In 2013, Dave Frey and his partner, fellow music promoter Peter Shapiro, started the Lockn’ Festival, a multi-genre musical blowout that takes place in late summer on the sprawling Oak Ridge Farm in the Nelson County town of Arrington. Over the past four years the event has brought an array of heavyweight acts in roots, […]
In 2013, Dave Frey and his partner, fellow music promoter Peter Shapiro, started the Lockn’ Festival, a multi-genre musical blowout that takes place in late summer on the sprawling Oak Ridge Farm in the Nelson County town of Arrington. Over the past four years the event has brought an array of heavyweight acts in roots, […]
Tom Tom Founders Festival saves one of its highlights for last in Porchella, a free music event that turns the expansive front porches of the Belmont neighborhood into stages for local players, including University of Whales, Michael Coleman and Gina Sobel. Pull up a lawn chair or stroll the streets of Goodman and Graves and […]
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 […]
Named after a town in Maine, folk quintet Parsonsfield formed by happenstance at the University of Connecticut around 2009. “I was beginning college and I really wanted to meet some people that had an interest in old songs like I did,” says member Chris Freeman. “I was playing guitar and discovering music from all eras […]
“St. Patrick’s Day is much bigger in America than it is in Ireland,” say the members of Lúnasa, an Irish supergroup who take the stage on Wednesday, for what guitarist Ed Boyd calls “a good night’s entertainment.” The group’s 20th anniversary tour is filled with stories and music, contemporary and traditional, in perfect preparation for the stateside honoring of […]
In the early days of her career, Neko Case sounded like a new voice in the vintage style of country music, with 1997’s The Virginian earning her comparisons to Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline. What came next was an album-by-album development of her unique vocals and compelling songwriting. Twenty years later, she’s released the box […]
Jordan Tice’s journey to becoming a force on the bluegrass scene started with classical guitar, jazz and rock ’n’ roll, then expanded into a variety of projects that found him keeping musical company with members of Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine and Canadian folk act The Duhks. He was even tapped by banjo-playing […]
The Front Porch’s Emily Morrison wants artists of all backgrounds to find peace at the roots music school she founded in 2015. With help from friends, Morrison began the school in a back room in her home and soon moved into a space at Mountaintop Montessori. Last June the nonprofit moved into the old Michie […]
Not only does Will Overman charm the crowd with his arsenal of lyrically enticing folk rockers, the lead singer can’t resist stepping off the stage and into the audience to groove among his fans. Following up on the album Will Overman Band, “a love letter to the Commonwealth of Virginia” that was released in June, the […]