Tag: asheville

WATCH: Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, “New York”

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Artist: Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “New York”
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “I always get ideas for videos when I’m listening to mixes in the car. My 20-month-old daughter really took a shine to this song one day while I was listening and started demanding it every time we got in the car… over and over and over. So I had a lot of time to visualize the story. It’s a song I wrote about leaving the house that I grew up in, and kind of saying goodbye to that younger version of myself. Our friend Gretchen Kauffman did such a great job as little Amanda! We had a really fun time.” — Amanda Anne Platt

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

BGS 5+5: Casey Driessen

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Artist: Casey Driessen
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Latest Album: Otherlands:ONE

Editor’s Note: Casey Driessen has released Otherlands: A Global Music Exploration, a self-produced travelogue of on-location recordings, short films and essays that documents collaborations with masters of regional music in Spain, Ireland, Scotland, India, Japan and Finland. Otherlands was filmed and recorded between 2019 and May 2020. During this time, proceeds from the Bandcamp sales of Otherlands:ONE will support music and folk arts rural communities in West Bengal, India.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I’m going to give some big props to fiddler Richard Greene, by way of Darol Anger. Back in the mid-1960s, while playing in Bill Monroe’s band, Richard invented a percussive bowing technique on the fiddle/violin called “chopping.” Darol Anger was the first person to learn this from Richard, and I then pulled parts of the technique from Darol. Chopping has been an essential part of my musical trajectory and has allowed me to fit into all sorts of exciting musical situations.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Two polar opposite ones just appeared in my mind simultaneously… 1) Playing a daytime set at the Telluride Bluegrass festival in a trio with Béla Fleck and Bryan Sutton, staring out at the gorgeous Rocky Mountains, when all of a sudden I hear amazing vocal rhythms joining us, and Bobby McFerrin appears by my side. I couldn’t stop smiling. 2) Playing an evening set with Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes (Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, Dennis Crouch) when a heckler starts asking for “Copperhead Road.” It’s in the set, and we’ll get to it, but that’s not good enough. Heckles continue. Steve gives him the finger. A full beer can sails through the air (mind you, we’re all around one mic), hits the stage, bounces and hits Dennis’ bass. A fight breaks out in the audience. The guy is taken away. The next thing thrown on stage is a bra.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I’m very visual and find inspiration in painting, drawing, and sculpture. The forms, shapes, patterns, lines, colors, and composition all give me ideas about how to approach my instrument or music.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I’ve never written a song, only instrumental compositions. So, I suppose the toughest time is all the time. That said, no particular composition sticks out to me, but the process of applying compositions to a live looping setup (when I was doing my Singularity project) was quite challenging. There are so many parameters to work within, from effects pedal limitations, physical coordination to pressing buttons with your feet while singing and playing, how to create engaging live looped arrangements from song to song without becoming repetitive or boring, and keeping a solo set interesting for yourself. They were some tough puzzles to solve.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

I think either “A global music exploration in red shoes” or “The fiddle can’t be on everything?…I’d like to try.” I’m hungry for experimentation and inspiration from unlikely sources.

Photo credit: Arthur Driessen

Go Behind the Scenes of Citizen Vinyl, North Carolina’s First Record Press

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If you want to make an LP in NC, there’s a brand new vinyl destination: Citizen Vinyl, North Carolina’s first record press. Here’s some history about this landmark from North Carolina’s music campaign, Come Hear NC:

“Asheville, N.C., has long been viewed as a special place, funneling new sounds from the mountains to the world. In its heyday, the Asheville-based WWNC was one of the most popular radio stations in the country, and from its studios new bluegrass sound was presented for the first time to broad audiences across the country. It’s possible that Jimmie Rodgers (who lived in Asheville for a while) played ‘Carolina Sunshine Girl’ there, and the fiddles and banjos that have for so long rung out from the hollers and valleys of Western North Carolina found a way to the airwaves from the station’s studios.

“The building’s halls are full of history. Jim Lauderdale said of playing in places where great music has been made, ‘You get the feel about great music, it’s still livin’.’ No longer a radio station, it now houses Citizen Vinyl, North Carolina’s first record press. Mandolin Orange, based out of Chapel Hill, will be first off the press with a new double LP. Their music, full of guitar, fiddle, harmony, and a little twang, would have been right at home in one of WWNC’s old recording sessions.”

Check out the exclusive tour of the Asheville-based facility below:

Discover more about Citizen Vinyl and Come Hear NC here.

