Classic rock megagroup Grand Funk Railroad will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 10, at Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Event Center.

Originating from Flint, Michigan, in 1969, this top-selling American rock group of the 1970s is “comin’ to your town to help you party it down,” with hits like “We’re an American Band,” “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home,” “Locomotion” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.” 

It’s been 20 years since the inception of The Infamous Stringdusters, the Grammy-winning string act whose tone and swagger encompasses an acoustic majesty coupled with a full-blown rock show attitude. 

“When you’ve been a band for 20 years, a lot of things change, including your perspective on how to create music and art,” said dobroist Andy Hall.

Hello from Room 1001 at the Cambria hotel in downtown Asheville. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m currently sitting at this writing desk (pictured), I’m overlooking the intersection of Haywood Street and Page Avenue, the Harrah’s Cherokee Center and former George Vanderbilt Hotel within sight. 

With the untimely passing of founding member and longtime lead singer Scott Weiland in 2015, and the tragic death of replacement singer Chester Bennington (originally of Linkin Park) in 2017, the Stone Temple Pilots were at a crucial crossroads with one question in mind — pack it all up and shake hands goodbye or push ahead, hell or high water. 

At age 66, legendary singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott is having a career rebirth of sorts. 

Though he’s always been known as a prolific and productive artist — whether in Nashville musical circles as a performer and producer or through endless touring from coast-to-coast and beyond — this current chapter of his storied life has evolved into a full-circle kind of thing, one where Scott is reevaluating just what it means to create and cultivate in your autumn years. 

Since its inception in 2014, Asheville-based Fireside Collective has evolved from a ragtag bluegrass act into one of the rising stars in the jam-grass and greater psychedelic music scene in Southern Appalachia and beyond. 

Raised in the small town of Zelienople, Pennsylvania (pop: 3,769), singer-songwriter Angela Autumn recalled having an isolated childhood, one that was “very intermingled with nature.” By the early 2000s, as an elementary school kid first hopping onto the internet, Autumn was able to access world culture and trends — more specifically,­ music and its endless rabbit hole. 

Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2025, the storied John C. Campbell Folk School — located in Brasstown amid the rural landscape of Clay County — remains a cultural bastion for the arts, music and dance in Western North Carolina. 

“[The school] had an effect of kind of changing what traditional music and dance was in the region,” said T-Claw Crawford, music and dance coordinator for JCCFS. 

At age 51, acclaimed blues rocker Patrick Sweany has performed over the decades at seemi­ngly at every venue from coast-to-coast and beyond. Through it all, one sentiment still rings true in his heart — “The whole thing is luck and trying to show up as much as possible.” 

Experience the rich traditions of Appalachian Mountain life at the annual Mountain Life Festival, happening Sept. 20 at the Mountain Farm Museum, located just behind the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee.