areas on Pine and Hilltop near and just past the Water Tower.</li><li>There is a parking area to the right of Paperhand Puppet and Haw River Canoe/Kayak.</li><li>There is a large parking area on Saxapahaw Island (closes at 9pm).</li><li>There is a large parking lot at the Saxapahaw United Methodist Church across the bridge.&nbsp;</li><li>PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD or in people’s yards or driveways or blocking residential gates. We love our community and we ask that you respect that people live and work here and need to be able to feel that their homes and property are not affected by people coming in for the event. Cars parked in any of these spaces or over the white line on the road will be towed. We have been warned. Now you have as well.&nbsp;</li></ul>Rainy Days:If it is storming or raining, and if is not an event happening at Haw River Ballroom, we will move the show inside. However, if an event is happening inside Haw River Ballroom, we will have to cancel the event. We will make the call by 4:00 on Saturdays and announce on all our social media accounts should we have to cancel the event.Accessibility:There is very limited parking for vehicles with a handicap permit right next to the site (there will be a policeman right there with a police car and they can help). There are no chairs or seating provided but you are welcome to bring your own and/or we have a section for wheelchairs next to the stage on the flat tarmac.﻿Thanks to Saxapahaw Rivermill and Jordan Properties for supporting Saturdays in Saxapahaw and making the space available. Thanks to the Saxapahaw General Store, Haw River Farmhouse Ales, and to Malik Walker and Anna Elder for helping to organize this event and the market, and thanks to the Haw River Ballroom for hosting, planning, and underwriting the event.

Drew Foust & The Wheelhouse

Tre. Charles is an Alternative/Indie Soul artist who dives into the depths of his soul and invites you into his world with an expressive blend of warm and soulful undertones, profound and powerful lyrics, and emotive crooning; all of which helps you navigate your way through the encompassing experience. Growing up along the East Coast from city to city, Tre. Charles has been exposed to a myriad of different customs and cultures. It is from these experiences that he has cultivated a sound of his own, which pays homage to his nomadic upbringing and lifestyle. With Charles not having been formally trained in music, it adds to his unassuming yet commanding allure. His sound has drawn comparisons of modern talents like Sampha, Hozier, and James Blake but also glints of classic pioneers like Muddy Waters and Lauryn Hill. With hints of avant-garde R&amp;B, modern indie flares, and ambient soul, Charles’ honest &amp; thought provoking music has the ability to make every performance feel like a transformative experience.&nbsp;Pitchfork contributor Brian Howe has described Tre. Charles’s sound as&nbsp; “stretched and shifted vocal harmonies, and long-tailed reverbs and delays that hum like cathedrals.” Howe also goes on to say “This labyrinth of sound, blurred at the edges yet sharply etched in the middle, is where we find his just-woke-up voice and glinting guitar, his fingers tweezing jazzy splinters from thick barre chords. The overall effect is calming, but in a transfixing, time-halting way, like dancing candlelight.”

Tre. Charles

XOXOK

Jenny Lewis released her fourth and most critically acclaimed solo album to date, On TheLine (WarnerRecords), on March 22, 2019. Recorded at the distinguished Capitol Studios, the album features a who’s who of supporting players including Beck, Don Was, Benmont Tench, Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr, Beck sidemen Jason Falkner and Smokey Hormel among others. On The Line continues to generate rave reviews, with Vulture declaring it her “best work to date,” and top spots on Best of 2019 (So Far)lists including Rolling Stone, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today and AV Club. A culmination ofLewis’ prolific 20+ year career, On The Line follows her three previous solo albums—2014’s TheVoyager (Warner Records), 2008’s Acid Tongue (Warner Records) and her 2006 solo debut Rabbit FurCoat (Team Love)—as well as her universally-loved work in Rilo Kiley and side projects Nice As Fuck,Jenny &amp; Johnny, as well as The Postal Service. After a globe-spanning 2019 tour that saw her headline the likes of The Ryman, Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre, and a very special stop at NPR Music’sTiny Desk,Jenny spent 2020 and 2021 recording new music, including the Dave Cobb-produced, “Puppy and A Truck, and captivating audiences as special guest of Harry Styles for Love On Tour. With no signs of slowing down for 2022, Jenny Lewis is fastidiously at work in the studio and on tour as she prepares to hit the road with The Chicks in addition to her own headlining dates.

Jenny Lewis

Country Cruel

Four years on from the release of their unexpectedly self-assured debut album, NYC based Nation of Language have attracted a rapidly growing international audience via their danceable and impassioned take on new wave, post-punk &amp; shoegaze genres. Following the critical acclaim of their their first LP Introduction, Presence, its 2021 follow-up A Way Forward pushed them to a wider audience—landing them their late-night TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a string of sold out tours—and their 2023 record Strange Disciple has continued this momentum, landing Rough Trade’s coveted #1 album of the year spot. Now a mainstay atop lists of the best live acts of recent years, the band continue to charge synth-first into their latest chapter as a major festival draw at recent iterations of Austin City Limits Festival, Desert Daze, Pitchfork Festival, Primavera Sound, Corona Capital, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo and many others.

Nation of Language

Magic Al ft. Lou Hazel

Featuring Poets: Dr. L. Theresa ChurchLenard D. MooreCrystal Simone SmithDr. Sheila Smith McKoyGideon YoungDR. L. TERESA CHURCH has been a member of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective since 1995 and serves as archivist and membership chairperson for the organization. Her writings have appeared in publications such as Simply Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Solo Café, Nocturnes: (Re)view of the Literary Arts, African American Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and her chapbooks Hand-Me-Down Calicos and Beyond the Water Dance. She is an independent scholar/archival consultant and sole proprietor of LTC Consulting, in Durham, North Carolina. LENARD D. MOORE, a native of North Carolina, and U.S. Army Veteran, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective. Moore’s work has appeared in over 400 publications, such as Callaloo, African American Review, Obsidian, Prairie Schooner, North Carolina Literary Review, and North American Review. His work also has appeared in over 100 anthologies, including The Haiku Anthology (Norton, 1999). His poetry has been translated into several languages. His books include The Open Eye (NC Haiku Society Press, 1985), The Open Eye, Limited 30th Anniversary Edition (Mountains &amp; Rivers Press, 2015), among others. Another collection, The Geography of Jazz, is forthcoming. He is recipient of the Haiku Museum of Tokyo Award (1983, 1994 and 2003), 1992 First Prize Winner in Traditional Style Haiku sponsored by Mainichi Daily News (Tokyo, Japan), Sam Ragan Award in the Fine Arts (2006) Raleigh Medal of Arts for Lifetime Achievement (2008), and North Carolina Award for Literature (2014). He is a Cave Canem Fellow (1998-2000). He is former President of the Haiku Society of America and the longtime Executive Chairman of the NC Haiku Society. Mr. Moore, Associate Professor of English, teaches Creative Writing and African American Literature at the University of Mount Olive. CRYSTAL SIMONE SMITH is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Routes Home (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and Running Music (Longleaf Press, 2014). She is also the author of Wildflowers: Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun (2016). Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Callaloo, Nimrod, Barrow Street, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, African American Review, and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. She is an alumna of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Yale Summer Writers Conference. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Durham, NC, with her husband and two sons. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Elon University and Greensboro College and the Managing Editor of Backbone Press. DR. SHEILA SMITH McKOY is professor of English and chair at Kennesaw State University. A Raleigh, NC, native, Smith McKoy is a poet, fiction writer, critic, and documentary filmmaker. Her work has appeared in the Schomburg series African American Women Writers 1910–1940, Black Gold, Callaloo, Contours, Journal of Ethnic American Literature, Mythium, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Research for African Literatures, Valley Voices, and the College Language Association Journal. Smith McKoy’s books include The Elizabeth Keckley Reader (Volume 1, 2016; Volume 2, 2017) and When Whites Riot: Writing Race and Violence in American and South African Cultures (2001). GIDEON YOUNG is a native of Connecticut. A member of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective, the Haiku Society of America, and the Carrboro Poets Council, his poetry has appeared in Backbone Press, Carve Magazine, Modern Haiku, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Spillway, The White Elephant, Wild Plum Haiku, and The Elizabeth Keckley Reader: A Determined Life, Volume 2. Young earned a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from North Carolina State University and Bachelor’s in Literature from the University of Connecticut. He is a Teaching Fellow for A+ Schools of North Carolina and a Title 1 Elementary Literacy Specialist.

