Arts + Entertainment
Chain Yer Dragon: Rick Mitarotonda of Goose
In October 2020, amid the shutdown and about halfway through the first set of the sold-out Goose drive-in show at the Smoky Mountain Event Center on the outskirts of Waynesville, a friend turned to me and said with a smile, “You know, we’re probably going to follow this band around for the next few decades, right?”
Nodding in sincere agreement, I sipped my drink and gazed around the massive property.
From Watergate to Lamontgate — ‘The Accident Report’
“On the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Ronald Truluck drove the long way to work so he could smoke a celebratory joint.”
So begins Ralph Ellis’s comic novel “The Accident Report” (Black Rose Writing, 2025, 223 pages). A recent graduate of Chapel Hill, Ronald Truluck is a reporter for “The Eagle,” a local paper which only reports the news of the fictional Millerton, North Carolina.
Chords for Callum: Jon Stickley to lead powerhouse fundraising concert
Jon Stickley is a pillar of the Asheville and greater Western North Carolina music scenes. He’s also a nationally-renowned guitarist, one whose skillset and scope goes far beyond the ancient mountains of Southern Appalachia.
Shabbat Shirah brings music, meaning to Mountain Synagogue
A tambourine-lover with creative tactics meant to take congregants outside of their comfort zone, Rabbi RuthE Levy of Mountain Synagogue in Franklin doesn’t mess around when it comes to musical shabbat.
Known in Hebrew as Shabbat Shirah, this service takes place at the beginning of the harvest season, long before the Jewish holiday of Passover — the latter holiday at the start of April 2026, the former portion in late February — but it tells a well-known Passover story.
More strands for the tapestry
“Attention must be paid.”
Linda Loman, wife of Willy Loman, delivers that well-known line in Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman.” Willy is crash-diving into catastrophe, suffering from exhaustion, failure and delusions, and Linda wants her sons to step up and pity and support their father: “He put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your back on him.” she tells them, “So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.”
Indigenous wisdom through the ages
“All things are bound together. All things connect.”
— Chief Seattle
"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
— Dakota
In maybe one of the most alluring covers I’ve ever seen for a book of poems, John C. Mannone’s book “Sacred Flute” (Iris Press, 2024, 77 pgs.) — with a photo of an indigenousYuma musician taken sometime around 1900 — makes you want to turn the page and see what’s on the inside.
Back to the Roots: Old Crow Medicine Show celebrates early years, returns to WNC
I first laid eyes and ears on Americana/roots act Old Crow Medicine Show at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. At the time, I was a 20-year-old college student on my first solo road trip from my native North Country of Upstate New York — in search of the sound, the way.
The space between: AyurPrana Listening Room offers transcendent music and spiritual exploration
Situated on the corner of Haywood Road and Swannanoa Avenue in West Asheville, the AyurPrana Listening Room has become a haven for music lovers and artists well-versed in the sacred art of performance.
“[AyurPrana] somehow creates a ‘live studio’ atmosphere, almost like a set or soundstage or theater,” said Bryce Franich, music manager for AyurPrana. “The room feels like you’re there to experience something rare or once-in-a-lifetime, which seems to engage attendees in a theater-like manner.”
Jimmy Lai’s extraordinary struggle for freedom
At the opening of a documentary on the life of Jimmy Lai, pronounced “Lie,” we hear words from a Chinese proverb. “If you are a bird, you would rather die singing than living a quiet life.”
Lai was never destined to live a quiet life, as we learn in “The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom,” released in 2022 by Acton Films. He was born in China in 1948, the son of a successful businessman. The next year, the Communists under Mao Zedong overthrew the government.
