FESTIVAL PREVIEW: The Infamous Weekend
September 19-21, 2024
Pop’s Farm | Martinsville, Virginia
by Seth Abramson
September 17, 2024
The Infamous Weekend is nearly upon us! Starting Thursday, September 19 and running through Saturday, September 21 at Pop’s Farm in Martinsville, Virginia, The Infamous Stringdusters will host and headline their second weekend long music and arts festival on the farm—which some of you may know as the site of Rooster Walk, the beloved festival held annually on Memorial Day weekend. Now the home of Infamous Weekend, Pop’s Farm is poised to unleash a tidal wave of great music, wonderful people, and beautiful mountain adventures!
Boasting six sets over three nights from the Grammy winning Stringdusters, along with a dozen acts handpicked by the band, the lineup is steeped with goodness. Featuring a spread of talent that includes Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, The Lil Smokies, The Last Revel, Dangermuffin, Jon Stickley Trio, Falco & Book Play Garcia, The WIlson Springs Hotel, Isaac Haden, Florencia & The Feeling, TC Carter Band, and The Fly Birds, this lineup is poised to jam hard across a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from Americana to jazz and from rock to bluegrass.
The vibe is tailored for good timing music lovers, including local brews available for the bigger kids at heart, but Infamous Weekend is a decidedly family friendly get together, with activities such as disc golf, paddle boats, wonderful food and craft vendors. Pop’s Farm is fantastic for getting your steps in, but complimentary tram that will safely provide transportation around the event for anyone preferring to ride.
Known for its comfortable accommodations and beautiful mountain views, Pop’s Farm will be in full swing! Not only will the festival be packed with some of the best musical acts around, there will also be floats, fly fishing, guided hiking adventures, and a slew of other ways to soak in the great outdoors!
Wanna go big? Check out the VIP packages with a variety of “elite” food, a meet and greet with the band, VIP gift bags, and even a VIP liquor bar! Weekend and day passes are available now, so don’t miss out on a weekend to remember!
A special thanks to the folks at Rooster Walk Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit that has lived up to its mission of promoting music, arts, and education in their home of Martinsville-Henry County, Virginia, donating over a quarter million dollars to a variety of charities, including providing instruments to local high school music programs and an endowment scholarship fund for Martinsville High School students.
Tickets, info, and schedule are available now at infamousweekend.com. <>
The Salt & The Sun
a review of Father Sun’s Island of Bone - released August 1, 2024
by Seth Abramson
August 26, 2024
Island of Bone is the debut album for the psychedelic reggae band Father Sun. The album maintains an authentic roots-reggae sound, yet manages to weave in threads of influence from jam rock, with a touch of classic rock, and a hint of Appalachia. While listening I was reminded of the Toots and the Maytals’ version of “Country Roads” by John Denver. A central theme of Island of Bone, both musically and lyrically, is to realize your best self while fiercely maintaining your identity. Father Sun knocks that idea out of the park. The songs are relatable and fun to listen to, plus they contain a depth of musicianship and message that inspire reflection and call for a greater sense of connection in our society.
The core band consists of Janiah Allen on bass, his son Nyo Allen holds down the percussion, and Aram Skenderian plays guitar. I have been familiar with Janiah’s work with local legends, Alliens, from Floyd, Virginia, and a handful of other projects over the past decade plus. I was very excited to hear this project, especially their take on the more traditional reggae sound.
The structure of the album is elegant and mindfully composed. It begins with an introduction of sorts in the song “Volume,” which draws in the audience and lays down the vibe, presenting a canvas to be painted. The throughline across the record is in pondering the unfortunate divisions in the world while illustrating a formula for resisting overwhelming forces. Roanoke reggae soul rocker The Ambassador is featured on “The Call,” working together with Jamiel Allen on keyboards to explore the spacey side of the island.
Island of Bone carries the listener through timely and timeless ideas, especially the paradox of longing to return home, only to realize that everything has changed. In the title track “Island of Bone,” the lyrics suggest that solving this complication is done in honoring family history and cherished memories, then carrying those influences forward to create a new, but no less sincere, sense of homecoming. It is a redemptive song about accepting change and carrying on with heart. It’s a fine example of the band’s staccato piano and a distinctive dub flavor, and sets a contemplative stage. The first lyrics, “Take me home,” immediately conjure a flood of connections and memories. Longing to return to one’s “home” is a universal feeling and, as the the song goes on to illustrate, the feeling is often difficult to hold.
The penultimate song “Peace” celebrates humanity, calls for cooler heads to prevail, and makes a plea for a sense of responsibility in the world, singing “We are the people / we don’t want no wars.” I applaud Father Sun for the beautiful and resonant music, practicing what they preach, by living a good life, sharing love and creative expression, that is the mantra of Island of Bone. I look forward to catching Father Sun live soon, but until then, I most definitely recommend this debut album to anyone who has a taste for interesting, virtuous, uplifting reggae music. <>
Carolina Callin’
a review of Into the Fog’s Carolina Moon - released August 2, 2024
August 20, 2024
by Dan MacDonnell
At a time when many newgrass bands are defining themselves by covering staple rock songs with a bluegrass twang, Into The Fog is taking a different approach by taking recognizable music styles and incorporating them into their original bluegrass/old-time style songs. The result is a genre fluid, bluegrassy sound with an electric power, often reminiscent of many classic rock songs.
Their new album Carolina Moon is a terrific dive into the traditional Americana/psychedelic/funk mixture the band has perfected. The album consists of seven diverse songs for a total of just under 36 minutes playing time.
The opener “Sore Loser” treats the listener to a funky dual, featuring upright bass courtesy of Derek Lane and Winston Mitchell's mandolin. At various points, the lyrics are from the perspective of a fan, a gambler, an athlete, or all three. The song also leans into a common theme repeated throughout: the protagonist typically ends up defiant. There's little evidence of electric guitar until about midway through, when Connor Koz goes into a trippy sounding 45 second guitar interlude, which leads to a reprise of the second verse to end the song.
“Troubled World” is a faster paced, old-timey sounding number with much harmonizing throughout. A groovy exchange of flat-picking guitar and quick-picking mandolin keeps the tempo high. Some interesting studio effects will probably catch your attention as they did for me. The lyrics seem to be of a man working his way through the struggles of life on his way to finding his place in the world. A second interlude gives Koz another opportunity to deliver a juicy electric guitar jam, which leads to a final chorus, ending the song. The lyrics "might have been it" at the very end leaves me wondering just what that statement means.
The third song, “Appalachian Girl” has grown on me as I listened again and again, becoming my favorite of the release. A jazzy bass leads into a funky mandolin part, that, when joined by the lead vocal, makes the song sound like a Ben Harper track. An uplifting beat with aesthetic harmonies virtually force the listener to tap their feet and crack a smile. It's a bit of a dichotomy considering the lyrics tell the (mostly) sad story of losing a partner, while the song carries the listener to a variety of musical places. The first interlude features a lead guitar sound similar to Jerry Garcia, and the next features a blues harp and mandolin exchange. There's even a bridge which takes you to a southern church revival with gospel style singing about losing his "ball and chain,” complete with congregants hooting and hollering in the background. It’s a great song—and my pick for a hit!
”Words” appears to be written following an argument. With the inclusion of a fiddle, this is the most traditional Americana sounding of the release. What I find most interesting about this song is although the singer's tone very calm, the lyrics are seething with anger as he debates whether he's going to get over it, singing: “this will be my final war.” We've all been there.
”Carolina Callin’” is an ode to home, authored by road-weary touring musicians who are home sick for North Carolina. It's an uplifting song which sounds a bit Tom Petty-esque to me. The language depicts a successful tour, full of optimism in having met good people and having had a good time, yet they’re still missing the familiarity of home.
”Hoagie's Voyage” is the longest track on the album at nearly seven minutes. It's a fast-paced, mandolin fueled jam which tells the story of Hoagie, who left work, got smashed in the head with a rock, and awakened in an unfamiliar place with a requirement to perform on guitar. A Grateful Dead-like interlude brings several genre changes to the song, from old-time, to blues-rock, to psychedelic-rock, back to old-time... heck, you might even hear a little Lynyrd Skynyrd in there! The song ends with Hoagie waking up in his own bed. Was it a dream? Maybe not considering his car is gone.
The album ends with “Days Used To Be Longer,” an acknowledgement of growing old. It opens with the sounds of rain and what sounds like someone making the morning coffee while listening to the radio. A guitar starts strumming a chord succession similar to the Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Virginia",” as the lyrics fondly reminisce about the joys of youth, explore the new pressures presented by life as we age, and a chorus expressing the irony of learning little from the lessons of life. In particular, I was taken aback by the profound line "I'll keep growing older, if I have the time.” This is a solid bluesy, old-time song with thought provoking lyrics and a catchy chorus you might find yourself singing with while driving your truck. <>
Into the Fog Personnel
Derek Lane - Bass, Vocals
Winston Mitchell - Mandolin, Vocals
Connor Koz - Electric Guitar, Vocals
Sam Stage - Fiddle
Credits: Music and lyrics by Derek Lane unless noted. “Sore Loser” (Connor Koz); “Words” (Winston Mitchell); “Hoagie’s Voyage” (Into the Fog).
Carolina Moon was produced by Into the Fog.
Scratch Around
a review of Phat Anchovies - Ready to Serve - released July 19, 2024
by Jason Jones
August 6, 2024
Sultry drummer funk with a smoky disco luster, but packing a southern growl, soaring vocals, and chic guitar: the debut album from Phat Anchovies is good ol’ foot-on-the-gas, anthemic classic rock music, heavy on thick bluesy marches, in-your-face attitude, and skillful climbs beset with seamless drops. It’s an unabashed rock n’ roll introduction to a promising, authentic, loud band with fistfuls of vision. For a debut, Phat Anchovies struts the razor’s edge, balancing a cohesive boogie with surprising disparity, taking up unexpected side quests, and dotting the trail with polished jewels, all without deforming their structured originals.
Based in Roanoke, Virginia, Phat Anchovies has made their name playing scalding hot live shows, highlighted with alluring stage presence and spicy instrumentation. They bring that same high octane stage energy to the album, too, but with more sophistication and clarity than ever before. “Mercy,” written by Tianjing Sun, is a breadwinning track, a full-throated, no holds barred, rock anthem. There’s a wisp of dark humor circulating the song list as well—spoken clearest in the call-and-response vocal section of the playful title song “Ready to Serve.” The track is a sterling example of the southern glam sound that Phat Anchovies is learning to unleash and harness. “The Barn” features GOTE guitarist John McBroom, adding a layer of breezy guitar to the spirited ballad, “a sweet elixir.” The closer “Funk3049” is working people's music, replete with long days on the assembly line, broken dreams, and corporate lies. It’s another well-placed and provocative song that leaves me wanting more.
Catchiest Track: “Groovin’ (to the Phat Anchovies)
I love the confidence of the opener, of the band introducing themselves and their sound by name. It’s proper and it takes swag: it’s a promise to deliver. And they bring the goods.
Most Surprising Track: “Shotgun” (featuring Bradley Carr)
I was familiar with the song, as an earlier version has been available online for some time. The surprise is in the highly elevated spacey, percussive jam section of the song. What was previously a tepid step off the path has grown into an interdimensional odyssey, featuring The Thrillbillyz guitarist Bradley Carr, and crowned by Eve-lynn Deegan’s crystalline croon of “put down your shotgun, I just wanna talk,” before the band kick starts a furious breakdown.
Editor’s Pick: “Butts Up!”
Rock hard rock, blustery as a Harley, with a rowdy sense of humor, think Zappa, Ween, Sexbruise?, The Darkness, and you’re on the right track. Bawdy and definitive, ”Butts Up!” certifies Phat Anchovies as gamblers on the verge of getting it on, rockbottom headbangers fighting for their right to party, a cowboy funk band at home in the grit and glam of their artistry, with four on the floor—and everybody knows what’s up. <>
Phat Anchovies
Ready to Serve (Released July 19, 2024).
Recorded, engineered, and produced by Matt King.
Available now on streaming platforms.
Ready to Serve made me think of:
Nile Rodgers
AC/DC
Funkadelic
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Joe Walsh
Cheap Trick
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
moe.
Black Sabbath
City Limits
by Jason Jones
August 1, 2024
“City Limits” is a song of pain and redemption, of running down the road and coming home, of changing everything and somehow staying much the same. It’s written by Foster Burton and Mountain Walrus and it’s set to premier on their debut album release on October 25, 2024. The City Salt had a chance to interview the band before a recent Mountain Walrus rehearsal, during which Foster explained the story behind “City Limits.” But before we get into the song and dance, I feel obliged to pay homage and to reminisce about Foster Burton, specifically what he means to music in the Roanoke Valley.
My earliest memories of Foster are not music, but sports related. Once upon a time, Foster played center and I played nose guard on the same sandlot football team, practicing every afternoon face mask to face mask. We also played on the same basketball team, and his dad, the late Matthew Burton, was one of our coaches. Even back then, Foster knew the game forward and backward before the rest of us. I was supposed to be the point guard on the basketball team—the kid who dribbles the ball up the floor to start the offense—but, being wide-eyed and absentminded, I’d run down the court and forget to take the inbound pass most of the time: thankfully, Foster never forgot, making him the first point center that I can remember. He plays a similar position in our local music ecosystem today.
After high school, Foster and his brother Daniel started the band Mad Iguanas, which is still in existence today. I’ve been requesting “Tudelu” at their live shows going on two decades now. It’s still one of my favorite feel good songs. Foster has also fronted many other regional bands, including GOTE, Stadanko, The Soul Searchers, and The Dead Reckoning, not to mention playing a dizzying number of solo gigs and sit ins. Every time I get into talking music with Foster, unsolicited, he puts respect on another musician’s name who helped him along the way, adding to the oral history of our Roanoke Valley music heritage; paying his dues, if you will, and oftentimes taking a little piece of their story for a part in one of his own songs. If not for Foster, I wouldn’t know the true gravity of important regional figures like Gary Wimmer, Brian Gray, Dave McDonald, Brach Rauchle, Jay Gladden, Henry Lazenby, Gary Jackson, Robby Carden, Texas Gladden, Matty Leonard, Isaac Hadden, PJ George, Ron Holloway, Marshall Hicks, Jake Dempsey, John McBroom, King George, Brian Mesko, and Paul Tressell. In fact, The City Salt would not exist without Foster Burton. He was the first person I asked to interview when I started the magazine. I never considered another candidate: it was Foster’s spirit I wanted to emulate, with an open-mind, a grateful heart, an eye for a thing well-made, an ear for the uncanny, with genuine curiosity and depth of humility.
