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Saturday, January 28, 2012 8:00 PM
Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun
Get ready to be blown away by Bill’s reknown licks! Bill Kirchen has become widely known for the trademark big-rig guitar riffs that powered the Commander Cody hit “Hot Rod Lincoln” into the Top 10 in 1972. Since 1993, he has recorded seven critically acclaimed albums of his own that have made him one of the musical elder statesmen of today’s Americana music, which in truth was pioneered by acts like Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen back in the ‘70s.
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Friday, February 03, 2012 8:00 PM
An Evening with Robbin Thompson
Virginia’s own – Richmond music legend, studio wizard, and promoter of world music… Robbin Thompson is a Virginia-based songwriter and has been recording albums since 1976. He’s been in bands with Bruce Springsteen, co-written songs with Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles, won the American Song Festival twice, and written tons of music for commercials and films. Truly a Virginia legend, join Robbin for an evening of your favorite original compositions!
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Saturday, February 04, 2012 8:00 PM
The Honey Dewdrops – Red June opens!
Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish are the Honey Dewdrops: a nationally touring and award winning husband and wife duet who perform fresh, original songs focusing on vocal harmonies and tight instrumentation. “When you listen to the Honey Dewdrops, you can’t just listen to one song – you just want more, more, more. Their gentle spirits come with powerful voices while the instruments have voices of their own. This is fresh, homegrown music but deeply rooted in tradition and most importantly it is really good!” – Anne & Pete Sibley
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Wednesday, February 08, 2012 8:00 PM
Darrell Scott
James Darrell Scott known as Darrell Scott (b August 6, 1959) , London, Kentucky ,the son of musician Wayne Scott with whom he has collaborated, is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He moved as a child to East Gary, Indiana. He was playing professionally by his teens in Southern California, later living in Toronto and Boston. He attended Tufts University, where he studied poetry and literature. He has lived in Nashville, Tennessee, since about 1995. He has written several mainstream country hits, and also has established himself as one of Nashville’s premier session instrumentalists. Scott has collaborated with Steve Earle, Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris, John Cowan, Verlon Thompson, Guy Clark, Tim O’Brien, Kate Rusby, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and many others. His unique music has attracted a growing fanbase, and he tours regularly with his own band. His latest album, Crooked Road, was released May 25th, 2010. In early 2005, Scott’s Theatre Of The Unheard won in The 4th Annual Independent Music Awards for Album of the Year.He won the 2007 Song of the Year award from the Americana Music Association for his song “Hank William’s Ghost” which appears on his album The Invisible Man released in 2006. In 2010, he was announced as part of the Band of Joy, alongside Robert Plant, credited as performing vocals, mandolin, guitar, accordion, pedal, lap steel and banjo.
In 2011, Brad Paisley’s cover of the song “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” was the closing song played on the Show Justified during the final scene of the final episode of the season. In January 2011, his album A Crooked Road won the award for the Country Album category from The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards.
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Thursday, February 09, 2012 8:00 PM
Birds and Arrows (with Skylar Gudasz and The Ugly Girls)
Like the band’s name, Birds and Arrows isn’t easy to pin down. Comprised of husband and wife duo Andrea and Pete Connolly and cellist Josh Starmer, the Chapel Hill and Durham-based group defies the genres and conventions that other bands inhabit. Like a sweet summer breeze that gusts through a wrap-around porch, this group blends Appalachian tradition and indie charm, weaving warm vocals with understated instrumentation and wistful romanticism. BIRDS and ARROWS accomplish an elegant, warm sound that is truly their own. Their compelling and road tested live show appeals to a surprisingly wide range of audiences; they are the cherished rock band for folk lovers and the favorite folk group for rock fans.
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Saturday, February 18, 2012 8:00 PM
Recklessly Abandoned
Formerly known as “Reckless Abandon”, Recklessly Abandoned is the unique, creative music ensemble first gathered together by Page Wilson to present his distinctive approach to live performance. It was not only the name of the group, but also the approach to the music; to play with “reckless abandon.” Rooted in the blues, folk, bluegrass, and country traditions of their native Virginia soil, the performances are spontaneous and original; yet with the professional musical expertise to go anywhere with a song, and take their audience along with them.
