When I say I love the North Carolina State Fair more than most people, I don’t mean “more than most people do,” though that’s certainly true. I like the State Fair more than I like most people. I would happily live as a hermit the rest of the year in exchange for those few noisy, […]
Allison Hussey
Posted inMusic
Superchunk Plays the State Fair Tomorrow—Stroll Down Memory Lane with Mac McCaughan
Over the past two years, the North Carolina State Fair has made tremendous strides in improving its music bookings. The giant Dorton Arena concerts that lost thousands of dollars were replaced by smaller acts taking the stage both in the arena and at smaller outdoor stages scattered around the fairgrounds. The results, like last year’s […]
Posted inMusic
Yes, There Will Be a New Bowerbirds Record—Meanwhile, Here’s Tuskha
TUSKHA Saturday, October 8, 10:30 p.m., $27–$124 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance, Pittsboro When Bowerbirds, the folksy duo of Beth Tacular and Phil Moore, launched an ambitious Kickstarter campaign to make a new record in 2013, part of the goal was to fund a record for Moore’s solo side project, then called […]
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Fifteen Years Later, Bluegrass Is Still Reeling from O Brother, Where Art Thou?
As the sun begins to dip down over Raleigh on Friday, the International Bluegrass Music Association will be well into its fourth convocation in the state’s capital. The streets of downtown will be crowded with local and out-of-town visitors seeking to soak up as much live bluegrass as they can handle. Meanwhile, the band taking […]
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The Less Expected: IBMA Acts to Catch Off the Main Stage
As far as booking goes, IBMA seems to be a creature of habit, inviting the many of the same acts to return to the Red Hat Amphitheater stage every year. Here are some artists to catch that aren’t, y’know, The Earls of Leicester. Alice Gerrard Alice Gerrard should be a household name among folk fans, […]
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Got ‘Grass? IBMA Returns to Raleigh for Round Four This Week
In 2012, the International Bluegrass Music Association announced that Raleigh would be the new host city for its massive World of Bluegrass, an annual trade show, business conference, and music festival. The original agreement extended for three years, with room for renegotiation. The City of Raleigh rolled out the red carpet for IBMA, accommodating the […]
Posted inArt
After Broad City and The Eric Andre Show, Comedian Hannibal Buress Moves to the Big Room
HANNIBAL BURESS Friday, September 23, 8 p.m., $25–$35 Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh When Hannibal Buress stopped in Raleigh almost two years ago, he took the stage of the cozy six-hundred-seat Fletcher Opera Theater. But since then, the thirty-three-year-old comedian has risen to national recognition on Adult Swim’s absurdist late-night talk show, The Eric Andre Show, and […]
Posted inGuides
Pop Goes the Jazz Club with Varipop, a New Music Festival at The Shed and SPECTRE Arts
VARIPOP Saturday, Oct. 1, 2 p.m.–midnight, $15 SPECTRE Arts & The Shed, Durham Before Moogfest and the Art of Cool Festival made their marks on Durham, the city had Troika Music Festival, a relatively small but solid operation presented by locals, for locals. Its roster, too, focused almost exclusively on bands from North Carolina. The […]
Posted inGuides
Twisted Roots: Bands that Fly Away with Their Folk Influences
If you’re looking to fully let your folk freak flag fly, you’ll have to wait a few more weeks for IBMA to get to town to really get your fill of twang. In the meantime, though, Hopscotch offers a handful of acts that take roots music traditions and run wild with them. The first headliner […]
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Listen to “Radio,” a Sharp New Song from Sylvan Esso
Durham’s Sylvan Esso has been laying low for much of the year after spending most of 2014 and 2015 tearing up the road in support of its self-titled debut LP. But overnight, the duo released “Radio,” a bouncy new tune that jabs at the exhausting media machinations that boost and bully so many musicians. The […]
