New show at Neal Guma lures with hyper-reality

According to Neal Guma, what unites the four photographers in his current show is an approach to photography that is painterly. While Ljubodrag Andric and Robert Polidori often seek out subjects that can look like paintings and play with our perception of them, Markus Brunetti and John Chiara use photography as a painter might paint, […]

Birds of Chicago stop and play on the road

Life on the road as touring musicians can be demanding. But long days driving and late nights on stage aren’t the only enduring requirements for the husband-and-wife-fronted Birds of Chicago. JT Nero and Allison Russell decided to bring their 3-year-old daughter along for the ride. The pair started touring with their daughter before she turned […]

Graphic novelist Roye Okupe taps into his superpower

Every superhero has an origin story that explains how he or she obtained superpowers, and sometimes these powers lie dormant until a challenge arises. Tom Tom Founders Festival writer-in-residence Roye Okupe didn’t know he had the power to write until he had no choice but to try. With a background in animation and an important […]

ARTS Pick: Charlie Worsham

If the critics are correct, Nashville’s next big thing—Charlie Worsham—won’t be playing small venues the next time around. Outlets from American Songwriter and Rolling Stone to People magazine and NPR are gushing about his new album, Beginning of Things, saying Worsham is “one of country’s most formidable dark horses” who “demonstrates this art with uncommon […]

ARTS Pick: Missy Raines

Even with seven International Bluegrass Music Awards for Bass Player of the Year, it’s not all about the bass for Missy Raines. After gigging around, the talented lead singer stepped up to the mic in 2008 to front The New Hip quartet featuring mandolin, guitars, bass, drums and percussion, and the accolades keep coming. Deep […]

ARTS Pick: Gogol Bordello

Super-fueled music brigade Gogol Bordello returns armed with its signature pulsating gypsy jams combining punk, massive beats and circus-like madness into pure party music. GB stays true to its global heritage with benefit shows such as the Immigraniada Boat cruise. “You may know our stories, of how we came to America from Ukraine or Russia, […]

Lucy Dacus sets course for big topics on second record

On “Troublemaker Doppelgänger,” a bluesy jaunt from Lucy Dacus’ debut album, the singer-songwriter posits, “No child is born knowing there’s an ugly or evil thing / When did my folks stop covering my eyes?” It’s a thesis statement of sorts for No Burden, a record that explores the responsibilities of adulthood. The cover art features […]

First Fridays: April 7

Sarah Grace Cheek wants viewers to ponder the true nature of the objects she’s created out of wood, wheels, metal baskets, illuminated light bulbs, electrical cords and other common things for “Unmanned Surface Vehicles,” her show on view at The Garage this month. Are these objects functional? Are they furniture or art? Does this one […]

Shenandoah Fringe Festival celebrates the wild, wondrous and weird

The second annual Shenandoah Fringe Festival—“a culmination of the wild, wondrous and weird of our region,” according to creative producer Carmel Clavin—is upon us. In a way, the festival, set in downtown Staunton, functions as the Island of Misfit Toys for the arts, by providing a platform for disparate artists not affiliated with a formal […]