Listen to the exclusive early release of “City Limits” by Mountain Walrus now, available only at The City Salt. Tickets are available to see the Mountain Walrus album release party at 5 Points Music Sanctuary on October 25, 2024. If you’re reading this, count yourself lucky to be acquainted with one of the great emerging music scenes in the United States—I know I do. Centered just a day trip from a dozen other incredible local scenes, the Roanoke Valley is itself an emerging destination for music lovers, top-tier artists, and producers of indelible shows. <>
Roanoke, Virginia’s Jefferson Center Announces 2024-2025 Season Schedule
Season Preview by Jason Jones
July 7, 2024
The Jefferson Center has announced the 2024-2025 season, featuring a provocative lineup, running the gamut from veritable legends, in Emmylou Harris, Garrison Keillor, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, to chart topping stalwarts, like The Wood Brothers, Rickie Lee Jones, and The Steeldrivers, to regionally connected talents, such as JSTOP Latin Soul, Stimulator Jones, and Tina & Her Pony. The Jefferson Center is slated to bring an unparalleled program to the region that offers something familiar and something fresh for everyone, including the best in contemporary and classic country, Americana, jazz, folk, blues, comedy, R&B, and hip-hop. In keeping with tradition, regional concertgoers will be served top shelf bills highlighted by a robust roster of performers.
One thing that they have going for them, the Jefferson Center has a fantastic asset in programming director Jamie Cheatwood. Spend some time with Jamie and you will soon realize that you are in the presence of a true music aficionado, and one who makes booking decisions with intention and creativity, all while maintaining a Roanoke regional orientation within the wider world of entertainment. As a music centric publication, we cannot voice it loudly enough, but people like Jamie are vital in cultivating a healthy music ecosystem in our region. While there are likely a handful of artists on the roster who are heretofore unknown to you, you can rest assured that they are worthy of inclusion, as they are handpicked by a bona fide music-loving expert. If you are like me and have yet to see live performances by the likes of Nicholas Payton, Chief Adjuah, and Hamilton De Holanda, consider taking a leap of faith into some brave new music this season. You’ll find me there, probably in amazement, thanking my lucky stars for the opportunity to see a hometown show with world moving implications. Not every small town is so fortunate to have such people in it.
One of the ways that the Jefferson Center increases opportunity is by offering series subscriptions. This season they are running three subscription packages, the Star City Series, Big Lick Vibes, and the Jazz Club. Each option gives purchasers the ability to score deals on tickets to multiple shows. The Star City Series features Emmylou Harris, The Wood Brothers, Michael Cleveland, Kathy Mattea, and Larry McCray. A Big Lick Vibes subscription will get you in to see Nicholas Payton, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Chief Adjuah (okay, you have my attention). Finally, the Jazz Club package puts you stagefront for six jazz concerts, featuring the Bria Skonberg Quintet, G. Thomas Allen, Tatiana Eva-Marie & The Avalon Jazz Band, the Sarah Hanahan Quartet, the Pat Bianchi Trio, and the Julius Rodriguez Quartet.
Raphaël Feuillâtre, David Cross, and Garrison Keillor top an eclectic treasure trove of standalone shows on the docket this season. At the Jefferson Center, you are not likely to see the same performers year in-year out: last season played host to some whales in my personal music catalog, who we were fortunately able to cover in The City Salt, including Victor Wooten & The Wooten Brothers Band, Butcher Brown, and Lettuce. This upcoming season appears poised to repeat that effect, just with a refreshingly unique lineup. With any luck, we will be able to bring you interviews with some of this season’s stars.
Tickets and subscriptions are available, starting July 9 (for subscribers and donors) and July 22, 2024 (for the public). Visit www.jeffcenter.org for tickets, donor benefits, artist-led workshops, and information regarding the Harry & Lavon Webb Education Center, including the Music Lab, all at Roanoke’s Jefferson Center. Install The City Salt events app, use the Venue View, and scroll to The Jefferson Center for the full 2024-2025 schedule. <>
A Casual Vibe with Serious Production Value:
Casual Campout Festival Review
by Jason Jones
May 16, 2024
Casual Campout 2024 was a top flight festival through and through. With beautiful grounds, a lakeside stage, impressive production, outstanding amenities, comfortable camping, ideal weather, assorted vendors, delicious food trucks, an incredible lineup of artists, and only around 500 people in attendance, this small festival packed a wallop. From arrival to departure, Life is Art Studios delivered a high-end product.
Entry at the Lakeside Retreats gates was smooth, allowing us quick access to an open-field camping spot. We set up at the edge of a neighborhood of tents nestled against a shady forested area, which happened to be convenient to many of the vendors and amenities, e.g. the bounce house, the cold plunge, the sound bath, and the silent disco; not to mention, only a short walk to the main stage and lake. One giant advantage of a small festival is not having to hoof it literally miles back and forth in the sun and humidity or pay for taxis. Plus, your new friends are always nearby. With Darby Downy on the mic all weekend, hyping up campers, spreading joy, and instilling camaraderie every step of the way, spirits remained high from morning til…morning.
I’m getting older all the time and don’t burn the midnight oil like I once did, especially after driving and setting up camp for the first time this festival season; but I still caught three full shows on Friday, starting with Electrolust out of Asheville, NC, featuring Isaac Hadden sitting in on guitar. In matching gold-lined tiger-print jogging suits, and led by the soul-stirring Mary Frances on keyboards, Electrolust brought the perfect energy for the late afternoon set. Their blazing horn section matched with synth, percussion, keys, and blistering guitar made for a saucy start to my lake country soirée.
Coming in hot after a short break, Consider the Source, a peerless trio featuring Gabriel Marin on double-neck guitar, John Ferrara on bass, and drummer Jeff Mann, conducted the show from light to dark, with the audience riding their tumbling, heavy Middle Eastern bluesy waves out to sea, only to see them crash brilliantly back to shore. I can think of scarcely few musicians other than Gabriel Marin with the range, dexterity, brimstone, and vision to slay with a double-neck guitar and not parody themselves in the limelight. The closer “Enemies of Magick” topped off a soaring performance.
Another powerhouse trio, Lespecial, followed with a moody set of doom ‘n dance—discometal if you will. Lespecial makes riffy, mashed-up, thunderous rave music and the people responded accordingly on Friday night, breaking out into a setlong dance party. While most of the crowd stayed up for Late Night Radio and the silent disco, I turned in early with a big day planned on Saturday.
Our neighbors who had stayed up for the late night festivities, gave positive reviews of the party hour shows: Late Night Radio, Brennan Fowler, and Ranford Almond. Saturday afternoon’s music led off with The Settlement. The Huntington, WV quintet wasted no time jumping from the high dive, with the big splash coming at the outset, as the band unleashed a 17-minute “Riff Destroyer” opener. Artist-at-large Natalie Brooke joined on keytar to close out the set. After the show, we had the pleasure of interviewing Colten Settle about Casual Campout and the coming year for The Settlement.
Saturday’s pace was brisk, with a stacked deck of all-stars, one after the next. As we wrapped the weekend’s first interview, The Keith Allen Circus was slipping into the opening notes of their cosmic clown show. With ringleader Keith Allen dressed in a top hat and red jacket, the other band members donned clownish wigs to complete the look. Despite having seen Allen front The Mantras dozens of times in the past, this was my first experience hearing this new project. I had high expectations coming into it and was satisfied. The highlight for me was “Fountain’s Funk,” a bluesy tribute to Allen’s late friend and weird-music plug Jeremy Fountain. The tune did all my favorite things a good song is capable of: told a soulful story, captured the voice of a unique artist, and jammed like hell. Keith Allen also invited us in for an interview in the hospitality yurt following the show. The interview and an exclusive acoustic performance will be available soon.
I watched enough of The Talisman’s show to hear them introduce Isaac Hadden, whom they had only met that day. While Hadden once again found himself sitting in on guitar for a band in need, I took the opportunity to indulge in an invigorating roxy yoga session under the silent disco dome. The Life is Art team left no stone unturned when it came to the roster of wellness activities, including plenty of yoga, breath work, cold plunge, and sound bath sessions.
After yoga, it was right back to the main stage for our good friends LITZ. Typically known for their late night jamtronica sets, Austin Litz and company took the late afternoon set by storm. The four-piece delivered a raucous set of jamming funk. The band is a well oiled machine and I’m sucked-in time and time again by Austin’s octopus-like grasp of the music: he’s constantly shifting from keys to synth to saxophone to flute to vocals, always at the pivotal moment, and with subtlety and finesse.
Toubab Krewe was up next on Saturday night. Jam scene mainstays for nearly two decades, Toubab is one of the most unique bands running the roads, regardless of genre or style. With an assortment of instruments at their fingertips, whether it’s the standard stuff, like guitar, bass, and drums, or a worldly combination including a slew of West African implements such as ngoni, kora, and djembe, Toubab Krewe bathed the entire dancing crowd in a wash of mystical delights. Their all encompassing performance made way for Sunsquabi’s headlining set on Saturday night.
Sunsquabi, the massively popular trio from Denver, CO, brought barrels of energy to the lakeside stage. Whiplashing through fast-paced improv and liquified electronic grooves, Sunsquabi kept the crowd bouncing from the first note to the final. Nearly the whole festival was on hand and packed tight on the dance floor for the length of the show. Sunsquabi had the potion mixed properly, dosing attendees with sultry guitar attacks interspersed with seductive electronic layering, all laid across booty moving drums n’ bass.
Our neighbors awoke us with a home cooked breakfast and filled us in on the skunk hour shows. There was much ado around camp about the Sneezy and Casual Commander sets. Plus, we got another rave review of the early morning set, which saw Austin Litz turn it up with his solo EDM project, Crypto Wave Radio.
Sunday morning ushered in Mother’s Day at Lakeside Retreats, which featured a trio of showstopping acts. The fun started with Natalie Brooke orchestrating a midday dance party. After sitting in with a half dozen or more acts over the weekend, Brooke brought her 1980s inspired look and jiving four piece band to everyone’s attention. It’s clear that Brooke either brought or made a bunch of fans over the weekend, as the crowd packed in tight to the front of the stage to dance in the direct sun. With striking vocals, huge stage presence, and electrifying keyboard antics, all of the group’s talents were on full display.
We had the great fortune of finding a shady spot for our camp chairs next to Derek and Nancy Hadden, just as their college-aged son Isaac took the stage for the Isaac Hadden Organ Trio’s Casual Campout debut. I have seen IHOT numerous times previously, each with Iajhi Hampden on drums, but Sunday’s show offered a twist, as the legendary Jeff Sipe (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Phil & Friends, Leftover Salmon) sat in on drums in place of Hampden. With a bevy of North Carolina based musicians making up the backbone of the Casual Campout lineup, it’s refreshing to find so many of them on good terms and working in collaboration with one another. While it’s a treat to see one of the jam and jazz scenes’ finest drummers cutting loose on a simple four-piece drum kit, it’s even cooler to see Jeff Sipe situated between the young maestro Isaac Hadden on guitar and the infamous Bill Stevens on keyboards. The trio tore through a vibrant set that left fans wanting more of Hadden’s illustrious guitar and high energy stage show. Jeff Sipe granted us a hair-raising interview following the show. Please tune in for the full video, which includes some unbelievable first-hand Col. Bruce Hampton stories. In another nod to the collaborative spirit, in each of our three interviews, Bill Stevens was mentioned unsolicited, proving what a fixture he and his Ovation Sound studios have become in the region.
As Casey & The Comrades soundchecked, we headed back to camp to fit in a quick healing session. A cold plunge followed by a sound bath is just what the body needs after a long weekend of rocking out in the sun. Coming out of it rejuvenated and ready, we hit the main stage for the weekend’s final performance. Casey Cranford, better known as the horn player for Big Something, brought together his Comrades project for the first time in over two years. Pulling out all stops, a number of showstoppers were brought on stage to participate, including Isaac Hadden, Bill Stevens, and Keith Allen. Per usual Cranford dazzled on both saxophone and the custom electric wind instrument (EWI) that he’s known for. As the set drew to a close, Casey tried pushing the time limits to play more music, but it wasn’t in the cards. Instead, Bill Stevens instigated a huge crowd photo to be taken from the stage, which gave everyone in attendance a reason to pack in close one last time before sending one another back into the real world again.
For my money, I could not have hoped for a better jump on festival season 2024. Big shout out to Stephen "Soup" Williamson, Daniel "TeBo" Thibault, and Darby Downy, the sound and light techs, medical staff, and everyone else who made Casual Campout a seriously fantastic time for all of us in attendance. If you’re into badass music played at a gorgeous venue, meeting amazing new people, taking care of your mind and body, then be sure to sign up for Casual Campout, Ramble Fest, The Big What? and anything else Life is Art Studios puts on. <>
Casual Campout Festival Preview
by Colin Williams
May 6, 2024
As the weather warms up so does our desire for music, food, and fun. Let your imagination begin to fill with the sweet sounds of music in the open air, the smell of smoking grills and fire pits, and the free feeling of living life in the moment. For all of these reasons anyone can get excited to experience Casual Campout Festival in Raleigh, NC this May 10-12 at Lakeside Retreats. In addition to one of the best lineups for the value, this year's Casual Campout offers extras such as health and wellness workshops, a children's area, their first ever crockpot cook-off, artisan vendors, theme nights, and delicious food options.
This year's organizers have put together a seriously impressive lineup. Kicking things into high gear on the first night will be Consider the Source and their highly original compositions. They make music sound like you'd never expect. That will be followed by Lespecial and their powerful metal/ EDM fusion. The second night presents the international rock sounds of Toubab Krewe and offers attendees the chance to experience the electronic jam fusion of the band Sunsquabi from Colorado. The innovative and distinguishing high energy grooves of these bands will surely be an amazing experience for all attendees. The incredible musical talent doesn't stop there. Over the weekend guests will see amazing performances by LITZ, Crypto WAVE Radio, Sneezy, The Keith Allen Circus (featuring Keith Allen of The Mantras), Natalie Brooke, the Isaac Hadden Organ Trio with Jeff Sipe, Late Night Radio, Casey and the Comrades (featuring Casey Cranford of Big Something), and more. This is certain to be one of the most action packed festival lineups this season.
In making the Casual Campout an experience fit for the whole family, this year guests can use the the Casually Healthy Center for Relaxation and Good Vibes: an on-site health and wellness center offering yoga, sound baths, cold plunges, breath work, and more. Festival organizers have also developed more programs for kids this year and plan to add even more in years to come. As always, they will offer the Creative Connection, an area for children to play and be creative safely. And what better than a special mother's day weekend bonus: kids under 12 are welcome to attend with a parent at no extra charge.