Haw River in the Round Poetry Reading & Open Mic

Ephemeral Stream and Redford Wives

In the ever-evolving landscape of music, certain artists emerge like beacons of innovation, reshaping genres and leaving an indelible mark on listeners. Among them is the incomparable Shana Tucker: captivating vocalist, lyrical cellist, dynamic storyteller and pioneer of the genre she coined as "ChamberSoul". With each performance and each song, Shana reaffirms her status as a luminary, captivating audiences worldwide on cello and voice with her distinctive blend of jazzy-soulful melodies and classic sophistication. Shana will be releasing her highly anticipated second full-length project, Hiding in the Light (MamaGooch Music) in late Spring 2024. Known for her mesmerizing performances and endearing audience interplay, Shana continues to push boundaries and inspire with her unique ChamberSoul style, blending jazz, soul, and acoustic pop into an unforgettable musical experience. Hiding in the Light features a collection of songs requested by Shana's devoted audiences over the years, including renditions of thoughtfully reimagined classics such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, "Overjoyed" by Stevie Wonder, and "Kiss of Life" by Sade. With this project, Shana is poised to captivate audiences with her timeless artistry. This new album of fan favorites will prove to be an ideal mechanism for fast-track trajectory into the next chapter in her musical journey. Experience the magic of Shana's music firsthand at her Hiding in the Light album release concert on Sunday, June 9, 2024, which will take place at 3:00 PM at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, NC.

SHANA TUCKER: Hiding in the Light Album Release Concert (Jazz)

Prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar boldly reforges contemporary Saharan music and “rock music“ by melding Eddie Van Halen pyrotechnics, full-blast noise and guitar shredding, field recordings, drums rhythms, poetic meditations on love, religion, women’s rights, inequality and Western Africa’s exploitation at the hands of colonial powers to rip a new hole in the sky with the Afrique Victime album.Mdou Moctar’s home is Agadez, a desert village in rural Niger. Inspired by YouTube videos of Eddie Van Halen’s six string techniques and traditional Tuareg melodies, he mastered the guitar which he himself built and created his own burning style.&nbsp; A born charismatic, Mdou went on to tell his story as an aspiring artist by writing, producing &amp; starring in the first Tuareg language film: a remake of Purple Rain called Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai -&nbsp; which translates to “Rain The Color Of Blue With A Little Red In It”, winning the approval of his family and his community. The word and the sound travelled across West Africa via mobile phone data cards, a popular form of local music distribution. Gruelling DIY world tours and albums on the independent US label Sahel Sounds followed, including 2019’s landmark Ilana: The Creator album that earned Mdou Moctar an ecstatic international audience.Afrique Victime is result of the combined efforts of Mdou and the members of the band that shares his name. Mdou’s crucial collaborator is Ahmoudou Madassane, who’s been his rhythm guitarist since 2008- their two guitars are an alchemical combination. As a songwriter, producer and recording artist Ahmoudou is the premier musical ambassador to Tuaregs in Niger, empowering young musicians with instruments, recording opportunities, and visas. Masassane helped form the revolutionary first woman-fronted Tuareg guitar band Les Filles De Illighadad, whose debut album and tours caused an international sensation in 2019.The band‘s youngest member is prodigal drummer Souleymane Ibrahim, also a member of both the well-known Niger band Sultanat Star De L’air and the longest running wedding band in Agadez, Etran De L’air. Souleymane’s playing on this album ferociously sets a new standard for the “rock” drumset.Producer &amp; bassist Mikey Coltun flies 20 hours from Brooklyn, NYC, then takes a 28 hour bus ride to reach Agadez so the band can practice and record. With no support from a major label or a manager, they made this journey out of Niger every time they toured. In the past three years, Mikey’s played over 500 shows on three continents as Mdou Moctar’s bassist, road manager, producer/recording engineer, and friend. Coltun recorded and produced Afrique Victime around the band’s travels in 2019- in studios, apartments, hotel rooms, venue backstages, and in field recordings in Niger.Recording and honing songs as a touring outfit forged a livewire new sound, and If Ilana was a late ’60s early ’70s ZZ Top and Black Sabbath record – Afrique Victime is mid ’70s to early ’80s Van Halen meets Black Flag meets Black Uhuru. The ferocity of Moctar’s electric guitar and the band’s hypnotic rhythm section are on awe-inspiring display on songs like “Chismiten” and the mournful yet incandescent title track. Elsewhere, Moctar finds inspiration in highlighting lesser known facets of the group: “While people have gotten to know Mdou Moctar as a rock band, there is a whole different set of music with this band done on acoustic guitars which we wanted to incorporate into this album in order to go through a sonic journey,” he says. Mdou pays homage to one of his heroes Abdallah Ag Oumbadagou, the legendary Niger musician and political revolutionary, on songs “Habibti” and “Layla”. “Abdallah was a contemporary of Tinariwen and helped to pioneer the sound of Tuareg guitar music blended with drum machines and electronic sounds”.“From prison to Nobel prize. They ceded to Mandela / Africa is a victim of so many crimes / If we stay silent it will be the end of us / Why is this happening?“ Moctar asks on the heartfelt and rallying title track. “I want the world to know that we are making music to promote world peace and be with everyone on the same level, fighting against racism”, he says. “All colors and genders are equal. Women, Men and children all suffer in the desert due to the colonization by France and therefore there is a lack of the basics - hospitals, drinking water, schools.”  The needs of Agadez are a major part of what drives Moctar as an artist, and promoting the region’s youth through music is an especially personal cause. “I know what it’s like to have been in that position,” he says, “to not have the support of your family, or the money for guitars or strings, it’s really hard. I have a lot of support from the younger generation, because I help them out a lot. When I get back from tour, I give them gear that I bought while I was away so they can go out and form their own bands.” Says Coltun:&nbsp; “In Agadez the music and feeling at Tuareg weddings is exactly like the best of Western DIY/Punk shows. It’s loud, energetic and powerful. There is a sense of everyone helping out. Tuaregs are a tight community. If you’re Tuareg you’re considered family.”The music listeners are the beneficiaries of the staggeringly powerful do-it-yourself musical ethic of Mdou Moctar- the man and the band- who’ve worked so hard to bring the spirits of families and communities in Niger to the West. Afrique Victime sounds and feels like a Tuareg hand reaching down from the sky, and we are very lucky for this chance to get lifted.

