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 […]
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 […]
When Chris Dammann was a kid growing up in Charlottesville, he spent a lot of time looking at his dad’s upright bass. “I wonder what that does, to be in that corner,” Dammann recalls thinking about the instrument. He decided to find out for himself at age 14, when he took the bass out of […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Between the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the end of World War II, Antonina and Jan Zabinski used the Warsaw Zoo as a staging ground for hiding and evacuating Jews escaping Nazi persecution. Their story is a reminder that bravery takes many forms; sometimes it is picking up a weapon and confronting evil head-on […]
During his interactive, choose-your-own-adventure techno-rap show, Gavin Riley might drop his audience into a video-animated scenario about soft serve ice cream. When a video bully asks him if he wants to ditch his swirly cone for a drug called jazz, Riley’s audience can choose his reply: “Get jazzed up!” or “Just say no!” and Riley […]