Festival goers will have the chance to shop amazing original art from local artists and dine at a variety of food vendors. Another original activity will be the Casual Crock-Off, a crockpot cook-off that will benefit a local food kitchen charity. Attendees who enter the competition can earn a free ticket to next year's Casual Campout. And for attendees who'd rather eat than cook, there will also be an opportunity to purchase a judge's ticket for the Casual Crock-Off! So for all you cooks; pull out your best crockpot recipes, and for you food connoisseurs; come prepared to taste and cast your vote, all for a good cause.
Get creative, get in costume, and get involved in theme nights! Each night of the festival has its own "casual" theme. Come prepared with your own costume. Friday night is “Rainbow Casual,” so bring out your colors! Get comfy for Saturday night’s “Pajama Jammy Jam,” and go out in style for Sunday night's “Business Casual.” Just one more way you can get involved at this year's Casual Campout.
This May 10th, 11th, and 12th come campout with friends and family. With a lineup like no other and something for everyone, it sounds like a solid way to spend an awesome weekend. Enjoy the music, bring the kids, eat the food, shop the local art, and take it easy. After all, it is the Casual Campout.
Tickets available here. <>
Seven Electricana Songs You Oughta Know
by Jason Jones
April 2024
The Americana genre is up for grabs. The best of what’s out there is less and less a guy with a guitar strumming on a stool. Instead, technologies usually in keeping with electronic music, such as synthesizers, layered vocals, remixes, and instrument-altering pedals, are now commonplace, allowing an eccentric shelf of artists to explore the genre in new ways. Here’s seven examples ranging from a countrified Black Lips song that adds a touch of digital ambience to Krohme’s remix of King Dude covering Merle Travis to Brittany Howard taking us on a full scale electro-roots expedition.
1. Black Lips - "Stolen Valor"
There’s really somethin’ to how you put “nothin’” in a country song. This one comes with just a touch of tasteful digital layering for atmospherics near the outro. There’s more to this song than at first there may appear.
Did you know? Black Lips have been compared to GG Allin for their on stage antics.
2. Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy, featuring Matt Sweeney - "OD'd in Denver" (Hank Williams Jr.)
Drag City Records has long been a purveyor of the shady sides of Americana. Here’s an unexpected version of a laid bare Bocephus ballad. Wavering specters of electricity creak in the floorboards of this track.
Did you know? Bonnie "Prince" Billy (Will Oldham), David Berman (Silver Jews), and Stephen Malkmus (Pavement) published poems in the same issue of Open City in the 1990s.
3. Caroline Spence & Matt Berninger - "I Know You Know Me"
Stark vocals against a placid soundscape wider than you realize. A svelte take on The National’s classic paradigm. A plangent contemplation, exquisitely bittersweet.
Did you know? Carolina Spence is from Charlottesville, Virginia and her album True North is a tribute to poet Mary Oliver, according to her website.
4. Lindsay Lou - "Love Calls"
A surging, morpheus piece of music, self-defined, a provocative mosaic that leaves us in the lurch, feeling jinxed or speculative. Digital antics abound. Lindsay Lou deploys an extended phone call sample, interpolated across the structured contours of the song, giving the players space to fold in slathers of playful, trippy tones.
Did you know? PJ George (Old Crow Medicine Show) from Salem, Virginia is featured on multiple instruments across Lindsay Lou's Queen of Time.
5. King Dude & Krohme, featuring Doug Wimbish and Daniel Fleming - "16 Tons" (Merle Travis)
Like Massive Attack playing the scrip miner blues. Another farfetched dynamo built for freshness by Krohme. It’s King Dude feelin’ mean on a spooked mountain road, bringing a classic to a new crowd.
Did you know? Krohme runs a non-profit called Calm Bomb Collective to benefit independent artists and charitable organizations such as Punks for Autism.
6. Brittany Howard - "Every Color in Blue"
It should be no secret now that I’ve taken a nonlinear look at the genre, but if you sit back and listen, Brittany Howard is giving us roots music, Americana if you will. Here’s a portal into another dimension. Channeling Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Camille Yarbrough, as if Sycorax took a speaking part at last, the power of Brittany Howard’s mystic sorcery is immense, global, potent.
Did you know? According to nytimes.com, Brittany Howard was watching Tiger King and listening to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life while making her latest album What Now.
7. The Beak Trio - "Refurbished Nail Farm"
A cosmic odyssey into the hinterlands of electric banjo. It’s in the same sphere as Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, but more spartan, more punk rock, way weirder, a zooey menagerie of supersonic funk n’ twang. A rhythm section with bags of tricks.
Did you know? The Beak Trio is comprised of members from New York, New York and Richmond, Virginia. <>
I Heart Southeast Sculpture Reveal
by John Woodrum
February 18, 2024
After applying for and receiving an Art Matters grant through the Year of the Artist Campaign hosted by the Roanoke Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, I went to work designing a sculpture that would illuminate and honor the I Heart Southeast movement. The campaign seeks artists to undertake projects that advance community wellness, justice, and inclusion. The I Heart Southeast movement, started by Roanoker Sunni Purviance, as part of the Southeast Action Forum, has led to a number of neighbor-initiated, community-centric improvements, including school sidewalk decorations and messages, area businesses, organizations, and homes displaying hearts, temporary chalk murals, and permanent gateway murals making the Southeast quadrant of Roanoke more welcoming for residents and visitors alike.
One of the aspects of the I Heart Southeast movement that inspires me most is "plawking," a neighborhood cleanup project borne from the forum's #lovewhereyoulive initiative. The term "plawking" is a variation on "plogging" (picking up litter) combined with walking designated routes through Southeast chatting with neighbors while cleaning up the city's landscape. When the city's green spaces are free of debris and trash, it reflects a brighter, more beautiful cityscape to be enjoyed. My goal for the sculpture design and installation was to enrich the Southeast community by creating a new landmark devoted to the movement that emanates with positive light for the neighborhood.
In making the sculpture, my focus was to construct it using materials and techniques to ensure that the statue is durable and able to withstand the elements. First, I 3D printed a miniature model of the design. I then built the full scale version out of wood using a CNC machine. Fabricating the I Heart Southeast logo involved adding multiple layers of fiberglass, each requiring smoothing with bondo and a palm sander, layer by layer. Once the fiberglassing was complete, I painted each character individually before mounting them together with welded braces. During the process, the Community High School art class was able to attend a free workshop hosted at 4DD Studios, giving the students an inside look at the artistry involved.
The sculpture was installed at Belmont Public Library and then covered in wrapping paper and ribbon. The big reveal was scheduled for Valentine's Day 2024. Prior to the big reveal, I spoke to the crowd about the statue, as did Sunni Purviance, Roanoke City Arts & Culture Coordinator Doug Jackson, and Vice Mayor Joe Cobb. With a large group of neighbors, I Heart Southeast supporters, "plawkers," and community leaders in attendance, a group of area children were tapped to unwrap the paper, unveiling the statue to a warm round of applause. <>
EarlJam with Tony Trischka, Live in Floyd
by Michelle Darby
January 2024
What do you do when you receive a thumb drive with over 200 rare and unpublished recordings of Earl Scruggs and John Hartford jamming? If you’re Tony Trischka, you set to transcribing them, note for note. Then you bring together fellow musicians and friends, old and new, to put them on an album celebrating Earl’s 100th birthday – and EarlJam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs was born.
Comprised of 15 songs, many never heard publicly, Earljam is a celebration of the breadth of Earl’s playing. “The depth of Earl’s genius becomes ever more apparent when I transcribe his solos, which I’ve been doing my entire life and with renewed vigor," as Trischka described, "discovering new twists and turns in his playing is pure joy and in fact the inspiration for this tribute show and the album."
Scheduled for release May 3rd on the newly formed Down the Road Records, with the first single, "Brown’s Ferry Blues" (featuring Billy Strings) due out January 12th, Trischka is traveling to local venues in support of this amazing and very special project. One such venue is the Floyd Country Store, this Sunday, January 14th.
When asked what attendees can expect from an upcoming show, Trischka shared, "great and talented musicians honoring another inspirational one, note for note, with a few surprises mixed in." <>
Let's talk about drummers
by Jason Jones
January 2024
Kris Myers is a tough one however you slice it. Shoulder surgery sidelined him for the latter half of 2023, but this week he returned to full time action behind the drum kit, as Umphrey’s McGee opened 2024 with shows at The Fillmore in Charlotte on January 11, 2024, and on January 12, at The Ritz in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Fans were elated to have Myers back atop his rightful throne, as was the band. Umphrey’s front man Brendan Bayliss called out the return of 'the hardest working man in show business' at both shows, saying that they were finally able to play songs that had to be shelved during Myers’ sabbatical. In fact, the band dug deep into the repertoire in the first shows back with Kris, resurrecting “Fenced In,” “Similar Skin,” “The Bottom Half,” “Dump City,” “Preamble,” “Mantis,” “2nd Self,” and “Make It Right” in Charlotte; while Raleigh saw them bust out “Out of Order,” “Walletsworth,” “Looks,” “Der Bluten Kat,” “Prowler,” and “Red” (King Crimson), which had not been played since 2017.
The tour opener in Charlotte saw the second set conclude with “Wife Soup,” meaningful, as it was the first song written when Kris Myers joined the band in 2003. While he has played the lion’s share of UM shows, he is not a founding member. Original drummer, the late Mike Mirro, was with the group from 1998-2002, when he surprisingly departed to attend medical school, a move that left the remaining members in limbo and questioning their future. Eventually, percussionist Andy Farag was tasked with selecting a new drummer. Hundreds of audition tapes poured in and they ultimately settled on the first one they received, that of Kris Myers of the progressive jazz outfit Kick the Cat.
Umphrey’s McGee traveled a unique path in filling the drummer position for six months of shows in 2023. Instead of canceling the dates or hiring a consistent fill-in or sliding percussionist Andy Farag over to the drum kit full time, the band elected to go with a drummer by committee approach, which saw them rotate in a series of all-star replacements. Duane Trucks (Widespread Panic), Ben Atkind (ElephantProof), and Mike Greenfield (Lotus) were each featured as the main drummer for several UM dates in 2023; but it was an all hands on deck approach to be certain, as Farag and guitarist Jake Cinninger were relied on to commandeer the drum stool for portions of most every show as well.
In the “Umphrey’s Discussion” group on Facebook, it was stated that Duane Trucks was the only replacement who used his own kit (rather than Myers’ set up) while sitting in for some of the gigs. Trucks, nephew of the late Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks and brother of famed guitarist Derek Trucks, was arguably the most comfortable fit as a replacement, but he had the advantage of working experience, having stepped in for a longstanding, fan-favorite drummer once before. When the late Todd Nance took time away from Widespread Panic in 2014, Trucks was tapped as the substitute, initially for select dates, although he ultimately took over on a permanent basis two years later.
On the other side of the coin, life gets real for rockstars like it does for the rest of us. Ben Atkind, who was absolutely stellar himself in holding it down for Myers, had a roller coaster 2023 in his own right. Not only did he have to adjust to playing the skins with UM on the fly, but he made his own surprising exit from Goose, of which he was a founding member. It's true that the music business gets wonky for everyone involved in it professionally for long enough, but it's important to remember that the beauty of the thing is the human element behind it all.
The other UM fill-in, Mike Greenfield, his band Lotus, and the whole music community suffered the unexpected and tragic loss of Lotus percussionist Chuck Morris (and his son Charley) who drowned following a boating accident in March of 2023. A giant loss such as the Morris family has endured is impactful well beyond the world of playing concerts. One can only imagine the pain of those who knew and worked intimately with Chuck, but the union of musicians in the wake of his and Charley's deaths, is evidence of the healing power of music.
While there was never any doubt that Myers was returning to UM once his shoulder was rehabbed, it speaks to their success as a band that they were able to weather the storm with a little help from their friends, and welcome Kris back into the fold without a hitch this past week. It’s a testament to the people of Umphrey’s McGee, the band and the business operation, plus the music community at large, in handling his absence in a way that fostered togetherness and allowed everyone involved to move onward and upward despite life's challenges.
It would be remiss not to mention the numerous other drumming guests who performed while Kris Myers recuperated. Umphrey's McGee stacked the lineup with opening bands and often coordinated with them in having their drummer play as a guest for a handful of tunes with them. They also took advantage of local resources, recruiting a few nearby and festival co-billing drummers to join them on stage as a guest during Myers’ hiatus. Special guests included Ilya Stemkovsky (Modern Drummer Magazine), Isaac Teel (Tauk), Claude Coleman, Jr. (Ween), Corey Fonville (Butcher Brown), Scotty Zwang (Ghost Light), Tanner Bardin (Eminence Ensemble), Jeremy Salken (Big Gigantic), Jason Bonham (Black Country Communion), Rod Elkins (Tyler Childers & The Food Stamps), Jack Ryan (Marcus King Band), Rory Dolan (Lespecial), and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater).
While it was a ton of fun watching the guest drummers take their swings with Umphrey’s McGee, it’s an impossible feat to replicate what Kris Myers brings to their sound, and something often felt lacking without him, whether it be comfortability, chemistry, or pure attitude. Despite the success of the experiment, Kris’ return brought things full circle. The timing, the rhythm, the fury, and the grace that make a Myers performance special were all back in spades, as Umphrey’s launched a pair of ragers to start the new year. <>
Ms. Popular Gets a Facelift
by Henry Lazenby
December 2023
Modern Groove Syndicate is a jazz fusion powerhouse out of Richmond, Virginia. In 2007 the band released Ms. Popular, which was both critically acclaimed and well received by jazz and pop enthusiasts, earning a finalist nomination from the Independent Music Awards. Ghost Track Records recently released a reissue of Ms. Popular : the tracks have been remixed by Curtis Fye and remastered for vinyl by Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering. The remastered edition is available at bandcamp.com (link above), and on vinyl for the first time.
“Soul Prostitution” opens the record. The tune begins in tension before exploding into funk soul goodness, featuring a lively drum beat alongside syncopated saxophone and organ. The song is chock full of tasty melodies that build to a spicy saxophone solo. After the solo, the tension reemerges along with a bevy of high energy auxiliary percussion, driving the song toward a dissonant, but well-resolved conclusion centered on the repetition of an earlier line.
The second track "El Guapo" is more laid back and sultry. The bawdy organ and flowing drum beat are sure to get the synapses firing. Early smatterings of saxophone and flute undergo further development, with the organ bringing it all together as the saxophone and flute collaborate on a catchy melody. A heavy organ transition and an interesting time signature change the feel, but the song remains grooving, easy to vibe with, and after a hot solo, the band transitions back to the initial texture to round it out.
"Raleigh" leaps from the speakers with a crackling melody syncopated by organ and saxophone. The song has a slight jazz-blues color that's danceable and makes me want to boogie! Horn and key solos are laced over the infectious grooves before a killer drum solo takes center stage. The song ends with a return to the crackling motif that opens this fun jamming tune.