Photo courtesy of Come Hear NC

LISTEN: Anya Hinkle (Feat. Graham Sharp), “What’s It Gonna Take”

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Artist: Anya Hinkle featuring Graham Sharp
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “What’s It Gonna Take”
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “On May 26th, 2020, my neighbor Graham Sharp and I had planned to get together to do some songwriting. On that day, we had all woken up to the new reality, the first day without George Floyd in this world. ‘What should we write about?’ we asked each other, and we began to process the horror of his death through a song. We asked, what’s it gonna take? How can we speak to the brokenness of our country and our complicity in that? As we watched the nation convulse, we continued to write, trying to comprehend the pain we saw on display in the soul of our country and in ourselves.

“When we went into the studio to cut the single, we asked a master of the sacred steel, DaShawn Hickman, and gospel singer Wendy Hickman to join us in asking ‘what’s it gonna take?’ Bringing in their voices was an important part of processing the difficult summer, building trust and beauty through song. Only by listening to Black voices are we going to know what it is gonna take. We are still so divided and will remain ignorant until we can absorb what it’s like to be Black in America.” — Anya Hinkle

Photo credit: Rose Kaz

LISTEN: Jon Stickley Trio, “Future Ghost”

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Artist: Jon Stickley Trio
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Future Ghost”
Release Date: February 5, 2021
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “‘Future Ghost’ was written during the beginning of the pandemic, shortly after finding out I was going to be a father. I was having so many conflicting feelings, and a little difficulty sorting them all out. I ended up thinking a lot about the cycle of life and how impermanent everything is. At one point I thought I saw a ghost in the hallway, and it looked like me. Somehow, the idea that I could someday be a ghost, haunting this house, gave me a great sense of comfort and motivation to make the most of my time. This song ended up really capturing that energy.” — Jon Stickley

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

BGS 5+5: Amanda Anne Platt

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Artist name: Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters (answered by Amanda)
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Latest singles: “Desert Flowers” and “There May Come a Day”
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): I was in a band with my brother and my cousin when I was 8 that was called Crusty Chinchilla Rejects Recently Escaped from a Mental Institution…

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I feel really lucky as I sit here and try to work out what my favorite memory of being on stage is… it’s nice that there have been so many. I think one of my favorites from recent memory was the last show of our 2019 tour opening for Amy Ray. It was at Club Café in Pittsburgh and I got to get up on stage for her last song, “I Didn’t Know a Damn Thing,” which is one of my favorites from her album Holler, and then the encore which was Tom Petty’s “Refugee.” I was enormously pregnant and the stage was already crowded so it was a tight squeeze! But I felt so cool just getting to sing along and dance. The energy in the room was fantastic.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Probably literature and film, the most. When someone can tell a story in a highly relatable, moving way, I am very inspired by that. When I finish a good book or leave the theater after a really well-made film I almost always want to sit down and write a song.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I really enjoy making my band “quack” like the Mighty Ducks, but I would be lying if I said they were as into it as I am. And you can’t do it alone. So, mostly I just cry in the bathroom. Actually I am usually just scrambling to write a set list and eat something moments before we go on stage.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I grew up in the land of all-night diners, and I’ve really been missing that especially now during the pandemic. So I would love to have a post-show burger at a proper diner somewhere… I feel like John Prine would have been a great guy to share a booth at a diner with. I have some questions for him about his songs that I kind of always hoped I’d have a chance to ask him in person.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I might actually do the reverse more… I tend to always use “I” even though I don’t write autobiographically very often. So in that way I guess I turn every character into “me” and I hide myself in that way…?

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

The Show on the Road – Mipso

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, we feature one of the leading roots-pop bands working today: Mipso. An affable and endlessly-creative quartet formed in Chapel Hill, NC, they are made up of fiddle player Libby Rodenbough, mandolinist Jacob Sharp, guitarist Joseph Terrell, and bassist Wood Robinson.


LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • SPOTIFY • STITCHER • MP3

Despite the anxious mood of their swing-state home base, it’s quite an exciting time for Mipso. Host Z. Lupetin was able to catch up with Libby and Jacob (via Zoom of course) to discuss their lushly orchestrated, self-titled record which just dropped last week; and if you walk down 8th Avenue in Nashville this week, you might catch a billboard with their sheepish grins large in the sky.

How did they get here? It’s hard to find a group where every member can effortlessly sing lead and write genre-bending songs that fit seamlessly on six acclaimed albums — and counting — in under ten years. Earlier standout records like the breakout Dark Holler Pop, produced by fellow North Carolinian Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange, and Edges Run, which features a veritable online hit in the broken-voiced, emotional “People Change,” show how Mipso appeals not only to folk fest-loving moms and dads, but also their edgier kids, who appreciate their subversive turns of phrase and playful gender-ambiguous, neon-tinted wardrobe.