Mdou Moctar

Paul McDonald and the Mourning Doves

Romantic Animal and Bridge to Nowhere

Skylar Gudasz

A band for 15 years now, with a half-dozen records to its canny name, Real Estate knows how the press cycle inevitably goes: Someone somewhere at last had a realization about what their songs needed to say and how they should sound, so (at least according to brief biographies like this one) they finally made the best album of their career. But here’s the thing: Real Estate has been so consistently compelling for those 15 years, with their coruscant indie rock shuffles perfectly reflecting the spellbinding glow of suburban ennui, that they know when they have done it. That is, they know when they have written songs that shimmer and fetch and radiate despite or because of the gloom lurking in their grooves. It is the gift and curse of self-awareness, of sticking together since childhood.&nbsp; So Real Estate, in turn, needs you to know that Daniel—their sixth full-length album, recorded in an ebullient nine-day spree in RCA Studio A, in Nashville with celebrated producer and songwriter Daniel Tashian—is quite possibly their best album. In 11 compulsively tuneful songs, they connect the uninhibited wonder of their earliest work with the earned perspective of adulthood. What more could you need from Real Estate at 15? Martin Courtney knew he wanted to write a pop record, a set of instantly accessible songs where the chorus arrived in, say, the first 40 seconds. During the last decade, or essentially since making Atlas, Real Estate did what was only natural for any beloved and freshly aging indie rock institution: They gently pushed back against praise as an effortlessly melodic and quietly radiant band. Colors darkened. Textures curdled. Songs stretched toward the six- and even seven-minute mark. But what if, as Courtney and cofounder Alex Bleeker often say these days, they again just “Let Real Estate be Real Estate,” to shimmer and fetch and radiate without hesitation or second guesses? Courtney actually learned of Tashian through his daughter, who adored an album he’d produced, Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour. The band reached out and spotted an instant connection despite their distinct wheelhouses—the Grammy-winning Nashville country-pop guy who’d helmed several smashes and the Northeast indie rock quintet with narcotic guitars. Real Estate had never really worked with anyone who wasn’t already a bud. There in Dave Cobb’s famous Nashville lair, Tashian was not shy with his outsider advice about how to boost this song or that one, even playfully throwing the occasional candy bar to emphasize he wanted to hear more. Real Estate had been thinking about R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People and ’90s “soft-rock radio,” the background music of their youth. Tashian helped lead them back toward it, toward an improved edition of the less self-conscious band they’d been at the start. Daniel certainly sounds like classic Real Estate, simply leveled up with the subtle but unabashed touches of a producer who has actually lived inside pop powerhouses. The chiming guitars and plaintive verses of “Haunted World” summon the band that first emerged to acclaim in 2009, with Courtney doing his best to sing his way around existential confusion. But in the chorus, dexterous instrumental harmonies (that’s Nashville ace Justin Schipper on pedal steel) and faint backing vocals propel the song anew, its tight hook snagging in a second. Tashian suggested they fortify the refrain, and he was right.&nbsp; Or there’s the marvelous thrum of “Airdrop,” with Bleeker’s busy bass and Sammi Niss’ insistent drums pushing Courtney into the wistful chorus as if he’s riding a hang glider. “The sun went down/We let it,” he sings four times to end the song, the lines essentially built to be cooed back at him from a crowd. “Never been so contented/I won’t ever forget it.” That’s Real Estate’s long-relatable smiling sadness, lifted in proper Music City style. Listen, too, for Real Estate’s squiggly versions of classic Nashville licks during “Flowers,” where the mercury of pedal steel and the twinkle of a Wurlitzer illuminate acoustic strums like stars in the night sky. A song of dislocation and constancy, it’s a reminder of the common way we use music no matter the genre or scene—to find our way forward. Daniel is a complete string of these compulsive moments: the crisscrossed harmonies of “Water Underground,” the delightful sway and rise of “Market Street,” the enchanting but deceptive simplicity of “Interior.” Real Estate manages the rarest of pop tricks here—to sound effortless but be artful, with all the flourishes and tricks tucked so smartly into songs that you only spot them when you unpack what makes all the tunes so winning and sticky. But this, of course, is not the Real Estate of their MP3-blog salad days. Four members are married, with Niss in a long-term relationship. There are actual kids in the equation now. And the world outside has darkened considerably in 15 years, in all those ways that require no recounting here. Time and again, Daniel wrestles with that juxtaposition—external alienation and madness, internal responsibility and hope. These are songs of confusion, of trying to find a way to be present and better in broken times. “Now and then, I can pretend the sun is shining,” Courtney admits during “Freeze Brain,” the keys of Matthew Kallman and guitars of Julian Lynch framing a lambent haze around him. “Let’s let some light in.” Ain’t that the struggle, to find some joy despite all the forces that filch it from us?&nbsp; In Nashville, all five members of Real Estate shared a rental, cutting up in close quarters after the imposition of separation of these last few years. Several days into recording, they were discussing album titles when someone suggested “Daniel,” simply because it seemed funny to bestow a human name upon a record. Was it for Daniel Tashian? Maybe. Was it a nod to The Replacements’ Tim? Possibly. Was it the sign of a band that has now been around long enough to take its music seriously without taking itself or its perception too seriously? Absolutely.&nbsp; Daniel is a record of wonderful pop songs, its string of hooks and stream of worry irresistibly connected in the way few bands have ever done better than Real Estate. But perhaps just as important, it is an expression of the self-acceptance that can come with maturity, with realizing it’s enough to be who you want to be. “What is it that you want to hear? There’s only so much time,” Courtney croons during “You Are Here,” Daniel’s ingenious and strutting finale. “Best we can do is be happy here/Sing another line.” It is a mission statement for Real Estate at 15, a reminder that they are the band of their childhood dreams and that is cool. To that end, they’ve never been better at being Real Estate than they are right now, on Daniel, their new best album yet.

Real Estate

John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff

Mallarmé Music (formerly&nbsp;Mallarmé&nbsp;Chamber Players) has been bringing world-class chamber music to central North Carolina since 1984. Based in Durham, NC we strive to bring together great music with other art forms, as well as expand the definition of chamber music.

Series Concert: Schubertiad 3

Music Improv Night

CANCELLED: Tray Wellington

Jodi Jones was raised under the roof of the house her great-great grandfather built in a small former textile mill town in the foothills of Western Pennsylvania. She possesses an intimate familiarity of the region’s past and present, and is guided by hopes for its future. Her songwriting acts as a mirror for contemporary life in the historically underrepresented Alleghany coal country and its surrounding regions whose old-time traditions serve as her paint brush.

Jodi Jones and Josh Moore

Silent Bid on Art by Village Kid Creatives for A Good CauseDrinks and Pastries Available for PurchaseFree EntryFamilies &amp; Community Welcome!

The Itty Bid-y Art Action

By buying tickets and attending events at Haw River Ballroom, you agree to our Code of Conduct, which you can read here: <a href="https://bit.ly/HRBCodeOfConduct" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/HRBCodeOfConduct</a>Never seen a show at our venue before and have questions? Please see our FAQs:<a href="https://bit.ly/HRBFAQs" target="_blank"> https://bit.ly/HRBFAQs</a> Upon purchasing tickets, you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not find it in your inbox, please check your spam box for that email. You can also see your tickets here: <a href="https://my.venuepilot.co/login%20" target="_blank">https://my.venuepilot.co/login</a>Please note that all tickets are non-refundable.