One of the real treats of the album is the middle section, starting with "Sister Rose." The tune emerges in a chill mode, with a jazzy ballad feel. The saxophone shines, providing the melodic content over which the gospel progression is laid. The clavinet adds a tasty accoutrement, while the drumming stays sharp and always in the pocket. "June Bug" follows with some insane bass guitar reminiscent of Victor Wooten. After the intro, the song flows into a pleasing vamp, one of those where the organ holds down one note or chord, with just a few short changes on the tail—that droning organ grooves so hard to me; then there is some sweet interchange between a synth and the saxophone that creates an acid jazz groove that carries the remainder of the song. The sixth track, "Bunky Flues," hits the nail on the head with a slow, almost spooky take on the blues progression that makes use of a little divergence on the turnaround. The gritty drums and low register bass create an old-timey feel that rouses my sense of nostalgia.
The near-title track "Miss Popular" creates a unique time feel with a Medeski, Martin, and Wood sound. The organ is intense and slightly distorted before digressing into a nice groove for the saxophone to lay an amazing solo over. The song takes some intrepid twists and turns, giving it a trippy feel before it returns to driving jazz fusion. As it concludes, the drummer launches into an energetic solo just before the fades out.
"Original Mac" portends to be a jazz fusion epic with a big band feel. The drums and bass are hard driving, then the rest of the instruments join in, leading to some nice breaks highlighted by intriguing organ tones. As the song progresses, we are greeted with a heavily distorted organ solo that demands attention. The breaks return with a surprisingly industrial feel before the saxophone solo howls from the speakers. I could not stop nodding my head or help making that stankface while jamming this song.
Ms. Popuar closes with a trio of powerhouse tunes. Featuring a soulful melody and droning organ, "Red Bean" is emblematic of the driving funk at the heart of the record's sound. The penultimate track, "Kevin Simpson," delivers a pleasing neo-soul ambience. Although I think of D’Angelo upon listening, the song has a fierce uniqueness, with the instruments playing the part of the vocalist. The odd time feel adds another enjoyable wrinkle. The final track "Long Naked Ducks" sends us home to a mischievous funk soul party. The attack of horns and organ instantly reminds me of the sound a duck would make if sailing through outer space, and is the perfect gem to show us the way out.
I realized as I listened that the instruments play the role of vocalist so well that I don't even miss a singer on Ms. Popular. To my hearing, the entire record is a masterpiece made by master musicians replete with hard driving funk soul goodness from start to finish—and now remastered to enhance that crisp vinyl sound. Modern Groove Syndicate will play in Roanoke, Virginia on Friday, December 29, 2023, at Martin's Downtown.
The band is Daniel Clarke (Ryan Adams, k.d. lang, War on Drugs) on organ, clavinet, micro Korg, Moog, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, acoustic piano;
Joel Denunzio on drums and percussion;
Todd Herrington (Cris Jacobs, Mekong Express); on bass and percussion; and
JC Kuhl (Agents of Good Roots, Butcher Brown, The Revelators) on tenor, alto, and baritone sax, flute, percussion, and vocals. <>
Sludge Metal Pioneers Eyehategod Celebrate 30th Anniversary of Take As Needed For Pain, Capping a Year of Impressive & Eclectic Shows at Flying Panther
by Jack Martin
December 2023
Monday, December 11, 2023 saw another addition to the recent list of impressive do-it-yourself shows at Roanoke’s local heavy music haven, Flying Panther Skate Shop. This time, the shop put on an impressive, metal-centric bill featuring New Orleans’ sludge-metal pioneers Eyehategod, who debuted in 1988. The band came through Roanoke as a stop on their current tour celebrating thirty years of their landmark album Take As Needed for Pain. The show was a consistent, unconventional, and brutal evening of entertainment, and one that further cemented Flying Panther as a reckoning force in Roanoke’s cultural sphere.
The night featured support from several notable local and regional metal and hardcore acts. The most remarkable being Virginia and North Carolina’s Heavens Die, a metalcore band that enjoyed great regional notoriety during their active years in the mid to late 2010s. Their appearance at this show marked their first in Virginia in five years, and only their third show since their surprise return in July. Beckley, West Virginia’s Agency, and Roanoke’s Human Infection and Orenda rounded out the lineup, creating a diverse but consistent sonic atmosphere for the night.
Just like the Terror show in September, this was another sold out event for Flying Panther. The crowd was very obviously made up of more metalheads than punks or hardcore kids despite hardcore crossover being a large part of Eyehategod’s history. Demographically, the crowd seemed significantly older compared to the one of similar size at Terror. Eyehategod’s extreme longevity likely brought out many people who had been attending shows since they were much younger. The energy was clearly excited and passionate, but perhaps less chaotic than at the Terror show.
Eyehategod delivered a blistering, brutal set that proved the seasoned band extremely capable of an engaging audience rapport and an interesting show. Vocalist Mike Williams exuded great charisma, and his brief interjections of humor between songs kept the crowd hooked beyond the strength of the band’s music. The setlist consisted, as expected, of mostly songs from Take As Needed, which translated to an extremely crowd-pleasing experience. The band was tight and efficient, sounding almost exactly how they do on record. The same level of expert performance from the record was found in the live set as well as the record’s crushing atmosphere.
Overall, Eyehategod at the Flying Panther was another immersive and thrilling experience. Perhaps DIY music’s greatest strength is its ability to close the gap between fan and performer. Flying Panther continues to demonstrate this by bringing in monolithic acts to smaller crowds resulting in unforgettable, intimate shows that allow Roanoke’s heavy music scene to experience their favorite bands in a fashion that was previously unavailable in the city. <>
The Last of the Best: A Review of Bob Dylan Live in Roanoke
by Jack Martin
November 2023
Legendary musician Bob Dylan made his first stop in Roanoke in four years on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. He played to a packed Berglund Performing Arts Center. The room was noticeably dimmer due to blue film inserts covering the house lights, while the band played a minimally lit stage. The crowd seemed to be filled mostly with older, Dylan enthusiasts. Much of the chatter I overheard from those surrounding my seat and those roaming the venue was about previous Dylan concert experiences, Dylan encounters, and collections of his merchandise or music. Even some of the event staff joined in on the excitement, making the room feel completely filled with anticipation from every attendee.
It is difficult to say anything new about a ubiquitous public figure. It is difficult to find someone who doesn’t know who Bob Dylan is or what he does. Everybody who attends a Bob Dylan show knows to some extent what they are going to experience. These things are important to note because it is clear that Bob Dylan is aware of this. Starting sharply at 8 PM in a cell phone-free room, Dylan cleared through fifteen songs before so much as speaking a word to the audience. When he finally did speak, it was a brief introduction of his band followed by two more songs and a swift stage exit. He played mostly newer material off of Rough and Rowdy Ways, save for a couple of deep cuts, a handful of old favorites such as “When I Paint My Masterpiece" and “Every Grain of Sand,” plus a cover of Johnny Mercer’s “That Old Black Magic.” The versions were generally long, intense, and subdued. This combination of factors would make a show fall flat for virtually any other artist, but not Dylan. His performance is somehow beautiful, fascinating, and fresh sixty years into his career.
Watching and listening to Bob Dylan in 2023 is a truly surreal experience. Legacy acts do tour from time to time, but virtually none of them play new music, and even fewer of them tour at the rate that Dylan still does. He presents himself simultaneously with the composure and professionalism of an artist who has been doing what he does for decades as well as the hunger of an up and comer. Dylan had a smile on his face the entire show, and despite his obvious age he was clearly loving every minute of the performance. The lyrics of his new material are extremely intimate and intense. The songs he played were long, reflective, and deeply autobiographical. Autobiographical songs have always been something Dylan has excelled at, but to hear lines such as “the last of the best, you can bury the rest” come from the mouth of a now 82-year-old legend is an extremely striking and poignant experience.
Compositionally, one should not go to a Bob Dylan show in 2023 expecting the organ-driven country-blues-rock of the 60s and 70s. His voice is weak and weathered. It carries a weight with it that can only come from decades of an exceptional life. The music reflects this truth by being considerably more subdued and jazzy than what one might expect from Dylan. In fact, Dylan did not pick up a guitar a single time, and only played his famous harmonica once. The rest of the performance was spent sitting–and standing–behind a baby grand piano, playing lines and progressions that feel just as beautifully messy as his guitar and harmonica playing once did.
The overall effect of the performance was one of complete and total mastery. Any other artist would fall into the trap of doing more than what your age allows, but Dylan embraces his legacy act status with open arms. The weathered nature of his songs and performance leave a deep impression on the audience that cannot be replicated. Sonic mastery is never what Bob Dylan aimed for, but this rejection of musical norms is exactly what makes his music still special and resonant sixty years into his career. He still provides an extremely worthy performance, and his appearance was a highlight of the year in Roanoke’s cultural sphere. <>
A Jam for Brent: A Celebration of Life for Roanoke Classic Rock Legend Brent Clinevell
by Jason Jones
November 2023
Shortly after Brent Clinevell’s passing on October 25, 2023, Doug Settles, the bandleader of Gasoline Alley, contacted me with news that a memorial show to honor the late rocker was in the works. Settles went on to describe the effect Clinevell had on his life. He first encountered Brent Clinevell as the frontman for the band Razzmatazz at The Propeller Club in Christiansburg, Virginia in 1975. That night reset the direction of Settles' life. Having witnessed Clinevell command the stage, rock the house, and leave the audience stunned, he knew then and there that he would soon launch his own rock n’ roll career.
As we talked, I learned from Settles the background on Clinevell’s storied life as a touring musician who played in a number of notable bands in 1970s and 80s. In the early 1970s he sang in a regionally successful group called The Divots. Following his stint with them, he formed Razzmatazz in 1974, and was soon touring the east coast, gaining popularity until their break up in the spring of 1980.
Following the disbanding of Razzmatazz, Clinevell continued full speed ahead with his musical pursuits. He joined the international touring band Jesse Bolt, opening for both AC/DC and U2 while a member of the group. After leaving Jesse Bolt, Clinevell started Diamonds and took them on the road, once again performing up and down the east coast. Diamonds eventually cut back on touring and settled in as the house band at Johnny’s Tavern, a busy Roanoke nightclub in those days.
Following the end of his run with Diamonds, Clinevell went on to sing for seventeen years as a member of The Kings, a wildly popular band in the area. Always a pioneering showman, he was likely the first karaoke DJ in the Roanoke Valley, bringing the now widespread activity to notoriety in the early 1990s. He then went on to parlay his touring experience into work as a thriving booking agent for SRO Artists.
Settles has gone on to have a decades long career in rock ‘n roll and never lost sight of the impact Brent Clinevell had on him. I would be remiss not to mention the role that Settles played in Clinevell's story as well: he helped raise money for his medical care and would visit him weekly for lunch to rehash the glory days of the classic rock era, a generous act of kindness in paying homage to the man who changed his life’s trajectory.
A Jam for Brent, a celebration of life concert, will take place Sunday, November 26, 2023, from 2 - 7:30 PM at The Watering Hole on Williamson Road in Roanoke.
Additional special guests will include Doug and Robin Settles; Gary Hall; Melvin Pribble; Terry Rice; former Razzmatazz drummer Bryant Bowles; former members of Diamonds, Fred Lewis, Jim Lewis, and Fran Sandifer; John Hodges and Steve Prusak from The Worx; and Mac Crawford, former drummer for Diamonds and Molly Hatchet.
There is no cover charge, but organizers request a minimum $10 donation at the door. Funds will go toward funeral expenses and to benefit cancer research in Brent’s name. <>
The Opening of Lacks Plaza
by John Woodrum
October 2023
Artist, and Roanoke native, Bryce Cobbs created a drawing used in the making of the astounding life size statue dedicated to Henrietta Lacks. Larry Bechtel, a sculptor based in Blacksburg, Virginia, then brought the figure to life in her likeness. Newly coined Henrietta Lacks Plaza is located downtown across the street from the back of the Roanoke City municipal building. Cobb intertwines portraiture and anatomy to create a narrative in his artwork that remains apparent and elusive in Bechtel's sculpture.
As protests swept the country in the summer of 2020, Roanoke native William Foreman, by his own admission, took down the Robert E. Lee statue that stood in what was then known as Lee Plaza. Following the incident, city council elected to remove the damaged statue, and later that year, Evergreen Burial Park in Roanoke struck a deal with the city to have its remains removed to their grounds. As reported by Giulia Heyward for npr.org, "Trish White-Boyd, Roanoke's vice-mayor, and the Harrison Museum of African American Culture started fundraising for a public history project to replace the monument;" while Roanoke Hidden Histories raised $183,877 to fund the statue and a virtual reality documentary.
Lacks was born in Roanoke and died in 1951 at the age of 31. She is best known for her unwitting contribution to medical science. After being diagnosed with cervical cancer, and without her knowledge or consent, cells from her tumor were taken for research purposes at Johns Hopkins University medical center. These cells, known as HeLa cells, became the first immortal human cell line, contributing immensely to medical advancements, including the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines and advancements in cancer research. In 2021, the Lacks family filed suit against Thermo Fisher Scientific due to nonconsensual research conducted on her cells.
Despite her significant impact on science, her story remained relatively unknown for many years. It wasn't until the publication of Rebecca Skloot's book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in 2010 that her story gained widespread recognition. This book shed light on Lacks' life, the ethical concerns surrounding the use of her cells, and the impact of her contribution to medical research.
The sight of the covered sculpture intrigued attendees, while speeches by Lacks family attorney Benjamin Crump, Trish White-Boyd, Larry Bechtel, and Bryce Cobbs enthralled spectators, leaving the newly donned Lacks Plaza abuzz with anticipation at the moment of the memorable reveal. <>
Roanoke's Go Fest 2023 Review
by Dan MacDonnell
October 2023
If you have lived in the Roanoke Valley over the last ten years, you’ve probably noticed the evolution of Roanoke into an outdoors paradise. It may have even had something to do with why you moved here. The Anthem Go Outside Fest is all about celebrating this outdoors culture. Whether you’re into running, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, climbing, slack-lining, biking… or even sitting outside on a cool autumn evening, sipping a craft beer while enjoying top-tier live music, Go Fest brings it year after year, with free admission. 2023 was no exception.
This was the third year Go Fest was held in metropolitan downtown Roanoke. Although some preferred the festival’s old site at The River’s Edge Sports Complex, many appreciate the convenience of brick and mortar shops and restaurants being easily accessible from anywhere inside the festival. This year’s event was launched on Friday, October 13 at 5:00 PM with hundreds of vendors lining Jefferson Street and Franklin Road adjacent to Elmwood Park. There were food trucks of all sorts, organizations promoting their products and ideas for cleaner living, as well as a plethora of things for the kiddos- big bikes, e-bikes, mountain bikes, road bikes, low, medium, and high slack-lines, climbing walls, and all kinds of interesting, unique opportunities to play.