Charles Arthur, Chris Fuller, Jay Gillespie, Jim Skelding, and Billy Lux reunite for an evening of great ”Purebred American Mongrel Music”, now known as ”Recklessly Abandoned”
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Friday, February 24, 2012 8:00 PM
The Blue Dogs – Lawrence Gray opens!
With nearly a million miles logged and 100,000 records sold, South Carolina’s BLUE DOGS continue to ride the highways, churn out new music, and win over new fans. Founded initially as a part-time love affair for writing and playing music, the BLUE DOGS spent the better part of the early 90’s honing their songs and live show at venues throughout Mid-Atlantic. Although the band has grown a legion of fans over the years, the BLUE DOGS’ musical diversity has been difficult to classify. Having started as a bluegrass/country/folk-rock duo, and then with the advent of a full band in 96, the BLUE DOGS found themselves with echoes of bluegrass, jam band rock, commercial roots pop/rock, and Americana….somewhere to the right of Americana and left of mainstream Nashville.
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Saturday, February 25, 2012 8:00 PM
Dean Fields
1000 shows, 9 years, and 200,000 miles have passed since Dean Fields went on the road to pursue a career in music. During that time his address changed from Miami to Nashville to Boston until most recently returning to his hometown of Richmond, VA. Now, he hits the road again to promote his most recent release ‘Under A Searchlight Moon’ . His recent homecoming has found Fields selling out shows in Richmond VA, as well as nearby Washington DC. “Dean Fields writes lyrics like Leonard Cohen and sings like Jeff Buckley. It’s no surprise that there’s a serious buzz on this Virginia singer-songwriter.” (Free Times) While continuing to feed his passion for music, Dean is fueled by a single-minded love to perform, sharing the stage with KT Tunstall, Blues Traveler, Rosanne Cash, Eric Hutchinson, Colin Hay, Bob Schneider, Auqualung, Hootie and the Blowfish, John Hiatt, Cake, Bruce Hornsby, Rusted Root, Madeleine Peyroux, Carbon Leaf, among others. In addition, Fields’ maturity as a writer and performer is brought to the fore by some of the region’s finest musicians including members of Mandy Moore, Sparklehorse, Agents of Good Roots, KD Lang, Carbonleaf and Modern Groove Syndicate.
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012 8:00 PM
Carrie Elkin and Danny Schmidt
Red House recording artist, Carrie Elkin is a soulful singer with a gypsy spirit, a songwriter with a keen eye. Inspired by her travels and the many places she has called home– Ohio, New Mexico, Colorado, Boston, Austin–she documents the human condition with sensitivity and humor, crafting songs that have garnered attention at prestigious songwriting contests, including Mountain Stage NewSong and the Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase.
Carrie is a born performer, possessing an infectious energy that cannot be contained. As Maverick Magazine so eloquently put it: “We have never seen a performer so in love with the act of singing. Onstage Elkin was simply a force of nature.” With her dazzling voice and unpretentious charm, she wins over new fans at every show, whether playing at a headlining club gig, singing the national anthem in front of 20,000 at a Chicago Bulls game or opening for artists like Jesse Winchester, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Greg Brown.
Named to the Chicago Tribune’s 50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years, Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt has been rapidly ascending from underground cult hero to being widely recognized as an artist of generational significance. With lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, and Dave Carter, Danny is considered a preeminent writer, an artist whose earthy poetry manages to somehow conjure magic from the mundane, leading Sing Out Magazine to tag him “Perhaps the best new songwriter we’ve heard in the last 15 years.” Performing solo almost exclusively, armed with just his voice, his words, and his acoustic guitar, Danny’s an authentic timeless troubadour, one man sharing his truth in the form of songs, unadorned and intimate. The understated effect can be startlingly powerful. As songwriter Jeffrey Foucault put it: “Everything about the man is gentle, except for his capacity for insight, which is crushing.” After garnering unanimous critical praise for his self-released Parables & Primes album in 2005, Danny’s follow up release, Little Grey Sheep in 2007 began an unbroken streak of albums that have charted at #1 on the Folk Radio Charts, internationally. After also winning the prestigeous Kerrville New Folk award in 2007, Danny won the notice of venerable Americana roots label, Red House Records, who began releasing his albums in 2009, starting with the critically acclaimed album, Instead The Forest Rose To Sing, thus exposing a much broader audience to Danny’s music, alongside such notable artists as Greg Brown, Eliza Gilkyson, Jorma Kaukonen, and John Gorka.
