Performers from the Blue Ridge Irish Music School grab their tin whistles and fiddles and lace up their ghillies for Irish Night at the Coffeehouse with traditional music, song and dance to benefit the nonprofit school. There will be kids’ activities and storytelling, too, because what’s a celebration of Irish tradition without folklore and fairies? Saturday, […]
Performers from the Blue Ridge Irish Music School grab their tin whistles and fiddles and lace up their ghillies for Irish Night at the Coffeehouse with traditional music, song and dance to benefit the nonprofit school. There will be kids’ activities and storytelling, too, because what’s a celebration of Irish tradition without folklore and fairies? Saturday, […]
When 79.5 founder and frontwoman Kate Mattison started her band in 2012 she didn’t envision playing gigs in a setting that looked like something straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean. But, three years later after adding five new members to the band, including vocalists Piya Malik and Nya Parker Brown, guitarist Matty McDermott, bassist […]
The idea of a live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is no better or worse than any of the mouse’s many examples of mining its own vault for new material, yet from the moment it was announced, it was met with over-excitement and unnecessary scorn. The cast, the songs, the very concept were […]
Pop music critic Jack Hamilton didn’t listen to much pop music growing up in the 1980s and ’90s. His parents had a few Beatles albums and one Supremes record, but they mostly played classical music and show tunes in their suburban Boston home. He can’t recall exactly when he heard The Jackson 5’s “I Want […]
The programming of the annual Virginia Festival of the Book—now in its 23rd year—always seems to strike a beautiful balance of gravity and levity, tragedy and comedy, difficult reality and the dream of a better future. The organizers draw from a vast array of writers with different lived experiences and this year is no exception. […]
Talk about Bryan Cranston and the conversation inevitably turns to his leading role in “Breaking Bad” as the high school chemistry teacher-turned-drug-lord Walter White. But Cranston’s career has many layers, as detailed in A Life in Parts, his autobiography published in 2016. Many of his early gigs were comedic roles, as on “Seinfeld” and “Malcolm […]
Novella Change of State (Sinderlyn) Perilous are the genres doggedly loyal to form in some way, like the blues or reggae. Just follow the chord progression, or chunk the guitar in a characteristic rhythm—and voilà: doing it. But what percentage of overall attempts to make reggae music have been horrific? Ninety? Novella courts disaster on […]
Escape to the theater with Charlottesville Ballet as the company presents the airy, romantic Chopiniana, along with new works by Julia Mitchell, R. Colby Damon, Ty Cooper and Maggie Small. Presented in several variations over the past century tracing back to 1892, Chopiniana is revered as one of the earliest ballets to convey just mood […]
Nelson County’s Chamomile and Whiskey drove its inaugural release, 2007’s Wandering Boots, around the U.S. festival circuit to build a fanbase and define itself in the massive genre of Americana, leading to its current pace of more than 150 live shows per year. The band throws some extra Irish passion on its musical fire with […]
Personal stories about fellow Jersey boys and Brooklyn hipsters color the dark wit of comedian Mike Recine, who got his start performing open mic standup at Panera Bread. Recine pokes fun at everyday people, but shows a softer side when he hands out jars of his homemade pasta sauce at shows. Saturday, March 18. $20, […]