Barn Dance with Big Fat Gap

HAW RIVER FEST (NEW DATE) + Big Fat Gap

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://ironandwine.com/wcsf/">Who Can See Forever</a> is the first ever in-depth look into the life and music of Iron &amp; Wine’s Sam Beam. Initially conceived as a live document, Who Can See Forever grew into a deeper study of its enigmatic subject as director Josh Sliffe spent more and more time on the road. Shot over the course of three years and using the traditional concert film as his jumping-off point, Sliffe digs into the myth and ethos of Iron &amp; Wine through a series of interviews and unguarded behind-the-scenes footage that welcome the viewer into the center of Beam’s universe.Some performances from this film were originally shot at the Haw River Ballroom.

Who Can See Forever: A Portrait of Iron & Wine

A Different Thread is a transatlantic band fronted by Alicia Best from Durham, North Carolina, and Robert Jackson from the Midlands of England. The two met busking in Ireland in 2016 and have been on the road ever since, touring and creating original music together. Pulling from their respective roots, they weave together elements of 70s’ Folk Revival, Country, and Appalachian Blues into a timeless blend of Americana, delivered with breathtaking harmonies, fiddle, harmonica, guitar, ukulele, and percussion.Their music has garnered the attention of the BBC and NPR radio and landed them support slots with the likes of Jody Stevens (Big Star) Native Harrow, and the Milk Carton Kids. Even country legend, Steve Earl, praised their live performance at Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival where the artists shared a bill. Their intimate blend of raw vocals and atmospheric instrumentation is reminiscent of The Band, Bert Jansch, and Joni Mitchell, with a nod to more contemporary artists such as The Wood Brothers, Rhiannon Giddens and Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. The band released their second album, Call of the Road, in September last year, followed by a UK tour with double bass player, Mike Seal. The new album was recorded in Bristol, UK, with producer Luke Cawthra (Phantom Limb) and the Folk duo, Chris Elliott and Caitlin Jones. Written over lockdown, these eleven songs deal with the themes of love, loss, wanderlust, and life on the open road.

Hooligan's Joy and A Different Thread

The first sound you hear is a sustained feedback note that hangs in the air with the grace of a dragonfly before an acoustic riff spirals out of it, soaring upwards. It’s blissful and sun-soaked, like a late summer haze blurring out all the details on the horizon. When voices join the music, they arrive perfectly locked together, honed in on a single melody: “It’s time to move along/and leave the past behind me…” The message is simple. Don’t look back, only forward.“Foreign Land” is the opening track on Teenage Fanclub’s eleventh full studio album, Nothing Lasts Forever. That track— and the rest of this beautifully rich and melodic album—is thesound of a season’s end, of the last warm days of the year while nights begin to draw in and thoughts become reflective and more than a little melancholy.That reflection is everywhere on the record, whether on the autumnal folk rock of “Tired of Being Alone” that repositions Laurel Canyon to somewhere deep in the heart of the Wye Valley, the William Blake–quoting “Self-Sedation,” or on the song that preceded Nothing Lasts Forever’s completion, last year’s“I Left a Light On,” where a spark of hope is kept alight at the end of a relationship.One of the recurring themes on Nothing Lasts Forever is light, as both a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. Although the band’s songwriters Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley found themselves touching on similar themes, it was pure coincidence.Raymond: “We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record. We don’t plan much other than the nuts and bolts of where we’re going to record and when. That thing about light was completely accidental; we didn’t realize that until we’d finished half the songs. The record feels reflective,and I think the more we do this thing, the more we become comfortable with going to that place of melancholy, feeling and expressing those feelings. Recording vocals is a fairly intense process. We’re in close contact in those moments. If you’re spending time in close proximity, it’s inevitable ideas are goingto rub off on each other.”Norman: “These songs are definitely personal. You’re getting older, you’re going into the cupboard getting the black suit out more often. Thoughts of mortality and the idea of the light musthave been playing on our minds a lot. The songs on the last record were influenced by the breakup of my marriage. It was cathartic to write those songs. These new songs are reflective of how I’m feeling now, coming out of that period. They’re fairly optimistic, there’s an acceptance of a situation and all of theexperience that comes with that acceptance. When we write, it’s a reflection of our lives, which are pretty ordinary. We’re not extraordinary people, and normal people get older. There’s a lot to write about in the mundane. I love reading Raymond Carver. Very often there’s not a lot that happens in those stories, but they speak to lived experience.”While the vocals and the finishing touches on Nothing Lasts Forever were recorded at Raymond’s place in Glasgow, the music was recorded in an intense ten-day period in the bucolic Welsh countryside at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth, in late August. You can hear the effect of that environment on therecord—it’s full of soft breeze, wide skies, beauty, and space.Raymond: “We like to get something out of where we go, and you can definitely hear a stamp of Rockfield on the record. We recorded our album Howdy there in the late ’90s. Prior to that, I’d been a bit reluctant to go as everyone seemed to record there, especially if you were signed to Creation, but I thought I’d goand have a look at the place. When I went down there, I loved the fact that there’s no memorabilia about anyone who’s ever been in the studio. The only visual musical reference is a picture of Joe Meek on their office wall. Anyway, over 20 years after our first visit, we decided to go back. When you’re there, it feelslike your place. We’re really rubbish at trying to find words to describe how our music sounds, but maybe because we recorded in Rockfield in late summer, there’s something pastoral about the record.”The band that recorded Nothing Lasts Forever—Blake and McGinley along with Francis Macdonald on drums, Dave McGowan on bass, and Euros Childs on keyboards—arrived at the residential studio without a fixed plan. Their confidence and ease with working together meant the record came together incredibly quickly.Raymond: “When we got offered ten days in Rockfield, we weren’t ready in our minds, but then we just thought, ‘fuck it’ and went for it. If you’re sitting around waiting for the stars to align, you can end up never doing anything. We turned up and worked our way through ideas, and came up with some whilewe were there. The song ‘Foreign Land’ was born in the studio. If we hadn’t gone there at that point through happenstance, that song wouldn’t exist. We like to let things happen. As people, we find a deadline inspiring. We like to put ourselves on the spot and see what happens. We usually get away with it. This record is the cliché of the blank canvas, which thankfully we managed to fill.”Norman: “We’ve all been playing together for such a long time— and I can include Euros in that because we’ve been playing together for nearly 15 years [the duo formed the band Jonny and released an album on Merge in 2011]. In the past, whoever had written the song would have been the director. ‘This is how I’m hearing the drums, if you could play the bass like this…’ We don’t do that now. Raymond or myself would just bring in the idea, and people would listen and play what works with it. We’d play for a couple of hours and that would be the arrangement. There’s a trust that comes from knowing each other such a long time, a kind of telepathy. Everyone knows where they fit in the puzzle.”Raymond: “One of the things I love about music is that it’s beyond language. And it’s beyond analysis. As musicians, you’re playing and it happens. That is the definition of what being a musician is. If you start giving people rigid instructions, it loses the magic. Everyone in the band is a good enough musician thatthey can respond in the moment, so most of the arrangements for the songs form instinctively.”One of the most striking lyrics on the record is on the closing track, “I Will Love You.” A gorgeous seven-minute, almost Kosmische acoustic daydream drone, it looks to a point beyond the fury and polarization of our modern discourse, to a time when “the bigots are gone/after they apologize/for all the harmthat they’ve done”.Raymond: “In many ways, us-and-them-ism has taken over the world. ‘I Will Love You’ is looking for positivity, but it’s being totally fatalistic at the same time: This shit will exist forever. What are you going to do about it? I came up with the line ‘I will love you/until the flags are put down/and the exceptionalists areburied under the ground’ while I was playing the guitar. I started wondering what that was all about and where it might go. It’s looking for positives within a fatalistic, negative view of human nature.”Looking for positives while faced with the grim realities of the 21st century feels very Teenage Fanclub—a band who’ve been a force for good for over three decades and who can effortlessly turn melancholy into glorious, chiming harmony.Harmony that will last forever.