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Thursday, March 01, 2012 8:00 PM
Steve Smith and Hard Road
Stories abound where the prairie meets the hills – modern/retro harmonies and groove in original and traditional Americana and Bluegrass music. Life-long musicians Steve Smith (vocals, mandolin, mandola and guitar) and Chris Sanders (vocals and guitar) have captured audiences across the country with the depth of their songwriting and the power of their distinctive voices. Recent appearances include Pickin’ in the Pines, Bighorn Mountain Festival, Swallow Hill in Denver, Durango Bluegrass Meltdown, Albuquerque Folkfest, Wildflower Concerts, Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Steve and Chris are in demand as teachers and clinicians including Camp Bluegrass, Hill Country Acoustic Music Camp, California Coast Music Camp and Zoukfest. They welcome the exciting groove of Anne Luna (bass, vocals) – she has appeared with April Verch, Spring Creek Bluegrass and recorded with Kenny Maines and Alan Munde. Their music grows from Steve’s love of bluegrass rooted in his native Virginia and the beauty of choral singing ever-present in Chris’ Minnesota childhood. Together, their north/south blend of Bluegrass and Americana provides a unique heartbeat and lilt underscored by Anne’s driving bass. “Steve Smith is undoubtedly among the best mandolin pickers in the known universe, and combined with Chris Sanders marvelous vocals and steady rhythm guitar, they light up a room like the New Mexico sun.” Mike Shirkey, GoodFolk Productions Their latest CD Signs Along the Road (Jan. ‘10) is receiving national and international airplay and has found its way onto folk, roots and bluegrass charts climbing to #30 on the Billboard Cashbox charts . “…the best work yet from Smith, Sanders and Hard Road. Above it all soar two impassioned singers whose individual vocal gifts are periodically transformed into choruses of alchemical harmony”. Bruce Bergethon, Host of Acousticity, WGLT, Normal, IL “Signs Along the Road refuses any one label, except perhaps that of good, evocative music.” Bluegrass Unlimited, June ‘10
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Friday, April 06, 2012 8:00 PM
Ellis Paul
Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices in American songwriting. He was a principle leader in the wave of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene, creating a movement that revitalized the national acoustic circuit with an urban, literate, folk pop style that helped renew interest in the genre in the 1990's. Paul is today regarded as such a classic urban songwriter that it’s hard to fathom what a small-town boy he was. He grew up in northern Maine, in a potato farming community so remote that his exposure to music came almost entirely from the one top-40 station he could get on his radio, and his school band, where he played trumpet well enough to earn a summer scholarship to the Berklee College of Music.
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Saturday, April 07, 2012 3:00 PM
Special Children’s Show w/ Ellis Paul
The Dragonfly Races
Ashland Coffee & Tea is proud to present an afternoon Children’s Show with acclaimed Folk singer, Ellis Paul. The Dragonfly Races is Ellis’ 14th album marks his debut into the family/children’s genre. Written in true to form Ellis Paul style of compelling and witty story telling; each song will bring both parents and children into a picture that Ellis paints with each lyric. To make the CD even more special, Ellis has married his drawing and painting skills with his music; all the artwork is done by Ellis. The songs and artwork are clearly meant to be enjoyed by children as well as adults and promises to be a significant addition to the genre of family music. The album is produced by Flynn (producer of American Jukebox Fables) and is joined vocally by other folk favorites, Antje Duvekot, Vance Gilbert and rhythmically by Billy Jonas. Ellis Paul is a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, poet and troubadour. He is the recipient of thirteen Boston Music Awards, second only to multi-platinum artists Aerosmith. Since launching from Boston, Ellis has built a vast catalog of music which weds striking poetic imagery and philosophical introspection with hook-laden melodies. He averages 150 shows a year and travels across America and Europe.
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