Jay and Silent Bob: The Aural Sects Tour

New Jersey’s most famous slacker-stoners roll up for a smokin’ spoken-word show with Jay and Silent Bob: The Aural Sects Tour. Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith have appeared as the eponymous ne’er-do-well duo in eight films over the past 30 years, but this live show gives them a chance to shed their on-screen personas and […]

Steep Canyon Rangers

Grammy Award winner and purveyor of mountain music, Steep Canyon Rangers builds off traditional bluegrass to bring its Americana sounds to the stage. Hailing from the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the group honed its songwriting craft through 14 studio records—including three collaborative albums with actor and banjo aficionado Steve Martin. Additional collaborations […]

WTJU Folk Marathon

Riding radio waves and stacking the stage with diverse acts, the WTJU Folk Marathon returns with lively local sounds. Evening and Saturday live performances include sets from regional acts Red & the Romantics (pictured), Scuffletown, Buzzard Hollow Boys, Richelle Claiborne & Friends, Please Don’t Tell, BRIMS, and Mama Tried, among others. You can listen online […]

Billy F. Gibbons and the BFGs

Friday 2/7, The Paramount Theater The voice and blues-riffin’, trademark long beard-wagglin’ leader of Texas rock trio ZZ Top, Billy F. Gibbons hits the stage backed by the BFGs, Mike Flanigin and Chris Layton. Gibbons—who presumably added the F. to his moniker to distinguish himself and his solo career from his 50-some-odd-year tenure with ZZ […]

A.D. Carson drops groundbreaking composition with open access publisher

Clemson University was proud of its doctoral student. It was 2017, and the university announced the achievement with fanfare: A.D. Carson had produced an original piece of music as his dissertation and successfully defended it to receive a Ph.D. Carson went on to receive tenure in the University of Virginia’s music department. At UVA, he’s […]

February Exhibitions

February 7–March 21 Second Street Gallery presents two new exhibitions from artists with local ties engaging the overlap of abstraction and figuration. In the Main Gallery, “Liminal” offers mixed-media works by Charlottesville-based artist Cassie Guy (artwork pictured above). In the Dové Gallery, “Signs of Life” shows paintings and drawings exploring grief and the cyclic nature […]

Free as a bird now

Drive-By Truckers: Southern Rock Opera Revisited Tuesday 2/4, The Jefferson Theater Released in 2001, Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera stands as a committed piece of Lynyrd Skynyrd fan fiction. The self-released double album that propelled the Athens, Georiga-based group to new heights on the strength of critical gushing received a second, wider release a year […]

Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes

Follow the beats of a life lived on stages and screens across the world with Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes. This solo show takes audiences through the ages and eras of the three-time Tony Award winner as she reflects on her life through the songs that made an impact on her. From the rock […]

“Alice in Wonderland”

Celebrate a very merry un-un-birthday with a show marking 110 years of Alice in Wonderland on screen. Originally premiering in January 1915, this silent version of the classic Lewis Carroll story brings sepia-toned scenes and a live score together within The Looking Glass, IX Art Park’s immersive arts space. Between the bizarre visuals of the […]

The Mingus Awareness Project

Jazz compositions and charity coalesce in The Mingus Awareness Project. Since 2007, the project has provided opportunities for musicians to perform new arrangements of works by the venerated bassist, bandleader, and composer Charles Mingus. All proceeds from the shows go to funding research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the nervous system disease from which Mingus […]