I arrived at about 6:30 PM Friday in time to take a seat at the amphitheater and enjoy this year’s short film selections for the Annual Banff Film Festival. As I watched the opening segment highlighting a fantastic skier in the Alps, I witnessed several slack liners walking their tight-ropes directly over the crowd! Not to worry- they had safety lines, but that didn’t diminish the anxiety you felt as they did acrobatics about 30 feet over the heads of spectators. Halfway through the action films, Roanoke Outside Foundation Director Pete Eschelman took the stage to explained the vision and success of his organization and their alignment with Go Outside Fest. Following the film, many people shuffled over to the playground area where they distributed headphones at no cost for the Silent Disco. If you never witnessed a Silent Disco, you should! It makes for some outstanding people watching as people “bust a move” in the absence of music. As for me, I left to prepare for a busy Saturday schedule of events.
Saturday brought overcast skies, but we didn’t see any rain until late afternoon, so it didn’t seem to temper the crowd very much. Talk about silver linings: the clouds made it possible to witness the partial eclipse of the sun in the afternoon. As I strolled up Franklin Road, I first checked out about 20 patrons in kayaks and stand-up paddle boards, testing the equipment and their skills. Next I walked the two or three blocks of Jefferson street, where I spoke with many vendors and test rode an e-bike (too cool!). I met a team of custom Sprinter van camper designers, several cool Californians representing Outside Magazine, and even learned more than I’d ever known about tying knots! Great fun, but I was anxious to get over to Elmwood Amphitheatre for the live music!
The first band to play was local Grateful Dead tribute band The Kind, but their time slot was too early for me to make. One thing I had to come to terms with: There is no way you can catch every event and activity at Go Fest -- There is just so much going on. In light of this, the organizers offered a slick, web-based planner, with which you can select your higher priority events and design your best personal schedule to attend what’s most important for you.
I did arrive in time to see The Ambassador and The Chosen Few. I love this band! Some recall the lead singer from his days in the early 2000s when he played with reggae band The Seed. He left the valley for several years, and now we’re fortunate to have him back. Their mostly original songs are reggae heavy with lots of funky R&B and a little hip-hop. The Ambassador’s enthusiasm for performing makes you feel that he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be in the universe. They played for a little over an hour then the music stopped long enough for me to take another stroll through the food vendors to find something for lunch. So many choices… I settled on a steak shwarma- something I hadn’t had in years. Good choice, Dan. Hit the spot!
Next, I had to hustle back to the amphitheater to see Lazy Man Dub Band. Another fantastic local band, playing mostly ska tunes with a peppy brass section and hopping rhythm strings and keys to help you get your groove on. One thing for certain: Local Roanoke music can’t be pigeon-holed into a single category. Our music scene is on fire!
The weather turned to rain for about an hour in the late afternoon, which cleared out a fair percentage of the people. I managed to escape to 202 Social House and catch up on the day’s college football scores and relax for a little while. The availability of this option is one of the benefits I see in the event being downtown.
After the rain passed, it was time to make my way back to the amphitheater for the music headliners of the festival. First up was Magic Beans from Colorado at 6 PM. They bring a very uptempo, funky R & B, rocky-soul which had everyone in front of the stage grooving to their unique, jammy sound. Everyone was smiling and laughing, enjoying their decision to wait out the earlier rain. I would be remiss to not mention the fantastic sound and lights at Elmwood Park. The ambiance was terrific and spirits were high.
At 9 PM the final act of the day took the stage: The Werks. I must admit that initially, I thought it was The Worx band from Roanoke. The Werks however, are an improvisational rock band from Ohio, which brought the heat! They played a heady stream of funky originals, and occasionally slipped in teases from Phish's "Bathtub Gin," a very spacey cover of Steve Miller’s "Fly Like an Eagle," and Talking Heads’ "Psycho Killer." These guys have been playing together for about 20 years and their professionalism shined through: They knew what the crowd wanted and delivered. While watching The Werks play, I found their stage presence, the light show, and sound quality had me feeling like I was watching Umphrey's McGee- They were very tight.
I wandered around a bit longer and met with friends and friendly strangers, everyone still all smiles and clearly enjoying themselves. I watched a bit of the lumberjack competition and the BMX exhibition on Jefferson Street, then caught a few songs by Led Zeppelin 2. They were a solid tribute band. The drummer in particular, brought his best, high energy John Bonham. It was to me, a good time to head home.
In my opinion, Go Fest is about the unique, friendly culture of the Roanoke Valley. Not only the athletic, outdoorsy, action-adventure lifestyle which has taken hold in the area, but the idea that thousands of people can come together over the course of 3 days and celebrate the beauty of our part of the world, and the limitless opportunities we all have to play, young and old alike. I hope to see you at Go Fest 2024! <>
Back to The Future Man's Birthday Show Review
by Jason Jones
October 2023
Victor Wooten & The Wooten Brothers Band returned to Roanoke’s Jefferson Center on Friday, October 13, 2023. The tour marks the first for The Wooten Brothers since 2010, the same year their late great saxophone playing brother, Rudy, passed away at only fifty-two years old. The Jefferson Center hosted a vibrant crowd, filling most of the seats, while the room brimmed with energy. Anticipation grew as the band’s gear adorned the redlit stage, set in a simple and elegant mise en scène, while The Wooten Brothers logo danced across the backdrop. Displayed prominently on stage was Roy “Future Man” Wooten’s full drum kit, a surprise for many, as he is better known for playing percussion on the drumitar, an instrument that he invented.
When the lights went down, a walkup track brought the band on stage to resounding applause. The band stepped right into the opening number, “Double-u Double-o Ten.” The jam featured a tight, playful approach to the music, with many pauses, sudden shifts, and surprising swells and fades. Victor Wooten snuck into the lyrics a nod to Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” Another early highlight was a singalong that saw the band and audience trading the chorus of “if you love your freedom, thank a soldier,” a line that hearkens back to their upbringing in a military family. The band wasted no time in flexing the musical talents for which they’re so admired, including Joseph Wooten’s smooth use of flute, trumpet, and sax tones on keyboards and Regi’s virtuosic guitar playing.
Victor introduced the band early in the show, starting with the second youngest Joseph, and noting that the keyboardist, also known as “The Hands of Soul,” sang backup on the first Whitney Houston album in addition to having played keys for over thirty years for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Steve Miller Band. The brothers then spoke about their late brother Rudy, the middle of five, marveling at his ability to play two saxophones at once while circular breathing, even as a teenager. Then Victor announced the oldest, guitar playing brother, Regi, affectionately known as “The Teacha,” as it was he who, by the age of ten, had taught each of his younger brothers to play music together. Roy’s introduction included word that it also happened to be his birthday. Victor noted that people often did not realize that “Future Man” could play a real drum kit, but that in fact he’d played drums on the first Whitney Houston record, in addition to winning five Grammy Awards. A huge drum solo followed.
The night also saw Victor Wooten take a solo on bass, an experience unlike watching any other bassist alive. A sly creator on his instrument, Victor effortlessly changes tone and tempo, extracting infectious poetry from his five-string Fodera, transforming one’s understanding of bass guitar in the process. As Victor took us to another world, we were brought back to the real world when a baby began to cry in the audience, just as the band returned to their instruments. Joseph quickly comforted the baby, saying “it’s alright!”
A funky dance track with a laidback upswing followed, delighting the crowd. The bright red background tigered with white stripes added to the sultry flavor of the experience. The Wooten Brothers are a band that are difficult to sit through. As Victor mentioned in our interview with the band, “all of our songs are danceable.” Except for a handful of people located near the far walls and empty seats in the back, the audience remained seated through nearly all of the show until the finale. The band played to the room’s lowkey demeanor, as their performance was not only world class music, but also part storytelling, part history lesson, and part sitcom banter between the brothers.
Joseph Wooten’s song “Consuela Smiles,” written in dedication to Consuela Lee Moorehead, is a journey that starts brightly with energy and pace, then moves through a contemplative jam section, before returning to a melodic outro led by Joseph on keys. Joseph told part of Consuela’s story, hoping that if she could hear it, she’d be impressed with the mature work of her young student. She was an early music teacher for the Wooten brothers, who recognized the late Rudy’s early talent, saying he was ready for New York as a teenager. She was also the aunt of director Spike Lee and sister of composer Bill Lee.
Victor told the story of a former representative from Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert, a television show dating back to the 1970s, who contacted him by Facebook and ultimately gave him cassette tapes from recordings the Wooten brothers had done for the show in the 1970s and 80s. Some of which included their brother Rudy on saxophone. The band then played three of the disco-flavored songs.
I’ve been impressed with Victor Wooten and Future Man after having seen them live with Bela Fleck & The Flecktones; and Joseph’s vocal and keyboard work is the band’s glue; but the star of the show for me was “The Teacha,” Regi Wooten. His guitar playing was sparse and superb, finger tapping like a ballerina in pirouette, then unleashing fierce sweeps like a speed skater gliding over the ice.
“Sweat,” the first song to be released from the band’s upcoming album features an upbeat dance groove, fuzzy guitar, a thick bassline, and catchy lyrics. Future Man stepped from behind the drum kit and took up the drumitar for the song. Meanwhile, Victor and Regi danced together holding their instruments aloft and trading riffs on each other’s guitar.
The set finished with Joseph leading the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Future Man and Victor encouraging the audience, saying “remember what they said we can’t do, we’re doing right now. We are proof the world is better than what they say it is.” The band left stage to a standing ovation and returned after a short break, encoring James Brown’s “Sex Machine” and Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank You,” playing at last for a standing crowd. <>
Roanoke's Go Fest 2023 Preview
by Jason Jones
October 2023
Roanoke’s Go Outside Festival is widely recognized as one of the premier festivals in Virginia. The 2023 edition will be held at various venues in downtown Roanoke, Virginia and all events will be free to attend. The streets of downtown will be transformed into the Go Fest grounds, with event sites including the Campfire Stage, the Demo Pool, the BMX course, the Wellness Patio, the Peter Pan Playground, and the Elmwood Park Amphitheatre. The festivities launch on Friday, October 13, going from 2 - 8 PM, then continue throughout the day on Saturday October 14, from 8 AM - 11 PM, and again on Sunday October 15, from 8 AM - 5 PM.
Friday evening promises an exciting beginning to Go Fest. The demo pool opens at 5 PM, giving attendees the opportunity to try out kayaks and canoes; Get2KnowNoke will host a pop-up social at the Campfire Stage; and the always entertaining Beer Mile Relay Race starts at 6 PM. Friday also features slackline shows, a lumberjack show, and a screening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival selections.
Go Fest is organized by the Roanoke Go Outside Foundation in collaboration with Roanoke City Parks and Recreation. They have partnered with Roanoke County Parks and Recreation to provide camping at nearby Explore Park for this year’s festival. There will be shuttles to transport campers back and forth.
Some Go Festers will start the day early on Saturday, as the Salem Half Marathon takes place at 8 AM, offsite in downtown Salem, Virginia; while the 5K on the ROA Runway starts at 9 AM, located at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport. Other morning events include Hustle/Haven hosting yoga flow at the Wellness Patio; bicycle rides and demos; bird watching at the Humble Hustle corner; and live music starts at 10:15 AM at Elmwood Park with The Kind, followed by The Ambassador & Chosen Few at 11:45 AM.
Midday Saturday features a bike rodeo at the Traffic Garden; The World’s Slowest Bike Race; a talk with James Gregory: The Ethnic Explorer at the Campfire Stage; Tic-Tac-Toe Trivia; music by Lazy Man Dub Band; and the ProTown BMX Stunt Show. Later in the afternoon, the Campfire Stage will present the parks director panel discussion and a talk with Asia Bright of Black Girls Hike. Other events include live music by Gabriel Marin’s Social Assassins; a road run; and , Eco Maniac Company’s litter scavenger hunt.
Saturday night features two more concerts at the Elmwood Park Amphitheatre, with Magic Beans taking the stage at 6 PM and The Werks at 8 PM. The silent disco at the Peter Pan Playground at Elmwood from 9 - 11 PM will conclude the Saturday night bill.
As Sunday morning comes down, early rising Go Fest attendees can hit the demo pool; attend their choice of yoga sessions; and pick from their favorite bicycling adventures, including the nine mile Roanoke River Greenway Bicycle Parade that departs from Vic Thomas Park at 9 AM.
Meanwhile, Colby T. Helms & The Virginia Creepers will play a Sunday brunch set beginning at 10:15 AM at Elmwood Park. Helms, the blossoming songsmith from nearby Franklin County, Virginia, returns home as he tours in the buildup to the release of his debut album Tales of Misfortune. Other concerts at Elmwood Park Sunday include, Laney Jones at 12:15 PM, touring in support of the new album Stories Up High, Roanoke favorites Virginia Electric at 1:30 PM, and the final concert of the weekend by Led Zeppelin 2 at 3 PM.
If you missed your chance the previous two days, Sunday will offer more opportunities for the demo pool, yoga, bicycling, running, crafting, trivia, and to see the slackline, lumberjack, and BMX stunt shows throughout the afternoon. While downtown, be sure to freshen up on your outdoor skills with workshops hosted at the Humble Hustle corner; or create a tote bag at the Grateful Gypsy booth; or brush up on the art of carving and polishing stones at lapidary Mark Morgan’s Earth Treasures tent; or take your camping knowledge to the next level with a session at the Leave No Trace booth.
Roanoke’s Go Fest 2023 will present the best of what the Roanoke region is known for, incredible outdoor adventures; lively entertainment experiences with cultural impact; and kind hearted hospitality. However you decide to enjoy the festival, there will be new events, relatable events, fun events, and undoubtedly more events than you can attend in one weekend! For more information and daily event schedules, visit roanokegofest.com.
Check thecitysalt.com after the festival for Dan MacDonnell’s recap, featuring photos by Chelse Warren.
Note: all info, photos, and graphics from roanokegofest.com. <>
2023 Major Malfunktion Halloween Party Review
by Jason Jones
October 2023
The second edition of The Major Malfunktion Halloween Party was held at The Mountain Valley Artisan Barn in Axton, Virginia. The farm is situated on a flat hilltop with an alluring view overlooking the rolling hills of Virginia's Southside. Several lodging options were available to festivalgoers, including tent and RV camping, while others commuted from nearby hotels. The barn houses two stages, one for acoustic acts located in the festively decorated bar area, and the main stage at the back of a high ceilinged, long and wide concrete dance floor. Behind the main stage, a large garage door was opened during daytime sets, creating a dazzling natural backdrop of pasturing horses on the horizon.
