Editor’s Note: Since August 2012, Garret K. Woodward has held the position of arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News. In December 2018, he also became a contributing writer for Rolling Stone.

Below are a handful of excerpts from my Rolling Stone travels this year covering some of the best albums of 2024, excursions that took me from Maine to Montana, Florida to New York, Utah to Kentucky and then some — always in search of all things beautiful and true, especially when it comes to the sacred act of live performance. 

It was nearing midnight last Saturday when I found myself in a circle of friends in the small, cozy sitting nook between the front door and the bar counter of The Scotsman in Waynesville. 

When record-breaking floodwaters tore through Western North Carolina last month in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it was only a matter of days thereafter that the seeds for the “Rock for Relief” concert extravaganza were planted and grew at a fast pace. 

In the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene, “Rock For Relief: A WNC Flood Benefit Festival,” an all-day musical gathering for charity, will take place Saturday, Nov. 2, at a variety of venues in Waynesville, Maggie Valley, Canton and Sylva. 

At 76, singer-songwriter/keyboardist Randall Bramblett has been a musical artist most of his life. In recent years, a new outlook on not only what he does for a living, but also what it means to be human amid a life immersed in creativity and connectivity, has emerged. 

What started out 35 years ago as a handful of students at the University of Georgia getting together for the sake of playing music at college bars and fraternity parties has transformed itself into a bonafide American institution of rock-n-roll some four decades later.