Teenage Fanclub

Cowboy Junkies are a Canadian alternative country/blues/folk rock band. The group was formed in Toronto in 1985 by Margo Timmins (vocalist), Michael Timmins (songwriter, guitarist), Peter Timmins (drummer) and Alan Anton (bassist).The Junkies first performed publicly at the Beverley Tavern and other clubs in Toronto’s Queen Street West, including The Rivoli. Their 1986 debut album, produced by Canadian producer Peter Moore, was the blues-inspired Whites Off Earth Now!!, recorded using an ambisonic microphone in the family garage.The group’s fame spread with their second album, The Trinity Session,recorded in 1987 at Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity. Their sound, again using the ambisonic microphone, and their mix of blues, country, folk, rock andjazz earned them both critical attention and a cult following. The Los Angeles Times named the recording as one of the ten best albums of 1988.The band was nominated for Group of the Year at the Juno Awards in 1990 and 1991. In the early 1990s Margo Timmins was named “one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world” by People Magazine. The group has continued to tour North America, Europe, Japan and Australia with extensive North American and European tours following album releases in 2002 and 2004. In 2008, they released Trinity Revisited in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the original recording of The Trinity Session.Watch&nbsp;Cowboy&nbsp;Junkies perform&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://youtu.be/GcMjPfFstTA">Sweet Jane</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://youtu.be/04VKokNdBrc">Blue Moon Revisited</a>&nbsp;Live on Tour

An Evening with Cowboy Junkies

At its heart, bluegrass music is about what happens when you commit to the moment. This spirit of spontaneity is ever-present on the self-titled record from Mighty Poplar, a new all-star roots project featuring Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse, Noam Pikelny and Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers, bassist Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon) and fiddler Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings). Across 10 songs that include bluegrass and folk classics and deep cuts from the Carter Family to Leonard Cohen, the fivesome captures the fierce and playful energy of a late night jam between old friends. Regarded as some of the finest players of their generation, the playing is never showy and always in service of the song. Careful reworkings of Dylan’s “North Country Blues” and Martha Scanlan’s “Up on the Divide” sit comfortably next to a rip-roaring pass through the fiddle tune “Grey Eagle.” Mighty Poplar’s members, known for pushing American acoustic music in progressive directions, wanted to return to their roots to make a bonafide bluegrass record to celebrate the music they hold so dear. Recorded with the band sitting knee-to-knee in a woodsy studio outside Nashville, the band eschewed the smooth production style of contemporary bluegrass in favor of the methods and spirit of their most cherished classic bluegrass recordings. As a whole, the songs are as immediate and emotionally impactful as the playing is tasteful. This is bluegrass music at its zenith: thoughtfully crafted by players with off-the-charts chemistry. On Mighty Poplar, they’ve captured lightning in a bottle.

Mighty Poplar

The Program​ElgarIntroduction and Allegro​BunchString Circle​ElgarSerenade for Strings​About This Program​There are so many reasons to not miss this fun program. Here are just a few: 1) take the beautiful drive out to one of a kind Saxapahaw, NC just in time for Spring! 2) grab a drink and settle into the charming Haw River Ballroom, 3) watch the Verona Quartet lead the COT strings in a conductorless performance, and 4) dare to move those feet to Kenji Bunch’s infectious ode to American music.

Fiddle Frenzy - Day 2

Fiddle Frenzy - Day 1

Madison Cunningham is a 26-year-old GRAMMY award-winning artist and songwriterknown for her “wonderfully tangled imagery and cutting self-awareness” (NPR). As aguitarist, Madison has pushed the boundaries of a conventional singer-songwriter asher “guitar work is both classic and wildly emotive, and her soaring vocals are pristineand inspired” (Consequence). Madison first picked up a guitar at age seven, and by agetwelve was singing and performing alongside her five siblings in church. In her teenageyears, she met Tyler Chester who would later go on to be a close collaborator andproducer of several of Madison’s projects including Who Are You Now (2019) whichAtwood Magazine described as “a guitar-driven record, full of twisting, meticulouslyarranged parts and interlocking melodies. It’s almost labyrinthine; you could get lost inher swirling words.”Cunningham’s latest effort, Revealer, won the GRAMMY for ‘Best Folk Album.’Revealer finds her working once again with producer Tyler Chester along with MikeElizondo and Tucker Martine. Written and recorded over all states of the pandemic,Madison says, “To me, ‘revealer’ is the binding theme of the album. The hand thatslowly chips away at the mirror in which you see yourself and the world and replaces itwith the reflection that is most true.” The album is “full of intricate musicianship,alongside forthright observations” (All Music), intimations and hard truths—a self-portraitof a young artist who is full of doubt and uncertainty yet bursting with exciting ideasabout music and life.A master of mysterious experimental pop, Juana Molina is recognized as one of the most original and visionary artists around. Her career trajectory has been a unique one, from her initial success as a massively popular comedic actress in her native Argentina, to the abandonment of her television career in 1996 and her decision to devote herself to forging her own, inimitable style of music, which gained her worldwide recognition as a critically-lauded recording and touring artist.Juana Molina grew up in a musical environment. Her father, revered tango singer and composer Horacio Molina, gave her guitar lessons from the age of five. Her mother, actress Chunchuna Villafañe, is a committed music lover who initiated Juana to the secrets of her extensive record collection. Following the military coup of 1976, the Molina family fled the country and lived in exile in Paris for six years. During those formative teenage years in Paris, Juana’s outlook on music was vastly expanded by being exposed to music from around the globe.When Juana returned to Argentina she was determined to become independent and to pursue a career in music. Like so many other 20-somethings, Juana’s career aspirations were “to earn a good salary for working just a few hours”, in order to keep free time to develop her musicianship. She knew she had a gift for doing impressions, and went to pass an audition for a TV program. She got hired on the spot. Her popularity rose meteorically and, three years later, she had her own comedy show, ‘Juana y sus hermanas’ for which she invented &amp; impersonated a series of&nbsp; hilariously stereotyped characters. The show was a great success, it was syndicated throughout South America and, within just a few years, Juana had become the most popular comedian in Argentina.&nbsp;After taking a break from the show to give birth to her daughter, she chose to cancel her television show in 1994 and instead launch a music career. In the face of much skepticism, Molina debuted in 1996 with ‘Rara’, which to fans of her comedy career seemed like just another celebrity vanity project. In spite of its high quality and originality, fans and critics in Argentina seemed unwilling to support her new career and she subsequently moved to Los Angeles. Honing her craft in a more supportive climate, she began experimenting with electronics, loops, and production, recording the tracks that would eventually make up her second album, ‘Segundo’.&nbsp;Despite these initial difficulties, Juana held out and stuck to her decision. Her passion and commitment to music prevailed, and worldwide recognition began to grow. After the release of her second and 3rd album (which came out on Domino Records, as did the next two), she quickly became the darling of the international indie/electronic/folk scene, and praise began pouring in from admirers in all corners. ‘Tres Cosas’ was placed in the Top Ten Records of 2004 by The New York Times, she was championed by the likes of David Byrne and Will Oldham, and her music — which, although it features elements of folk, ambient and electronica, is highly unique and personal— was often lazily compared by critics to that of Björk or Beth Orton. But, as the New York Times put it, “Ms Molina doesn’t imitate anyone. She has too much fun just being herself .”After four albums with Domino, Juana Molina joined the Crammed roster in 2013 to release her formidable ‘Wed 21’ album. Crammed subsequently reissued her previous albums on digital. Her seventh album, 2017’s ‘Halo’, was recorded both at home and in Texas at Sonic Ranch Studios. Hypnotic and inventive, Halo continued to straddle Molina’s strange divide of off-kilter electronic pop and organic songwriting, and was hailed by the media as her best record so far.&nbsp;In 2019 Juana released ‘ForFun’, a joyful EP with 4 of her songs re-arranged and performed in a punkish mood. Juana Molina’s latest release is ‘Segundo (21st Anniversary Edition)’, the remastered reissue of her breakthrough album. She also features on the upcoming album by Congotronics International (the supergroup she formed years ago with Deerhoof, Kasai Allstars, Konono No.1 &amp; others), to be released on April 29, 2022. &nbsp;Juana Molina has toured extensively in the US, Europe, and Japan (where’s she’s recently did live trio collaborations with Terry Riley and Jeff Mills). Her concert performances combine live loops, effects created on-the-fly and her deft acoustic guitar playing, creating a lush sounding as well as visually compelling experience.

