Read our review of the show “Stroke It, Noel: A Fully Orchestrated Performance of Big Star’s Third Album” will be presented Thursday, Dec. 9, and Friday, Dec. 10, at Cat’s Cradle. Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 in advance, $20 the day of the show. Proceeds benefit KidZNotes and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. […]
Rick Cornell
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The Sparkleberries’ Skylight Exchange
There are at least three approaches to appreciating Skylight Exchange. You can marvel at the remarkable re-creation of Lou Reed at his most inviting, with any number of New Sensations cuts serving as templates for Skylight‘s 10 charmers. The vocals of singer/ songwriter/ rhythm guitarist Ken Kleinfeld match Reed’s in tone, cadence and laid-back omniscience, […]
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Puritan Rodeo’s self-titled CD
Puritan Rodeo releases its self-titled CD at Local 506 Friday, Nov. 19. The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are only $5. New Town Drunks, Twilighter and Gasoline Stove open. Over the past decade and a half, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of rootsy adornments in what would otherwise be standard […]
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Harvey Dalton Arnold Blues Band’s self-titled debut; Jennifer Evans’ Just Your Name
The common denominator for these two new releasesone a few-frills blues-band album and the other a tastefully decorated gospel albumis guitarist Harvey Dalton Arnold. The selling point on Arnold’s résumé is his five years spent as the bassist for the Southern-rocking Outlaws in the ’70s, but his truest musical love is the blues. As presented […]
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Applesauce’s The New, New Country Blues of Applesauce
Applesauce plays The Roost at Fearrington Village at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28. For more, see Applesauce’s MySpace page. Twin brothers Mark and Michael Holland are a musically restless pair. As co-leaders of the band Jennyanykind for a half-dozen records, they migrated from spacy pop that drank from the Flaming Lips’ spiked punch bowl […]
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A pugilist’s guide to this week’s Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival
Anyone who has ever attended a multistage music festivalfrom South By Southwest and Coachella to North Carolina’s own Merlefest and the rookie Hopscotchknows that conflicts abound. It’s no different at Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, the twice-a-year fest held just outside of the Chatham County crossroads community of Silk Hope. Maybe it’s […]
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James Dunn’s The Bed We Made
James Dunn releases The Bed We Made at The Pour House Saturday, Sept. 25. Tickets are $10, and the music starts at 10 p.m. Kennebec and Dragmatic open. With this third release, James Dunna singer/ songwriter/ guitarist who for the last two years has carried dual citizenship with addresses in both Nashville and Raleighfinds himself […]
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Joe Henry and the Carolina Chocolate Drops honor traditions
Loudon Wainwright III plays at Reynolds Industries Theater on the Duke campus Friday, Sept. 24. He and his band will celebrate High Wide & Handsome, Wainwright III’s (not produced by Henry) tribute to North Carolina’s Charlie Poole. Show time is 8 p.m., and tickets range from $5–$42. Joe Henry and the Carolina Chocolate Drops split […]
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Jim Avett’s Tribes
See Related Events below Jim Avett’s 2009 release, Jim Avett and Family, was a record that, while maybe not 40-some years in the making, was probably 40-some years in the considering. With the album’s slate of gospel standards, the patriarch of North Carolina’s most popular export presented himself as an interpreter. But with six of […]
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An old schoolhouse becomes an outlet for vision, hope and music
“I have this big problem,” says Jay Miller, “of thinking that everything can be brought back.” Today, Miller sits at a large conference table that commands the meeting room of the Murphey School, an old schoolhouse just off N.C. 10 where Durham and Orange counties meet, built in 1923 but mostly abandoned for the last […]