2023’s Major Malfunktion was a full spectrum emotional experience for attendees. While the music and camaraderie brought people together in jubilation throughout the weekend, the untimely death of Bradley Keegan, drummer for the band Road Soda, transformed the festivities into a somber, but still joyous celebration of life honoring the late artist.
It’s commonplace for newer festivals to experience difficulties in the opening years of production–anyone remember the traffic jam at the first Lockn Festival?–and unfortunately Friday’s events got off to a slower than intended start, as the venue experienced technical issues with the main stage sound system. Roanoke’s Charissa Joy & The High Frequency were delayed in starting, but played the festival's first set on the bar stage.
Friday headliners Sexbruise?, whose funky brand of desktoptronica matched the 80s theme night perfectly, although their main stage set did not get started until midnight, resulting in a lower than anticipated attendance. Nonetheless Sexbruise? performed a relentlessly entertaining set of classics including, “Halloween?”, “Fauci Said It’s Okay,” “Quit Your Job,” and “Party in the 80s.”
The Sweet Life, from Winchester, Virginia, closed out Friday night’s music with a raucous set of jamtronica, featuring Zack Johnson on electronic drums and Cody Fowler on electric guitar. The earlier delays saw the show hit 3 AM, at which point the set was cut short and the house lights brought up, as showgoers were informed that local sound ordinances required that music stop for the evening.
On Saturday morning festivalgoers awoke to the sight of two ambulances entering the property. Word soon began circulating through camp that someone had passed away. Organizers handled the tragic circumstances with incredible professionalism and poise by ushering nearby campers calmly into the barn and providing a full lunch for everyone in attendance as the local officials coordinated their efforts. Many of the musicians in attendance gathered under a tree near the picnic tables for an impromptu jam session. Soon after, attendees were encouraged to make their way to the barn for an announcement. Mostly everyone on site gathered in unison, as producers Keith Nickerson and Sam Calhoun, along with Chase Holiday from Road Soda, took the main stage to mournfully dedicate the rest of the weekend to Bradley Deegan.
Following the heartbreaking announcement, Wilmington, North Carolina’s Dock Street Pocket had the difficult task of playing the first set in wake of the tragic news. The band performed admirably, uplifting the crowd with a set of tranquil jams, featuring favorites such as Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Later in the afternoon, Liv Sloan & The Diehards from nearby Martinsville, Virginia treated fans to a savory, playful set of brassy, bluesy, funky rock n’ roll. Floyd, Virginia’s Jake Retting & G played the bar stage in between sets on Saturday, keeping the vibes high throughout the day.
Roanoke’s War Chile played the evening slot, taking the stage as the sun was setting; the open garage door framing the band on stage with the sprawling, goldlit farmland as a backdrop. The band played a hard driving, progressive set that featured several numbers from their latest album, highlighted by “Desperation Blues.” Frontman Brian Gray commented that he had written the song years earlier, but it wasn’t until the formation of War Chile that he found the right band to play it with. Drummer Mason Jennelle dedicated the set to Bradley Deegan on the microphone and performed using a drum from Deegan’s kit to honor his legacy.
Coming from Charleston, South Carolina, Runaway Gin delivered a spot on set of Phish favorites, including “The Wedge,” “Chalkdust Torture,” and “Carini.” New bassist David Katilius did not disappoint, adding six strings of funk to the pocket. The show was one of the better attended of the weekend and definitely had the most people up and bouncing around the room. Saturday’s theme was A Nightmare Before Christmas. Many attendees went all out with their costumes, including dead ringers of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, The Mayor, and Jack Skellington.
Saturday’s headliners The Kind Thieves, from nearby West Virginia, closed out Saturday night’s schedule with a genre jumping tilt of songs, including a cover of The Grateful Dead’s “Cumberland Blues,” and originals from rock and blues, to country and jam. Following their set, as the temperature dropped into the forties, many of the attendees gathered around two fire pits in the center of the camping area, creating a much needed family atmosphere to conclude what was an eventful day at Major Malfunktion.
As Saturday night became Sunday morning, the weather turned frigid on attendees by the time they awoke. As the bitter cold and wind set in, the crowd started to thin out, with a good number of festivalgoers leaving throughout the day. Despite the temperature drop, the Halloween party raged on in high spirits. Highlights included performances by Atlantic Aesthetic, Dr. Bacon, and Kentucky Ruckus.
The 2023 Major Malfunktion Halloween Party embodied the good, the bad, and the tragic moments that make up the lives we lead together. As we remember the life of the late artist Bradley Deegan, we look forward to a bright future of music and reverie. We cannot wait to see what next year’s installment of the Major Majlfunktion will look like! <>
A Review of Heevahava & Co Live at The Flying Panther
by Maddy Hanes
October 2023
Saturday, October 7, 2023 , proved to be an excellent showcase for fans of punk, hardcore, metal, and alternative music. Two local acts, Sultry, the opener, and Heevahava, the closer, bookended performances by Nerve Endings and Unchipped, a pair of bands that traveled from out of state. Throughout the evening, people of all ages cheered, danced, and celebrated the community on the Flying Panther Skate Shop floor.
Local hardcore band Sultry got things started, kicking music off just after seven. Making their visual presentation as gripping as their enormous sound, the lead vocalist donned an army green jumpsuit complimented by a black lacy face mask, a look that assuredly put an enigmatic stamp to their set. Sacrificing no showmanship, the band made use of the entire stage, including equipment as their singer slumped over and leaned against the microphone stand. Sultry's harsh, thrashing set ignited the event, drawing the crowd closer to the stage.
Nerve Endings, who traveled from the Bristol/Johnson City area, contributed a phenomenal performance that enlivened the audience. One fellow concert goer compared their sound to the later era of Black Flag, noting the angry overtones and provocative poetry of the performance. As stolid as it was resonating, the instrumentation created a framework of vicious rhythm with every song, while the vocalist utilized it for the nihilistic imagery the lyrics offered to the crowd.
Journeying to Roanoke for the first time to play Flying Panther, Columbus, Ohio’s Unchipped brought a strong metal influence to the show, along with their interactive stage presence. The band would often take time between songs to encourage people to move, mosh, or otherwise make an impression. The banter brought a comical air to the evening that contrasted with the blasting beats and industrial tinge of their performance.
Roanoke’s Heevahava headlined the show. Renowned for their distinctive compositions, Heevahava dotted their set with instrumental interludes, moving and playing irresistibly to the cadence of the music. The musicians exuded confidence, assuredly playing through their setlist. Many of the songs were familiar for fans who have been seeing the band grace Roanoke stages for over a decade. The music has a way of uniting both longtime and new Heevahava fans that is both natural and unceremonious. Part of the attraction is the band's avante garde stylings, which allow for anyone to interpret the song for themselves. The crowd erupted in applause at the show's conclusion.
With an incredible night of music in the rearview, the evening served as an example that an eclectic lineup leads to an invigorating listening experience. And the Flying Panther Skate Shop has quickly become a venue, not just for punk and hardcore shows, but for bringing together a community in support of art, action, and awareness. <>
2023 Major Malfunktion Halloween Party Preview
by Jason Jones
Get your tickets now to the season's first Halloween party, located at The Mountain Valley Artisan Barn in Axton, Virginia, featuring the region's grittiest fall festival lineup! The party starts Friday, October 6 and continues through Sunday, October 9. This year's headlining artists include soulful, mindmoving jammers The Kind Thieves, from Beckley, West Virginia, and Sexbruise?, the satirical desktoptronica players from Charleston, South Carolina. Both headliners have earned a dedicated local following after playing many jampacked shows in Roanoke, Blacksburg, Floyd, and in nearby North Carolina. This year's festivities include themed nights: Friday is 80s night and Saturday's theme is A Nightmare Before Christmas.
Dr. Bacon, from Asheville, North Carolina, is a sure bet for coming in hot with their offkilter onpoint funky music, as seen locally in Salem and Roanoke. Veteran rockers Kentucky Ruckus (formerly C2 & The Brothers Reed) return to the area with what promises to be a heavy hitting set of dynamic rock.
Another Charleston, South Carolina based band, Runaway Gin: A Phish Tribute, will bring an action packed set of shock and persuasion to the weekend; while another beach band, Wilmington, North Carolina's Dock Street Pocket, a rookie outfit that formed just this January, will make their Major Malfunktion debut.
Other Virginia acts on the bill include The Sweet Life, a duo from Winchester, who consistently deliver scorching sets of music; Floyd based folk artists Jake Retting & G; Rocky Mount's Amber Collier; and Liv Sloan & The Diehards, a sultry, raucous band from nearby Martinsville.
A pair of Roanoke's favorite bands, War Chile and Charissa Joy & The High Frequency plan to storm the barn this weekend. War Chile is playing in support of their recently released self-titled album, while powerhouse vocalist Charissa Joy will pilot her band through a high flying set of electric soul.
Rounding out this year's lineup is Dr. Psilicon, the veteran ensemble that includes two DJs and a VDJ working in tandem to mix a potent cocktail of drums n' bass and dubstep, paired with headsplitting visuals. Last but not least, The Matt Red Moore Band, who is currently touring nationally with Dusty Bo & The Contraband, will make a stop at the Malfunktion to treat fans to a tearjerking, heavyrocking set of magic.
This year's Major Malfunktion promises to be the wildest yet, with 3 days of music, 17 bands, DJs, food trucks, libations, vendors, and camping. Make your weekend plans now and get your tickets!
Am I Absent?
a review of Lindsay Lou’s Queen of Time
by Jason Jones
October 2023
Two songs with dobro and beginning with “Nothing" open Lindsay Lou's newest release Queen of Time.
“Nothing Else Matters” is wistful. Jerry Douglas plays a weeping dobro. Lindsay Lou’s gossamer voice explores the tender lyrics, “We were learning how to see / I don’t need to do it over.” The past and future are at play, making a mountain of the moments.
“Nothing’s Working,” a collaboration with Billy Strings that was originally featured on his 2021 album Renewal, starts with Strings’ familiar phrasing on acoustic guitar. Lou takes the lead vocals and Anders Beck paints with foggy dobro the atmosphere in which this haunted house has risen. “She’s feeling dismal / But she’s not the only one.”
A song of levity, a song of respite. “I Can Help” is like offering Cormac McCarthy a glass of Sunny Delight on election day; like dealing a joker in high stakes hold 'em.
“On Your Side (Starman)” evidences the carefully crafted momentum coursing through the album, harnessing a wave formed deep in the bellows of infinity, one highlighted by Eddy Dunlop’s pedal steel and an astral invocation under the sign of Bowie. “Trouble is a pretty word.”
“Love Calls” enters from a supernatural place. The opening “Hello” / “Hey” exchange pokes another needlepoint in time’s tall tale. Mr. Bungle’s Guided by Voices in Nellie McKay’s Candy Jail....What is the pollo asado? It’s chicken. I’m spelling out the genre Americana with black marker on masking tape to put on my forehead to identify myself, but when "love calls, you’re gonna answer.
The title track “Queen of Time” comes strutting, bedraggled, a day wiser, smirking and amused, having sailed clear of another night’s darkness. This is a standing-on-the-shore-in-the-morning song; an acoustic garage jam that rides hypnotic guitar if but for a thrill, and like a coin in water, it sinks directly to the crux of time’s meaning: “Who are you?”
“Rules” is a straight bluegrass number, with Kyle Tuttle on banjo, Royal Massat on upright bass, and Mimi Naja on mandolin. The pearl in its craw is “wondering which home to get back to.”
P.J. George III plays bass, djembe and other instruments on the record. He works out of Nashville, Tennessee now, and has Virginia ties, having studied music at Radford University. He was also a member of the Salem based rock band The Cheap Seats in the early 2000s. Anthony De La Costa on guitars and Alex Bice on percussion form the rest of the band.
Mr. Jimmy Rowland is on Rhodes piano for “Needed,” a polished stone of a tune, smooth in the palm, heavy with the memory of its broken edges. Dominic Leslie plays a graceful mandolin, “quietly and earnest.” “I’m just going to name it and step away,” Lou promises. It’s a cry of desperation and her voice captures it in fine articulation, “a place in time…on the phone for hours…down by the river / I’ve got something to say.”
“Shame” goes electric, featuring the return of Billy Strings on lead guitar. It’s subdued and bright, reminiscent of The Wallflowers. It’s another departure from what came before it.
A dying medium, the telephone call, functions like a Shakespearean ghost in Queen of Time, appearing as the track “This Too Shall Pass.”
The finale “Silent” is an autumnal ballad, illuminated by Phoebe Hunt’s violin and Joshua Rilko’s mandolin. It’s Lindsay Lou’s soliloquy that carries us so far away in bringing it all back home:
I feel myself scattered, wearing thin
Modern culture hasn’t clearly whispered into my ear
About something like this
She has been numb, mute, absent–
Am I absent?
Queen of Time was produced by Dave O’Donnell and recorded at Sound Emporium’s Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It was released on September 29, 2023. Learn more at lindsayloumusic.com. <>
Two Murals | Thiago Valdi, featuring John Murrill
by John Woodrum
September 2023
Listening to the crackling sounds of a dried out spray can misting gently into the alley way of Campbell Avenue one Fall afternoon, and intrigued by bystanders staring across the street into an alley way nearby, I took a closer look. After passing through the crevice of two jersey barriers, I’d stumbled across the artist behind the sound. There stood the talented artist in residence Thiago Valdi from Florianopolis, Brazil! During his short stay in town from September 25 through October 10, 2023, he created a giant mural of ever gazing eyes titled “Florianépolis Roanoke” on the brick wall of the Wilson Hughes Gallery. His visit left an indelible mark on the local art scene, sure to captivate residents and visitors alike.
While only commissioned to create one mural in town, Thiago also collaborated with John Murrill on a large scale mural titled “The Nightingale.” This mural displays a portrait of a local school teacher from the neighborhood. She holds an eye of determination and strength. On the opposing side of the wall is the nightingale bird dancing across a long spread of brick. The nightingale leaves a trail of whimsical colors all across the elongated single story building on the corner of Moorman and 11th St. NW.
John and Thiago decided on doing a collaboration by blind testing over 50 photos of locals in the process of Nightingale. John Murrill previously served as an art educator at Patrick Henry High School for ten years. Now he is a full time muralist and artist in residence with the City of Roanoke. Thiago’s visit to Roanoke was made possible by Roanoke Valley Sister Cities International and Olin Hall Galleries/Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo Center for the Arts.