Juana Molina & Madison Cunningham

Join the Romweber family and friends at a community gathering for reflection, memories and music to celebrate the life and legacy of Dexter Romweber. The program will begin promptly at 2:30pm, followed by a short break/social time, and then live music ending at 6pm. Friends are welcome to stay after the program to have time together in the Ballroom. Indoor spots are now all reeserved. The waitlist is for the River Amphitheater outside the Ballroom. We will be live streaming online and right outside the Ballroom in the River Amphitheater (weather depending) for all who wish to attend but don't get a spot inside the Ballroom.

Dex Romweber Celebration of Life

Jenny from Thebes began its life as many albums by the Mountain Goats do, with John Darnielle playing the piano until a lyric emerged. That lyric, “Jenny was a warrior / Jenny was a thief / Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief,” became “Jenny III,” a song which laid down a challenge he’d never taken up before: writing a sequel to one of his most beloved albums.The Mountain Goats’ catalog is thick with recurring characters—Jenny, who originally appears in the All Hail West Texas track bearing her name, as well as in “Straight Six” from Jam Eater Blues and Transcendental Youth side two jam “Night Light,” is one of these, someone who enters a song unexpectedly, pricking up the ears of fans who are keen on continuing the various narrative threads running through the Mountain Goats’ discography before vanishing into the mist. In these songs, Jenny is largely defined by her absence, and she is given that definition by other characters. She is running from something. These features are beguiling, both to the characters who’ve told her story so far and to the listener. They invite certain questions: Who is Jenny, really? What is she running from? Well, she’s a warrior and a thief, and, this being an album by the Mountain Goats, it’s a safe bet whatever she’s fleeing is something bad. Something catastrophically bad.Jenny from Thebes is the story of Jenny, her southwestern ranch style house, the people for whom that house is a place of safety, and the west Texas town that is uncomfortable with its existence. It is a story about the individual and society, about safety and shelter and those who choose to provide care when nobody else will.This is what a follow-up to All Hail West Texas entails. But if you think about the Mountain Goats as they were in 2001, when Darnielle wrote and recorded that album on his own, mostly into his Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox, and how they are now as the recording and touring outfit of Darnielle, Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster, you may find yourself asking how. That occurred to Darnielle, too.“If we’re going to do a sequel to a record that was recorded almost entirely on a boombox,” he asks, “why not do the opposite and make it as big as possible?”Decamping to Tulsa, Oklahoma’s legendary The Church Studio with Grammy-winning producer/engineer Trina Shoemaker (Sheryl Crow’s The Globe Sessions), that is exactly what the Mountain Goats did. Jenny from Thebes is a lush collection of showtunes, pushing Darnielle as a vocalist and the Mountain Goats as a band, broadening their sonic palette once again by leaning into influences like Godspell, Jim Steinman, and The Cars. The resulting album cuts a path that is simultaneously full of allusions longtime Mountain Goats fans will spin entire mythologies from while also being their most inviting record for those who’ve yet to be converted to the cause.Lifted by Matt Douglas’ horn and string arrangements, the dreamy guitar of Bully leader (and Bleed Out producer) Alicia Bognanno, and backing vocals from Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s (“Only One Way,” “Same as Cash,” “Going to Dallas”) and Matt Nathanson (“Fresh Tattoo”), Jenny from Thebes is a widescreen musical in scope, a melodrama of richly detailed characters and sweeping emotions.The west Texas the Mountain Goats conjure for Jenny is huge and already crumbling to the ground when we meet her in lead single “Clean Slate,” where a new arrival to the safehouse finds it nearly full, his host beyond exhaustion. Her burdens are heavy, and the measures they cause her to take have consequences that scale well beyond anything she could have anticipated when she decided to open her home to others. Such gestures are noble and doomed.“You can’t be the person everyone relies on to take care of them and keep them safe for too long,” Darnielle says of the reality of these spaces. “It eventually causes so much stress that it threatens to break you.”Ironically, that same stress makes it impossible for Jenny to see that she’s on the verge of being broken until it’s too late. Explaining the title of the album, Darnielle notes that Jenny is not unlike a character from Greek literature, someone on the verge of an unimaginable tragedy whose signs and portents will not make themselves known to her until she finds herself amidst the wreckage. “These things never happen in isolation,” he says. “One bad event leads to and is the reason for another bad event. Jenny should know that you can’t keep a safehouse in a west Texas town, but she’s too wrapped up in the process and has to go through the loss to understand how it happened.”Whether or not she comes to understand how it happened, the events of Jenny from Thebes set Jenny on the run. A woman and her custom yellow and black Kawasaki held in the memories of a vanishing few, someone who held the gate for as long as she could, as a warrior might, before disappearing into the night like a thief.

