I’m still not sure who paid for Room 330 in the downtown Raleigh Marriott this weekend, but when you get told to go to a party, it’s generally best not to stop and ask too many questions. So last night, just after the end of the IBMA Awards, where Tony Rice delivered a dramatic speech […]
Grayson Haver Currin
Bio: Grayson Haver Currin was the music editor of INDY Week and the co-director of Hopscotch Music Festival.Twitter: http://twitter.com/currincy
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Unlikely settings and technical compensation: Grayson Currin on World of Bluegrass, Night Two
In a modest city such as Raleigh, one situation that arises with large-scale, multi-venue music events is that many rooms must deviate from their general programming—and so, their customary clientele. For the last four years, it’s been evident when Hopscotch puts, for example, experimental artists in a flesh-and-sweat dance spot like The Hive. (Note: I […]
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Live: Béla Fleck is best with his banjo, if only Grant Llewellyn would stop talking
Béla Fleck & the North Carolina Symphony Meymandi Concert Hall Tuesday, Sept. 24 World of Bluegrass has arrived in Raleigh, and everyone who cares is finding their own way into the action. At Quail Ridge Books on Sunday, for instance, I spied a window display that welcomed members of the International Bluegrass Music Association and […]
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How Raleigh got its bluegrass festival, and how it intends to keep it
The white flatbed truck speeding south on Dawson Street in downtown Raleigh appears to be headed straight for William Lewis. But he is mid-sentence, seated and with his back to the office window that opens onto incoming traffic. The director of the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, or PineCone, Lewis is trotting out the list […]
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Ramble in Raleigh: the IBMA’s World of Bluegrass arrives
This weekend will mark 16 months since the death of Doc Watson, the roots music pioneer and advocate who was born, lived and died just a few hours west of Raleigh. Watson was a brilliant flatpicker with a voice that felt like a warm, wise hand on a cold and anxious shoulder. But he also […]
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The week in music: Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 2013
1. Bill Callahan During the last 25 years, Bill Callahan has assumed three chief musical roles. He’s been a playful but often poignant lo-fi miscreant, and he’s served as a solemn songwriter delivering his blues in an old oak baritone. He’s been a bandleader, too, capable of harnessing all manner of string sections and gospel […]
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Loamlands, or life after Midtown Dickens
Loamlands with Hiss Golden Messenger and Miles Cooper Seaton The Pinhook Friday, Sept. 20, 9 p.m. $5 Kym Register worried that, at the age of 30, her first breakup would also be her last. For eight years, she’d written, recorded and toured with her childhood chum, Catherine Edgerton, in a band of best friends called […]
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The week in music: Sept. 18-25, 2013
1. SIGUR RÓS The popular ascendance of Sigur Rós offers a reminder never to label anything as impossible. Remember, only a decade ago, Sigur Rós was, for many, a mysterious Icelandic group who followed a musical appearance in a Cameron Crowe movie with an album that sported punctuation for a title, unnamed songs, and lyrics […]
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The week in music: Sept. 11-18, 2013
1. Phosphorescent The major musical touchstones of Phosphorescent leader Matthew Houck have never been very far from earshot: He likes the outlaw country of Willie Nelson (he made a Willie cover album, after all) and the evocative moan of Bonnie “Prince” Billy (notice the wolves references), the scattered grace and playfulness of the Elephant 6 […]
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Local 506: for sale
Glenn Boothe gloats about the upcoming calendar for Local 506, the Chapel Hill music venue he’s owned since 2004. Legendary Japanese spazzes Melt-Banana will play the West Franklin Street institution in early November. Chelsea Light Moving, the new band from Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, will likely lead to a line of late ticket buyers […]
