Country megastar Jamey Johnson will hit the stage for a two-night stand Sept. 20-21 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort.

Born in Alabama, Johnson set his sights on music after seeing his idol Alan Jackson perform live in concert.

If there’s one word to describe singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, it would be persistent.

From humble and hardscrabble beginnings as a performer in dive bars and back rooms throughout the Midwest in the late 1970s and early 1980s to international acclaim just a decade later, Etheridge has remained a beacon of creativity and purpose throughout the decades — where now words like “legend” and “icon” tend to precede her name in the bright lights of show business. 

 “An Appalachian Evening” series will continue with a performance by Samantha Snyder at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, in Lynn L. Shields Auditorium at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville. 

Appalachian/indie act Jackson Grimm & The Bull Moose Party will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at The Scotsman in Waynesville. 

A true mark of an artist is how well they age. 

Not simply by the passing years on the calendar, for that’s a privilege in itself to experience.

Hailing from the rural panhandle of West Virginia, singer-songwriter John R. Miller is one of the most fascinating and captivating artists in recent memory.

K.M. Fuller isn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, onstage and off. And it’s that exact honesty and sincerity that has made him one of the most electric singer-songwriters in Western North Carolina in recent years. 

David Bromberg doesn’t have time to wax poetic about life. 

But, more so he doesn’t have time to talk about the life he’s lived as one of the great singer-songwriters who emerged out of the Greenwich Village blues/folk revival in the 1960s, with Bromberg now one of the last remaining figures from that era still touring and releasing new music. 

Tucked up along a hillside overlooking Richland Creek and the Frog Level district of Waynesville is a cozy bungalow. 

The walls are covered with all types of artwork collected over the years. Shelves filled with books on world travel and Appalachian culture. Dozens of vinyl records lean against the corners of the back room. 

Like a tumbleweed from his native Texas, Rodney Crowell has bounced and rolled along through life to wherever the four winds of the cosmos push him. 

In his 68 years on this earth, the singer-songwriter remains the fiery epitome of a troubadour, where truth is stranger than fiction, and the only way to make it through the day is to make sense of it through song and dance — with or without company, no matter.