The Mountain Goats

Disco for Democracy! Come on out and dance with your friends and neighbors, get involved, stay engaged and prepare to rock the vote! DJs will be spinning a variety of hits from all eras at Club 22 in the Haw River Ballroom. Free Event

Disco for Democracy

Saxapaholla!! An Evening of Original VoicesOver the last few years, many of you have experienced Saxapaholla as a performer or as an audience member, and we hope it’s been as fun for you as its been for us. Today we are happy to announce that going forward, Saxapaholla is getting even better!This spring we are working with our new partners Kevin Weill, Megan Jett and Brandon White to plan and host 3 New Saxapaholla Events in 3 different locations!Saxapaholla is a community and family friendly Open Mic for Saxapahaw neighbors and friends to connect and share our unique voices. All ability levels are welcome, and all manner of acts are encouraged: musical performances, story telling, dance, spoken word and poetry. But spots will be limited so sign up for one or more of these Saxapaholla Happenings this Spring! Sign up here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://forms.gle/ZjDwczGmuX2UF9SL6?fbclid=IwAR3wYge3Pw9LpucWC2_CfDx4srv8tzKLK93rBFp6vqgD1oGv3MzLq8mP3SQ">https://forms.gle/ZjDwczGmuX2UF9SL6 </a>or reach out to Bill Traynor at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://forms.gle/ZjDwczGmuX2UF9SL6?fbclid=IwAR3wYge3Pw9LpucWC2_CfDx4srv8tzKLK93rBFp6vqgD1oGv3MzLq8mP3SQ">billtraynor61@gmail.com</a>.Holla In The Village Sunday March 24th at 4pm at the Saxapahaw Amphitheater - Organized by Kevin Weill and Heather LaGardeHolla at the Farm! Sunday May 19th at 4pm At Thistledown Farm - Organized by Megan Jett and Brandon WhiteHolla Back Home! Sunday June 9th at 4pm Bill and Frankie’s Barn – Organized by Bill Traynor and Frankie Blackburn

SaxapaHolla

Andy Falco and Travis Book are both members of the Grammy award winning bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters. Inspired by their love of the music of Jerry Garcia, the duo branches off on their own for occasional tours to celebrate Garcia’s timeless songs.“The project actually originated back stage at ‘Dusters shows where Travis and I would typically warm up with some fun Jerry songs” Falco explains. “At some point we just thought it would be fun todo it in public” They draw from Garcia’s solo material, his Grateful Dead catalogue as well as the Traditional songs Jerry loved to play.“Performing this music as a duo allows us to explore the songs and jam in a way that’s unique to playing as a Duo” Says Book. “We typically hear these songs in larger ensembles, but the songs done with just bass and guitar somehow make the music very interactive with the audience. It’s really a testament to the quality of the songwriting, and we like to put a spotlight on that aspect of Jerry.”

Andy Falco & Travis Book Play Jerry Garcia

Formed in Boston, Guster has released seven notable studio albums over the years and sold over a million albums.&nbsp; Guster is a band who’s signature wit, matchless charm and dynamic style continues to chart new sonic and lyrical pathways with each album.&nbsp; Guster’s new album Look Alive debuted at #5 on Billboard’s Top Current Album charts, plus a number of additional Top 10 chart debuts including #1 at Billboard’s Current Rock and Independent Albums charts.&nbsp;&nbsp;The band’s latest single "Overexcited" continues to dominate radio with a Top 10 spot at AAA radio since it’s release.&nbsp; Always continuing to push creatively, the band has shared the stage with the Boston Pops, Dallas, Colorado and most recently Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

Guster

Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World&nbsp;Time keeps moving and things keep changing, but that doesn’t mean we can't fight back. Yo La Tengo have raced time for nearly four decades and, to my ears, they just keep winning. The trio’s latest victory is called This Stupid World, a spellbinding set of reflective songs that resist the ever-ticking clock. This is music that’s not so much timeless as time-defiant. “I want to fall out of time,” Ira Kaplan sings in “Fallout.” “Reach back, unwind.”&nbsp;Part of how Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew escape time is by watching it pass, even accepting it when they must. “I see clearly how it ends / I see the moon rise as the sun descends,” they sing during opener “Sinatra Drive Breakdown.” In the séance-like "Until it Happens,” Kaplan plainly intones, “Prepare to die / Prepare yourself while there’s still time.” But This Stupid World is also filled with calls to reject time – bide it, ignore it, waste it. "Stay alive," he adds later in the same song. "Look away from the hands of time.”&nbsp;Of course, times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. Yo La Tengo made This Stupid World all by themselves, though. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new.&nbsp;&nbsp;Another new thing about This Stupid World: it’s the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in a while. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. Take the signature combination of hypnotic rhythm and spontaneous guitar on “Sinatra Drive Breakdown,” or the steady chug of “Tonight’s Episode,” a blinkered tunnel of forward-moving sound. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has been made a touch more direct.&nbsp;The songs on This Stupid World were still journeys, though. An example is the absorbing, three-dimensional “Brain Capers.” To construct this swirl, the band blends guitar chords, bass loops, drum punches, and various iterations of Hubley and Kaplan's voices into shifting layers. Simpler but just as dense is closer “Miles Away." A dubby rhythm lurks below Hubley’s vocal, which brushes across the song like paint leaving bright blurs. Throughout the album, these touches, accents, and surprises intensify each piece. It’s a rarity – a raw-sounding record that gives you plenty of headphone-worthy detail to chew on.&nbsp;This Stupid World gives your brain a lot to digest, too. All the battles with time drive toward some heavy conclusions. In the gripping “Aselestine,” Hubley sings about what sounds like a friend on death's door: “The clock won’t tick / I can’t predict / I can’t sell your books, though you asked me to.” In “Apology Letter,” time turns simple communication into something fraught and confusing: "The words / Derail on the way from me to you.” Not everything is so serious, though. The absurdist “Tonight’s Episode" helps McNew learn to milk cows, steal faces, and treat guacamole as a verb. And somehow Alice Cooper, Ray Davies, and Rick Moranis show up in “Brain Capers,” all telling us time isn’t finished yet.

Yo La Tengo

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Celebrate Black History Month at the Haw River Ballroom on February 23! Featuring music from DJ Pro, spades, bingo and a dance party!

Rap & Spades: Black History Month

“Life changes fast,” Joan Didion once wrote. “Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.” In the spring of 2020, Blonde Redhead singer and multi-instrumentalist Kazu Makino encountered this passage from Didion’s 2005 memoir of grief, The Year of Magical Thinking, in which the author reflected on the devastating experience of witnessing her husband’s sudden death at the dinner table. Amid the profound uncertainty of those early pandemic months, Makino was thinking of her own parents far away in Japan; the then-lost ritual of congregating for dinner with family; and the heavy, omnipresent feeling that life could change in the instant for any of us. With plainspoken language and incandescent melodies, Makino narrated these feelings on a pair of songs, “Sit Down for Dinner Pt I” and “Sit Down for Dinner Pt II,” which helped title the tenth full-length from Blonde Redhead. “Sit Down to Dinner Pt II” thematically transcends time: “It’s sort of about death, but the music is so alive and groovy,” Makino says. Yet, the title Sit Down for Dinner has a separate resonance for the Italian members of Blonde Redhead, the Milan-born twin brothers Amedeo Pace (singer / multi-instrumentalist) and Simone Pace (drummer). “Culturally, dinner is important to us,” Simone says of the nonnegotiable family ritual. “It’s a moment for us to sit down and have time with each other. We grew up that way. I know a lot of people eat and run, eat in front of their TV, or don’t care about it too much—and that’s OK—but we really do.” Dinner has long been a sacred ritual for Blonde Redhead as a band as well; when they’re on tour or rehearsing, they always share a meal, no matter what. Owing to that sense of persistent togetherness, the immersive, meticulously-crafted Sit Down for Dinner is a testament to the unique internal logic Blonde Redhead have refined over their three-decade existence. Formed in the 1993 New York indie underground, Blonde Redhead quickly found a place on Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley’s label, Smells Like, before releasing beloved records on Touch &amp; Go and 4AD that traced an arc from angular indie-rock to cosmopolitan art pop. The trio might have been a quintessential ’90s band, if not for the fact that they continuously kept going, growing, never confined to any era but the present. On Sit Down for Dinner, the understated yet visceral melodies charging each song create a foil to lyrics about the inescapable struggles of adulthood: communication breakdown in enduring relationships, wondering which way to turn, holding onto your dreams. Going into the record, Makino had recently spent time living on a tiny Italian island and pursuing solo music—an experience that instilled in her new confidence to experiment and have fun. She returned to New York as the world was locking down, quarantining with Amedeo and his partner upstate, where they focused on the music in seclusion. Immaculately structured, imbued with sensitivity, clarity, and resolve, Sit Down for Dinner was ultimately written and recorded over a five-year period spanning New York City, upstate, Milan and Tuscany.