As Z. found out during his conversation with Libby and Jacob, the band nearly broke up after a series of grueling 150-shows-a-year runs, a scary car wreck, and the pressure of putting out Edges Run for their rapidly growing fanbase. The forced slower pace of this last year and a half has been a gift in several ways — allowing the group to catch their breath and hole up to write more collaboratively than ever. The shimmering sonic backdrop that gifted producer and musician Sandro Perri was able to bring to the Mipso sessions at Echo Mountain studio in Asheville really makes the songs feel like they could exist in any era.

You wouldn’t be alone if you heard the connection between the honey-hooked newest record with the timeless, mellow-with-a-hint-of-menace hits of the 1970s (looking at you James Taylor and Carly Simon). Songs like “Never Knew You Were Gone” show off Terrell’s gift for gently asking the deepest questions, like where he might go when he transitions to the other side in a “silvery fire,” or the sardonically nostalgic “Let A Little Light In,” which wonders if the soft-focused images we have of the peaceful, boomtime 1990s (when Mipso was growing up) could use some real scrutiny. Rodenbough’s silky fiddle work stars throughout –and her courageous, vulnerable lead vocal on “Your Body” may be the most memorable moment on the new work.

Stick around to the end of the episode to hear mandolinist Jacob Sharp introduce his favorite contribution, “Just Want To Be Loved.”

Photo credit: D.L. Anderson

LISTEN: Tyler Ramsey, “Back on the Chain Gang”

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Artist: Tyler Ramsey
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Back on the Chain Gang” (Pretenders’ cover)
Album: Found a Picture of You EP
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Label: Fantasy Records

In Their Words: “There are two guitars that I used on this version of ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ — both my favorites. The acoustic is a ’50s Harmony H162 that was rebuilt by Scott Baxendale and the electric that comes in about halfway through is a late ’60s Guild Starfire V and is the most amazing electric I’ve ever owned. I found it in Knoxville at a friend’s guitar shop called Music Room Guitars when I really wasn’t looking for a guitar at all, and it changed the way I play as did the Baxendale! The guitar playing on Pretenders albums has always blown my mind. This song has such a beautiful and catchy lead-in and solo. I tried to capture the essence of it with solo fingerstyle guitar while making it sound like me.” — Tyler Ramsey

Photo credit: Bill Reynolds

BGS 5+5: The Band of Heathens

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Artist: Ed Jurdi of The Band of Heathens
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina; band’s hometown is Austin, Texas
Latest album: Stranger
Band Nicknames: The Hand of Beathens

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

At the Americana Awards a few years back. I remember being on stage at the Ryman Auditorium and looking around and realizing that I was performing with a bunch of my heroes. Delbert McClinton, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt and Sam Bush, to name just a few. It truly was a full circle moment for sure.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

In short they all do. I have always been in awe of painters who can really create a world with their colors and imagery. I find myself being really inspired by the impressionistic painters and the way they use light to offer a unique and different perspective on things that can be somewhat mundane.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I don’t have any real set rituals, but I generally like to hang around the gig and sing some songs either by myself, or with whoever else is hanging out. It’s a good way to warm up and it’s a fun way to get the group vibes in a positive space.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Follow the muse. Lead with your art and expression and figure out how to make the business part of the career work in service of the creativity. I can happily say that has always been the case.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I live in Asheville, North Carolina, so I spend the most time in the mountains and the forests that surround us. I love being able to hike way out into the woods and find a vista where I can see both the great scope of things, but also hear the rustling of the leaves and the wind blowing through the tops of the trees. In those moments of solitude I find my mind is incredibly clear and clean, which is almost always when ideas begin to present themselves almost out of nowhere.

Photo credit: Jason Quigley

LISTEN: Warren Givens, “You’re on My Mind” (Featuring Ivy Givens)

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Artist: Warren Givens
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “You’re on My Mind” (Featuring Ivy Givens)
Album: Rattle the Cages
Release Date: August 7, 2020

In Their Words: “In case it isn’t obvious, this is a good old-fashioned breakup song. I wrote it soon after releasing my first full-length record, when we were touring pretty heavily, about a short-lived fling that turned out to have a pretty lasting impact. Even though the song is about a breakup I went through, my idea at the time was to write a melody that Ivy (my sister) could sing. It was really fun to write something that was totally out of my range and to see how she really brought it to life. This is the only song on the record with someone besides Seth Kauffman (my producer and engineer) and me playing. Ivy flew down from New York and we gathered around one big dynamic mic — old-school bluegrass style. We did guitar, fiddle, and our vocals live, maybe two takes tops, and then Seth added the drums, bass, and electric guitar.” — Warren Givens

Photo credit: West Givens