Yep Roc 20 Friday, October 20, 2017 Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro When Yep Roc throws a party, the label doesn’t mess around. The three-day bash celebrating the its anniversary kicked off with a high-roller party at the Cat’s Cradle Back Room, exclusive for VIP ticket holders only, featuring Nick Lowe, Tift Merritt, Grant-Lee Phillips. The Friday […]
Grant Britt
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Live: The National Folk Festival Pays Off Before Parting Ways
National Folk Festival 2017 Greensboro Thursday, September 8–Sunday, September 10, 2017 This stuff can be hazardous to your health, both mentally and physically. There’s too much eye and ear candy in easy reach at the National Folk Festival in Greensboro. It’s not really the festival’s fault; its layout is such that, if you pace yourself, […]
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Too Many Zooz Wrestles With a Quickly Growing Career Far Beyond Its Busking Beginnings
TOO MANY ZOOZ Friday, June 30, 6 p.m., free Durham Central Park, Durham www.durhamcentralpark.org They honed their craft underground, bouncing their self-described “brasshouse” music off the tunnel walls of the New York City subway. But the scruffy trio Too Many Zooz isn’t your usual bunch of buskers. Crackling with energy and frantically corralling jazz, EDM, […]
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Folkin’ with Greensboro: The Gate City Hosts 2016’s National Folk Festival
National Folk Festival Downtown Greensboro Friday, September 9-Sunday, September 11, 2016 It’s like a free, all-you-can-eat buffet. The National Folk Festival’s second coming to Greensboro makes you want to load up your plate with goodies and gobble ’em up till you’re so full you can’t move. It may be a three-day event, but once it’s […]
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Old Dog, New Grass: A Q-and-A with Mandolin Monarch Sam Bush
When Sam Bush started his career in the early seventies, he was an unlikely candidate for bluegrass royalty. Accompanied by a band of scruffy, long-haired pickers, his irreverent takes on bluegrass were met with scorn and outright enmity by many of the older fans. But the elder statesmen of the time were surprisingly open to […]
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The Modern Blues Mission of Ruthie Foster
Women in Blues: Ruthie Foster Blue Note Grill, Durham Thursday, June 16, 8 p.m., $25 When Ruthie Foster steps onto the stage, strap yourself in. Her shows are roller coasters that take you from the valleys of Son House to the peaks of Bob Marley, with dips and dives, twists and turns through the influences […]
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Live: A Saturday in Greensboro for the National Folk Festival
National Folk Festival Downtown Greensboro Saturday, September 12, 2015 The circus was in town last week in Greensboro, but this one was a tad different. It had no elephants, no tigers, no trapeze artists to dazzle and amaze. But there were plenty of high-flying acts to amuse and entertain children of all ages. The focus […]
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Lamenting the slide of the Bull Durham Blues Festival, (barely) happening this weekend
Durham’s musical mascot is in trouble. The once powerful beast that bore the Bull Durham Blues Festival name is now a sickly shadow of its former self. For 27 years, Bull Durham bellowed the blues every September. Between 12,000 and 20,000 fans attended the annual convocation, featuring international R&B and blues acts, as well as […]
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An evening and interview with Big Freedia, twerk goddess
Big FreediaThe Pinhook, Durham Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014 When Big Freedia, bounce music’s self-proclaimed Queen Diva, hit Durham’s The Pinhook last Wednesday, she necessitated a rumpquake. Freedia’s sweaty, exuberant and way-over-the-top bounce show played to a crowd jammed shoulder-to-shoulder from the stage to the front door. There was an hour’s wait just to get inside, […]
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Live: Music Makers and friends throw down in Durham
Music Maker Relief Foundation Homecoming Celebration Old Murphy School, Durham Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014 It was a homecoming celebration for seasoned vets fighting a domestic war on age, infirmity and economic downturns. The uniforms were a bit flashier than you’d find among standard service branches, and there was no designated rank insignia on display. Still, […]