Blonde Redhead

The Brook &amp; The Bluff is perfectly poised between the past and the present, at an unexpected crossroads where indie rock and folk-rock have found new frontiers and possibilities online. Their new album Bluebeard feels like a modern classic, shaped by the past but very much of and for right now. The first song from the album titled “Long Limbs” is a song about the highs and lows of being in love and the work that goes into a relationship but also a reminder to just be present and let yourself be with someone that makes you happy. In recent years, The Brook &amp; The Bluff’s incandescent harmonies, winning arrangements, and observational acumen have unexpectedly put them upon a different on-ramp for success: streaming stardom. They are now, by far, one of the most successful young bands at folk-rock’s amorphous contemporary edge, fusing the craft of the past with the ideas and avenues of the present. The Brook &amp; The Bluff have already made a name for themselves on the live circuit playing electric sets at Bonnaroo, Hangout, Firefly and Wonderfront. Having previously toured with Mt Joy, Noah Kahan, Rainbow Kitten Surprise amongst others, this fall the band will embark on their most ambitious North American headline tour yet.

The Brook & the Bluff

Valentine's Sax Disco

TRASHED&nbsp;is a 4-6 hour interactive performance art installation. Come for a few minutes, stay&nbsp;the&nbsp;entire time, watch &amp; witness, or participate &amp; interact! This will be the final performance of&nbsp;Leaving Impossible Things Unattended (LITU), ending where it began in 2018 - inside the Haw River Ballroom. Durational and time-based in structure, the event will last between 4-6 hours, as needed. Over that time the installation &amp; performance will take up more and more space in Cup22. A 1-mile long rope made of 10,000+ used plastic bags will be unrolled and then unraveled, until there is only&nbsp;a pile of plastic trash. As these actions disrupt the space, patrons and witnesses can be as interactive or passive as they'd like. Conversations, touching the rope, moving the plastic, or helping the performer are all welcome! Collaborators MIke Dimpfl and Ginger Wagg began&nbsp;LITU&nbsp;as a question about what performance could be and how waste &amp; trash materials affect our daily lives. In less than two years it was performed&nbsp;eight times - Satellite Art Show's Performance Is Alive festival in Miami, FL; Happening festival curated by Durham artists at CCB Plaza; SEEK festival in Raleigh at Dix Park; Semiotics of Cruising at Lump Projects art gallery in Raleigh; Muse Masquerade&nbsp;Ball fundraiser for The Carrack art gallery at 21C Museum Hotel in Durham; a guerilla intervention at the Carrboro Music Fest; SHOW! curated by Company at The Fruit in Durham; and the very first time at Switchpoint at the Haw River Ballroom. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://wildactions.org/new-index#/litu/">LITU webpage</a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://wildactions.org/">@wildactionsmove www.wildactions.org</a>

Leaving Impossible Things Unattended: TRASHED

Renowned singer, songwriter, musician, artist and best-selling author Josh Ritter will release his anticipated new album, Spectral Lines, April 28 via Thirty Tigers. One of today’s most thoughtful and prolific voices, Ritter has released ten studio albums including 2019’s widely acclaimed, Fever Breaks, of which NPR Music praised, “He remains a hydrant of ideas while embodying an endless capacity for empathy and indignation, often within a single song.” In addition to his work as a musician, Ritter is also a national best-selling author, having released two novels to date: 2021’s The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All and 2011’s Bright’s Passage. Released to critical attention, Stephen King wrote in&nbsp;The New York Times Book Review&nbsp;that Bright’s Passage “shines with a compressed lyricism that recalls Ray Bradbury in his prime…This is the work of a gifted novelist.”&nbsp; About the new album Spectral Lines: Josh Ritter has been thinking a lot about space exploration. It has nothing to do with his spellbinding new album, Spectral Lines, except that in a way, it really does. “The Voyager spacecraft went up in ’77 and now it’s out there in a place that no one’s ever been before, and it’s sending back all these messages,” Ritter says. “I feel like songs do that in their own little way. They’re probes: they go out into the world, and sometimes you hear stories back from them, but really, they go off on their own.” Ritter, too, is sending back messages, in the form of 10 new songs that are atmospheric and impressionistic. Like the recently launched Webb Telescope, or Voyager all those years ago, he’s looking for signs of life, reaching for a sense of commonality, something that feels universal in this infinite universe. Spectral Lines, his 11th album, finds those shared experiences in songs that push beyond the bounds of Ritter’s previous work. Recorded with longtime collaborator Sam Kassirer producing, it’s an album full of wonder and light as Ritter considers the ideas of love, devotion and what it means to be connected, to each other and to ourselves.

Josh Ritter & the Hello Starling Anniversary Band

This is a partially seated show. There is something warm and instantly familiar about the beloved roots duo, Chatham Rabbits. Partners in music and life, Chatham Rabbits’ Austin and Sarah McCombie blend their personal histories through deft songwriting and a history that comes from building a life together. Leaning into each other's strengths, their songs present a congenial, collaborative spirit that has captured the pure adoration of fans along the way and earned them praise from Garden &amp; Gun Magazine, American Songwriter, and No Depression. Their artistry hinges on a fervent desire to connect with others through the music that first brought the pair together. Steeped in the regional traditions of their North Carolina home, Chatham Rabbits’ musical pursuits represent a new age of roots music. Chatham Rabbits recorded and released their beloved debut album, All I Want From You in 2019. This set the standard for their sophomore release The Yoke is Easy, The Burden is Full—the centerpiece song “Oxen” was named “Top Folk Song of 2020” by Paste Magazine. Nurtured by central North Carolina’s fertile, influential music scene, Chatham Rabbits’ sound continues to evolve in their expansive third album, If You See Me Riding By (2022), which was simultaneously released with a television series, On the Road with Chatham Rabbits, on PBS-NC. The McCombies ingenuity during the Covid-19 crisis led to the creation of their mobile concert experience, The Stay at Home Tour, which took the duo to 194 neighborhoods in 2020-21. The pair is currently recording their fourth album of poignant original songs and continuing to foster their tight-knit fan community across the US.

Haw River Ballroom

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