Roanoke residents and art enthusiasts were not only treated to a visual feast, but also had the opportunity to connect with a world-class artist who was approachable and genuinely interested in the local culture. Thiago provided a free workshop to the public about spray painting techniques. This cultural exchange between Roanoke and Brazil enriched both communities and fostered international understanding. <>
A Monumental Day in Roanoke's Hardcore Punk Scene: A Preview of Terror at Flying Panther
by Jack Martin
September 2023
Monday, September 18, 2023 promises to be a monumental day in Roanoke’s hardcore punk scene. The community’s main venue for hardcore shows, Flying Panther Skate Shop, will be welcoming the legendary band Terror along with four notable supporting acts. While the show may be sold out now, some ticket holders may not be aware of the significance of this event. This show is remarkable not only in Roanoke’s local context, but in the context of the wider hardcore punk scene as well.
The Roanoke hardcore community is no stranger to booking both notable up-and-comers as well as famed legacy acts, but no band to play the city has approached the magnitude of Terror. Terror has been a definitive group in the heavy music sphere for nearly two decades. The band has millions of streams, hundreds of thousands of record sales, and fans on a global scale nearly unmatched by other bands in their genre. With all of those things considered, one might ask why such a monolithic band would play a 250-cap venue in a small city in southwestern Virginia. The answer is that our city cares about Terror, and Terror cares about cities like ours.
The band is in the midst of a headlining touring block with fellow giants Hatebreed, but the band chose to break away from the tour package and play a series of shows in smaller cities and venues between the major headliners. First time goers to the Flying Panther should prepare themselves to see full engagement between audience and performer. Excitement has perhaps never been higher in Roanoke hardcore, and it will reach a fever pitch when Terror takes the small, DIY cinder block stage at the Flying Panther.
Showgoers will also get to see four notable supporting acts. The most remarkable of which is Richmond’s legendary Naysayer. The band is held in high regard in the histories of both Richmond and Roanoke’s hardcore scenes. Naysayer has played Roanoke before, but their return after several years will perhaps provide fans with an added sense of anticipation. Rounding off the lineup are two exciting newer bands with members from both Richmond and Roanoke, Dimension Six and Infernal Gaze, and Roanoke’s own Hostile Takedown. These three bands bring a sense of homegrown pride to the bill. Hardcore fans in the city are excited to see their peers and friends perform alongside the two monster headliners.
The sold out, max capacity show will hopefully be the catalyst that truly starts the fire for Roanoke hardcore. Many dedicated individuals have put hard work into making this show happen, and its success comes from years of buildup and persistence to grow the local scene. Those unfamiliar with the scene will bare witness to a true display of community effort. <>
Six Years in the Making: A Review of War Chile's Album Release Show
by Dan MacDonnell
September 9, 2023
Salem, Virginia based War Chile has been playing the Roanoke area since 2017, first as a three piece band with Mason Jenelle on drums and Brian Gray and Henry Lazenby trading guitar and bass duties throughout their shows. These shows were power-blues driven, a la Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Then Jay Gladden joined on bass to create a new chemistry that allowed them to expand into other genres. This was evident last Saturday night at Martin’s Downtown when War Chile performed for the better part of three hours, highlighted by songs released on their debut self-titled album War Chile.
Major Malfunktion Music and Artisan Festival supported the release party, handling merchandise and conducting a raffle for Dead & Co. tour posters and Major Malfunktion tickets. The festival will feature 17 regional bands, including War Chile, and will take place October 6 - 9, 2023 in nearby Axton, Virginia.
Saturday’s show was well promoted and the turnout was strong. The atmosphere was palpable, as many family members and friends of the band were in attendance for this special event... and we weren’t disappointed. The band opened with covers by Hendrix, Elvis Costello, and The Who’s Pinball Wizard before playing each of the songs from their new album in succession. The power and enthusiasm of their play was contagious as the crowd became more excited with each song. The band was extremely tight and well-rehearsed, with many of their originals oozing southern rock and the blues. Think Black Crows, Allman Brothers, and a sprinkling of Primus and you get the idea. The highlight of the evening for me was their original, "Gravedigger Blues." And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the play of Mason on drums. His all-out style of play makes you wonder where he gets his energy, but his play remains precise! When matched with Jay’s rock-solid rhythm and the superb guitar playing skills of Brian and Henry, the sound is huge!
The second set of the show was as amazing as the first half, with several more covers including The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)," a cover of the ska tune “Message to You, Rudy,” and what’s become a worthy staple for War Chile, “Whipping Post” by the Allman Brothers Band. On this song, Brian’s vocal range is astounding, and the play of the band reaches an intensity rarely found in a local club. Followed by Led Zep’s “Dancing Days” and several more unreleased War Chile originals ended the night’s show at about 1:20 AM.
War Chile brought the heat and we loved every minute of it! Check out the War Chile album review by editor Jason Jones, only at thecitysalt.com. War Chile is available on Spotify and other streaming services. <>
War Chile
by Jason Jones
September 2023
Salem, Virginia based rock band War Chile released their eponymous debut album on August 1, 2023. War Chile is a seasoned band of four established musicians, one and all a stalwart of their instrument and sound. They are Brian Gray on guitar and vocals, Henry Lazenby on lead guitar, Jay Gladden on bass, and Mason Jennelle on drums. Their playing is layered and fluent, moody and exacting, cogent and cutthroat, but most impressively, it’s never pretentious, never austere, and always in service to the song. There are no extravagant solos, desultory flourishes, or inadvertent shifts. The song is king. If The Stooges are raw power, War Chile is curated power.
“All in Your Head” opens the album. Twin guitars, bluesy digressions, and brimming dynamics situate the song comfortably in the southern rock milieu. I’m reminded of the Allman Brothers Band and Molly Hatchet, but it's immediately clear that this will not be standard southern rock fare plucked from the peach tree. At the 3:42 mark, Lazenby takes a dapper solo lasting twenty seconds, but instead of overextending the part, he slips out and, seamlessly, Gray seesaws into a guttural, riffy solo, unexpectedly lowering the song deftly back to the opening motif in conclusion. The dynamic interchange between the guitarists exemplifies the band’s subtle craftsmanship, mastery of the tradition, and how to play one creatively against the other.
“A Hill to Die On” flings the door open on the southern rock moniker, ushering in a bevy of new textures and tones more in the Thin Lizzy vein of twin guitar rock. The sound doesn’teel as earnest, but wiley and mischievous, with a bouncing rhythm and slight comic tilt. That is until they move to the outro section of the song, downshifting into a murky, distorted, fuzz filled finish, more in line with Dinosaur Jr.
The upbeat ripper “Desperation” is classic Gray songwriting on display. Lyrically driven, with a running rhythm befitting of the narrator’s plight. Dynamite, the devil, and no fear are unmistakable signs there’s a hellhound on our man’s trail to Mexico.
Their debut would be remiss not dealing directly in the blues, with the genre forming the foundation of the album. “Gravedigger Blues” features a foreboding build, slide guitar, and a loping drum beat, over which Gray’s sultry vocals resonate. The sound is southern rock a la the ripe slide guitar of Grinderswitch, but the feeling is more diverse, a la Elmore James, in that the Delta, Chicago, and country blues traditions are brought to bear throughout the song.
The rhythm section of Gladden and Jennelle moves with power and grace, and no more so than on “Meme Generation,” a fistpumping thrasher with wavy vocals and Middle Eastern-hued guitarwork from Lazenby. It’s heavy, body moving rock in the classic mode of Iron Maiden or the contemporary mode of Umphrey’s McGee.
Coincidentally both Umphrey’s and War Chile released songs titled “Escape Goat” on their latest albums.. Gray told me that he had already named the song “Escape Goat” ahead of seeing the Umphrey’s release, but commented that they must have been watching a lot of Trailer Park Boys, too. The title comes from a moment when the show's protagonist Ricky confuses the term “scapegoat” for “escape goat.” The song itself is more in the prog rock vein than the rest of the debut. It’s instrumental, hard driving, and cinematic. I imagine shifting through the gears, speeding down the highway in a Trans-Am, starlight shining through the T-top.
The finale, “Death of Me,” is a return to the band's southern rock roots, featuring a growling vocal performance from Gray, sterling guitarwork by Lazenby, and the surprising addition of Josh Shilling on organ to introduce a new dimension. The lyrics leave our narrator still searching for salvation in a devilish world of good timing vice. War Chile saves one of the album’s finer moments for the outro, pairing Jennelle’s funky drum breakdown with a blustery organ jam leading into Gladden’s airbrake bass quake that slows the album to its close.
War Chile, like the songs comprising it, is a masterclass in music composition. There is careful attention given to the forms, structures, and traditions; to building tension and creating catharsis; to developing a theme, pairing it with vivid lyrics, and chasing its hero through the pitfalls and perils paving the way for resolution. And the playing is superb, with minimal effects, but incredible precision and fealty for the song. War Chile is accessible and nuanced, taking listeners on a journey through a southern rock soundscape laced with punk, country, blues, polka, boogie-woogie, heavy metal, and prog rock, placing the band’s sound somewhere between Clutch and Widespread Panic, with an attitude and authority all their own. War Chile is available on Spotify and other streaming services.<>
It was Destined That You and I Collide: A Review of Terror at Flying Panther
by Maddy Hanes
It's Monday, September, 18, 2023. Flying Panther Skate Shop is located in a towering warehouse that a passerby might assume is a vessel for industry, a production facility, with its darkened parking lot enclosed by chain link fencing. The utilitarian, sheet metal exterior of Flying Panther prefaces the ecosystem within its walls. The interior is a concrete lounge with worn couches, a small refrigerator filled with free water, homemade merch tables for the bands, a halfpipe in the corner. Every cranny is designed for skateboarding. The room is a tribute to independent culture: be it skating, visual art, or music.
But tonight the couches have been moved, the tables pulled to the opposite side, the halfpipe blocked off. The show is sold out and the air is heavy with anticipation. As the room fills with familiar faces from the local hardcore, punk, metal, and indie music communities, it becomes apparent that this show already feels different from any other at Flying Panther. Noteworthy bands have graced the stage before, but none more iconic than Terror. Having formed over twenty years ago in Los Angeles, California, it is not hyperbolic to say that Terror’s sound is key in the evolution of contemporary hardcore music.
Roanoke hardcore heroes Hostile Takedown kick off the show, bringing to the stage their masterful ability to encourage their fans to care about themselves, their friends, and their scene, while simultaneously being a catalyst for chaos. As their roughly thirty minute set progresses, the room begins morphing into “the pit.”
In the mosh pit there is circling, floor punching, windmilling, ax handling, and wheelbarrowing. The action is demanding, aerial, athletic, and yes, dangerous. Stage diving is encouraged. The point is, when attending a Terror show, there is an unspoken contract between the venue and the patron that the experience is interactive. Hurting people is not the intention, neither is blatant barbarity. The pit is an expression. It is an expression of anger, it is an expression of frustration, and it is an expression of the community.
The people of the hardcore pit are not celebrating violence or inflicting harm with malice. The mosh pit is a release from the pain of existence. The day-to-day wounds and traumas that are often too upsetting for words are shed amongst the fellow sufferers in a powerful physical performance. And as Infernal Gaze, Dimension Six, and Naysayer move through their sets, the room approaches a critical point of entropy. The artists and the crowd become one in a frenzied mass injected with a lawless sense of freedom. The setting is egalitarian, people move freely on and off the stage with the band members. The vocalists hand microphones to the crowd and jump into the pit themselves. Band members encourage the attendees to stage dive, then spin into the audience, until everyone is a participant and particle in this vicious universe.
Terror takes the stage and they are incomparable. Despite being a celebrated, infamous, legendary hardcore band, they make the people in the room feel like we are all on the same level–just people spending Monday night listening to music made by their friends. Playing seminal songs like “Return to Strength,” “Stick Tight,” and “Pain into Power” invigorates the crowd. Vocalist Scott Vogel acknowledges the praise, sharing gratitude for the opportunity to play The Panther. And the band is keen to the feeling that there is a significant reason that we are all in the room together tonight. The crowd is as charismatic as the performers. People fling themselves off the stage, hit the ground, and rise with grace. The audience swarms the stage with Terror, grabbing mics and screaming lyrics, while striking riffs hang in the air.
Vogel reminds the crowd that “the last thing he wants to see is a fight,” before revealing a personal story about his single mother, who raised her three children on food stamps. The story bolsters Terror’s connection with the crowd, enabling listeners to reject any shame of who they are, what they like, or what they had to endure. And that is the spirit of hardcore music.
Terror then concludes the show with a classic take on “Keepers of the Faith” and the house lights come on. As Terror loads out their equipment, and people mill around, an image appears. There is no bar, no alcohol. There are no bouncers. There are no barricades. There is no VIP section. There are only the people. And that is the spirit of Roanoke’s hardcore scene. <>
An Evening with Phat Anchovies
by Maddy Hanes
Walking into The Spot on Kirk, a venue nestled between two restaurants, maybe unassuming from the outside–but only to the uninitiated. It’s a small room, intimate, with music fans scattered about the edges. I’d seen Phat Anchovies perform one other time and waited for a familiar phenomena, as Phat Anchovies moves through their set, the disparate groups, once loyal to territory along the walls, begin to flow into the center and then the front of the room, together, under the electrified magnetism of the band.
Their sound is a concoction of blues, funk, soul, jazz, hard rock, all played with an hospitable ease for such a powerful five piece. Phat Anchovies is Eric Sutton on drums, Kendall St. Clair on bass, Eve-lynn Deegan on vocals, and the dual guitars of Caleb Gordon and Matt King. While there is complexity in their layered musicianship, the songs remain accessible, funky, and move with bluesy ease.
Featuring a set peppered with covers of contemporary favorites, their music creates an atmosphere for music lovers to sing and dance. Although fun-driven, their original tracks possess lyrical attributes more akin to the blues. Eve-lynn’s range is reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, especially on the foreboding original “Shotgun,” a dark narrative told from the perspective of two foes. In contrast to that darker tone is “The Barn,” a song of lighthearted observations about the passing of time. While it’s a complex song, it’s balanced, too, and tempers the darker themes with a resonating earthiness more aligned with Joss Stone or Norah Jones. It’s a challenge not to focus on Eve-lynn’s thunderous vocal talents, but it’s the intricate foundation laid by the band allowing for boundless vocals to fill the atmosphere with vitality.
After witnessing all the happy faces, clapping hands, and swaying bodies at The Spot on Kirk, there is no doubt that Phat Anchovies is set on proving themselves to their audience. As a spectator, they have the talent, charm, and attitude to launch themselves on a trajectory of playing tours and gracing festival lineups in the near future. <>
I Second That Emotion: A Public Service Announcement
by The City Salt in support of GrooveSafe, Inc.
Public Service Announcement: Please let this be a reminder, if it’s not your first opportunity to hear it: there is NO justification for unwanted touching, harassment, and sexual assault.
Join us at The City Salt, in promoting awareness, personal boundaries, and mutual respect within our live music and public art spaces, here at home and beyond. It takes a unified community, committed to building a culture of consent, to create a no tolerance environment that’s enjoyable for one and all.
GrooveSafe, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to build consent culture in live entertainment spaces. Their mission is to stop harassment and sexual assault, to emphasize respect for personal boundaries, to teach prevention and de-escalation skills, and to build an inclusive and healthy culture through community-driven awareness and action. GrooveSafe works with fans, bands, and venues (groovesafe.org).
Visit the website for additional resources, training, volunteer sign-ups, and to learn how you can promote mandatory consent within your circle. There are partnership opportunities available to performers, venues and promoters. GrooveSafe is active at venues nationwide, partners with touring bands, and supports local outreach. As a 501(c)(3) organization, tax deductible donations help fund the mission.
In the words of GrooveSafe founder Ashley Driscoll, “this is a movement within the community, for the whole community, to better the community. We look forward to putting an end to sexual assault and unwanted touching at events. I hear you and I believe you.”
GrooveSafe receives support from artists Phish, Goose, The Disco Biscuits, Umphrey’s McGee, and Greensky Bluegrass, as well as many other performers, publications and venues. <>
WA Fest 2023 Preview
by Jason Jones
The second annual WA Fest commences Friday, August 25 and continues through Sunday, August 27, 2023, in New Castle, Virginia at Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing. The adventure camp has cultivated its grounds to create a plangent setting for live music and camping. Located on the banks of Craig Creek, the camp offers land and water advetures in addition to mutiple camping and lodging options. Tickets can be purchased for tubing, canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, disc golf, and the giant swing! There will also be free yoga sessions, guided hiking and mountain biking, plus a variety of workshops, including smartphone photography, fly tying and casting, crafting felted flowers, block printing, bead working, and jewelry making. Festival goers will have access to all of the adventures and amenities on top of three days of music on multiple stages. Find tickets here!
Sol Driven Train, the brassy, goodtiming band from Charleston, SC is set to headline this year’s festival, with a Saturday evening set. The band has recorded nine full-length albums, dating back to 2000, and has toured widely, playing internationally and at festivals around the United States. While it will be their first WA Fest appearance, they have played locally before at Martin’s Downtown in Roanoke, VA and at this year’s Rooster Walk Festival in Martinsville, VA.
Regional powerhouses Bella’s Bartok, Arkansauce, and the Isaac Hadden Organ Trio will also play headlining sets at this year’s event. Bella’s Bartok has established a local following with their frequent performances in Roanoke, Salem, and Blacksburg, VA. The band will treat WA Festers to their funky, weird theatrics at Friday evening’s headline event. Arkansauce has made a name for themselves locally by playing gigs at Parkway Brewing Co., and will bring WA Fest to a close with a featured set on Sunday afternoon. They released their fifth album, Ok to Wonder, earlier this year. Finally, the progressive fusion band, the Isaac Hadden Organ Trio, will play a featured set on Saturday evening. WA Fest Director of Marketing and Special Events, Tim Pohlad-Thomas, told us that Isaac Hadden, who hails from the Newport / Blacksburg, VA area, has been a staple of live music at Wilderness Adventure since the start of them hosting shows, with the 20 year old guitarist growing into a headlining set at this year’s festival. IHOT is slated to release their debut album, The Glue, later this month.
A pair of locally connected fan favorites, Palmyra and Foster Burton, round out the bill. Palmyra is a folk trio from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, who have built a dedicated audience playing dynamic local gigs such as at 5 Points Music Sanctuary in Roanoke and FloydFest. Foster Burton (Mad Iguanas, GOTE, Mountain Walrus) is a fixture at local venues, treating his solo show crowds to a catalog steeped in heady jams, originals, and classic ballads.
A couple of North Carolina groups will take the WA Fest stage this weekend. Asheville based funk rockers April B. & The Cool will play sets on Friday and Saturday. While another Asheville performer, Abby Bryant & The Echoes will play the 4 PM time slot on Saturday, bringing a soulful brand of Americana to life on the WA Fest main stage.
WA Fest attendees will be able to enjoy the full host of amenities offered at Wilderness Adventure. The outpost kitchen and bar will be open from Friday evening through Sunday evening, serving homemade food and beverages. Tickets are available here! <>
See the full schedule below. Click here to learn more about the bands and here to jam the WA Fest 2023 Spotify playlist.
Look for fresh interviews with Isaac Hadden and Foster Burton, coming soon to thecitysalt.com!
WA Fest 2023 Music Schedule
Friday | August 25
3:15PM-4:00PM: Logan Paone Acoustic (Creek Stage)
4:30PM-6:00PM: April B. & The Cool
6:30PM-8:30PM: Bella's Bartok
9:00PM-11:00PM: Captain Midnight Band
Saturday | August 26
11:00AM-11:45AM: Foster Burton Acoustic (Creek Stage)
12:00PM-1:30PM: Bailey & The Mechanical Boulevard
2:00PM-3:30PM: April B & The Cool
4:00PM-5:30PM: Abby Bryant & The Echoes
6:00PM-7:30PM: Isaac Hadden Organ Trio
8:00PM-10:00PM: Sol Driven Train
10:30PM-11:30PM: Campfire Jam (Led by B&MB)
Sunday | August 27
10:00AM-11:30AM: Foster Burton Solo
12:00PM-1:30PM: Palmyra
2:00PM-4:00PM: Arkansauce
King of the Downhill: Christopher Hinton’s Race to the World Skate Games
by Jason Jones
Downhill skateboarding is a burgeoning international sport currently surging in popularity in the United States. Christopher Hinton, who hails from Virginia Beach and now resides in Roanoke, is training to earn a spot on the United States Downhill Skateboard team that will compete in the 2024 World Skate Games in Italy. The event has been held every other year since 2017 (with an interruption for COVID-19) in various international locations.
Led by Max Capps, the 2022 US men’s team featured six members, but an unfortunate injury to team member Chase Hiller has opened space for at least one newcomer to the 2023 team. Hinton looks to capitalize on the opportunity by qualifying for the team at the Tour de Maryhill in Goldendale, WA. The event will be held at the historic Maryhill Loops Road September 2-4, 2023. Hinton has been bombing hills since high school, racking up six years of downhill experience to date, but this year will be his first attempt qualifying for the national team.
Hinton trains locally on Mill Mountain, on which he's reached a top speed of 55 MPH, and at other locations in the Roanoke Valley, in Canada, and most recently in Tenerife, Spain. Tenerife is known to have some of the world’s most famous downhill skates and hosts one of the most prominent international downhill events. It’s also home to downhill skateboard pro, Marcos Costa. Earlier this year Hinton traveled to Spain and spent several days in Tenerife taking lessons from Costa. One of Hinton’s key takeaways from the session is an emphasis on safety and comfort, with a focus on technique over speed. While American downhill athletes may tend to prioritize speed training, Costa’s message is to “push the limits, but skate safe.”
With skateboard technology allowing skaters to reach speeds of 80+ MPH, optimizing technique is paramount to performance, but competitors are also able to modify their boards to gain an edge. There are rules and restrictions, including weight, length, and width parameters to abide by. Hinton has made several modifications to his skateboards in the past, but currently relies primarily on a front implant fabricated by Prototype Racing (@prototypedownhill) that he installed himself. In downhill skating, the front foot is used for steering and the back foot for balance. The implant helps with stopping, turning, and gripping corners, while providing overall stability in toe-side and hill-side pre-drifts.
He's been riding two boards regularly of late. The first is a Pantheon Tortuga with an 8 inch wedge that acts like a built-in torque block. The Tortuga is wider in front, and narrows from 9 inches to 8.7 inches at the back. He also skates a new deck made by Happy Board Co (@happy_board_co) that is concave in the front and flat in the back, and modified by chopping the length from 32 to 29 inches. Hinton also alternates between Rogue trucks, for straight downhill speed, and Ronin trucks for better flexibility when leaning into turns.
As the sport moves to expand on the national level, the US Downhill Skateboarding Association aims to sanction additional qualifying races, develop its national championship series, reconfigure its leadership council, and increase support in localities nationwide. These efforts seek to improve the team’s standing internationally. According to its website, the national team suffered a setback earlier this year when its United States Olympic High Performance Committee (USOPC) certification was revoked, meaning administrative reorganization is required in order to receive future USOPC support. <>
Marlon Edgar’s Extrastellar Ekphrastic review of Droll | Keller Williams featuring Gibb Droll
by Marlon Edgar
It’s 5 o’clock on a Friday, a wet scorpion afternoon. In the basement where it’s cool, “Settler’s Mix” exudes heat from the outset. There’s acoustic rock, a duet of players, a definite interplay; soaring electric guitar casually morphs into dance music, synthesizers, a percussive groove in an Ozric Tentacles mode. From slow to uptempo, from hot to post-heat, a sub-tropical affair, it’s cooler than cold to sweat this way.
“Flip Phone Love” & we know it’s a new kind of Keller album; but who is Gibb Droll? It's as if therefore thus in a k-hole, the album spinning at the wrong speed, so slow I’ve got to thinking… of pure guava & rubber bands, lost somewhere back a digit in time.
Delicate & dramatic, suspenseful, a western theme: “Six Miles.” A reticent nearing of the unknown. Tone by volume play, a spleen-like essence, old blood, thin & crisp as Colorado mountain air. An alien landing; a European guide, Virgil-esque in the shadow of understanding wherein one must lower oneself.
Down with an old-world vibe about “Flutus,” namesake of Leah Tumerman’s cover art. Midi-flute, drums & bass. In another time there’d be lute & lyre, hurdy-gurdy & oud, a littoral breeze aloft from the Mediterranean, swimming the fields of rye; a circle of continental percussionists hammering away, stick on stone, mallet on yer heartstrings, captured in the intrepid brushstrokes apause in a continuum. In our time though, we beatbox, it’s simple Musicology, to meet “The Goat” in stride, grazing as Dionysus would, for maybe four bars in the enormity of time. A treacherous Garcia flavored meander in the dead of night; a murky ambient wave, woodland birdsong, flowing water & traffic, one last folky lyric borne of the farmlife idyllic & lost in the rat race.
“Curious” where in time this ship scuds. Victorian sconces light the houses, synthesizers deliver the gospel, robots mop the kitchen. If speed is a virtue, then brevity’s the mission.
Like slime on the corner, look! a nickel, a nickel for the nickelodeon & stay pushing “Porch Jam,” ashudder down the sidewalk, shoulder-shiver, hip-toss. That nostalgic 1990s swell into the “Hoo and Coot” finale. Hot sauce & cool water. Bitters & marmalade. A breezy outro. Remember that the next time the happy hour drummer loads out in a minivan. But me, I’m nine steps up the damn stairs & headed for freedom, bound for glory, my own stunt double. <>
from kellerwiliams.net || All songs written by Keller Williams & Gibb Droll
Keller Williams: guitar, bass, drum programming and vocals
Gibb Droll: guitar, bass, drum programming
Produced, Mixed and Engineered by Gibb Droll
Mastered by Wayne Pooley
Album cover painting of Flutus the Goat by Leah Tumerman
Graphic Design Mark Berger at Madison House Design
Special thanks to Sean McConnell (@sean_mcconnell) at Silent Desert Studio in Nashville, TN
Bog Turtles of The Blue Ridge
by John Woodrum
The sketch is a concept design of my bog turtle sculpture, installed on April 29, 2023 at Mill Mountain Zoo and dubbed “Bob the Bog Turtle.” Although bog turtles are among the smallest on earth, at approximately four inches in length, the sculpture measures nearly four feet in diameter. I intend for the installation to amplify awareness of the bog turtle’s plight for survival.
Locally sourced recycled plastic bottle caps are affixed to the turtle’s shell, while its body is constructed of durable fiberglass made to withstand the weather. The bottle caps represent the toll of industry and pollution on the bog turtle’s habitat.
The bog turtle is an endangered species nationwide and a Tier 1 endangered species in Virginia. According to the National Park Service, its range in the Commonwealth is primarily limited to a slender tract of wetlands along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Mill Mountain Zoo, in partnership with the Clean Valley Council, provided support for the project. Check out the bog turtle sculpture at Mill Mountain Zoo. <>
Get Your Goggles: An Evening With Colby T. Helms & the Virginia Creepers
by Jason Jones
Colby T. Helms & the Virginia Creepers performed a headlining set on Friday, February 3, 2023, ascending to the 5 Points Music Sanctuary stage for a free show in celebration of 5 Points executive director Tyler Godsey’s birthday. Helms, who hails from Franklin County, Virginia, drew a crowd of all ages—and a full house at that—despite being only 20 years old himself.
Wearing dark glasses, a Mexican poncho, with long hair cascading from a ballcap; and holding a timeworn Gibson acoustic featuring an homage to Woody Guthrie that reads, in faded marker on masking tape, "This Machine Kills Pop Country." Helms took the stage. Not only did he look the part, he played it deftly, with his talent taking its various forms throughout the evening: a designing artist, a confident frontman, a sure bandleader, a capable flatpicker, an uncommon singer, a knowing songwriter, a bona fide jukebox of roots music. Playing a balanced blend of standards, instrumentals, covers, and original ballads, Colby & the Creepers journeyed through old-time, bluegrass, country, a waltz or two, rock n’ roll, ragtime, and the blues.
First set highlights included “Golden Slippers,” a traditional featuring Adam Cecil on fiddle; “Ding Dong Daddy” (originally recorded by Phil Baxter—Colby mentioned the Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys version that he learned from Brennen Ernst of Five Mile Mountain Road); “East Virginia Blues” (The Carter Family); and the originals “Liquor and Cocaine” and “Smoke and Flames.” Following the first set, the crowd sang happy birthday to Tyler.
The second set took an uptempo start with “Free Born Man” (Jimmy Martin), followed by the band paying homage to Tyler’s birthday, and then a cover of “Randall Collins” (Norman Blake). The Creepers continued their thorough exploration of American folk music, playing renditions of “This Ol’ Cowboy” (Marshall Tucker Band), which Colby dedicated to his mom; “Little Sadie” (Traditional); “Luckenbach, Texas” (Waylon Jennings); “I’m a Hog for You Baby” (The Coasters—Colby named the Grateful Dead version); and “Honky Tonk Night Time Man” (Merle Haggard).
While the songbook from which Helms pulls his cards impressed the seasoned crowd, it was the the originals, like “Mountain Brandy,” “Blue Jean Blues,” “Fool’s Gold,” and “Leanne” that truly showcased the potency of his already accomplished songmaking.
The band performed sans setlist, with Colby choosing songs to match the moment. Or, as he put it, “It’s an experimental performance every time, so if you like science, get your goggles.” Catch Colby T. Helms & the Virginia Creepers opening for Charley Crockett in June. <>