Presented by the Town of Sylva, the 28th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 25, along Main Street and Bridge Park in downtown Sylva.

The festival is a heritage arts gathering that celebrates the arrival of spring through both traditional and contemporary forms of Appalachian art, music, food and beverage which honor our community and local artisans.

A special performance, “North Carolina Symphony: Classical Favorites Celebrating America 250,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Bardo Arts Center on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 

Hello from Room 8 at the Atlantis Inn, located in downtown Tybee Island, Georgia. It’s Monday morning and I’m currently sitting on the small balcony attached to the room. Sunshine overhead, the ocean just a block away. 

This is the final day of an extended road trip down to Saint Augustine, Florida, and back to my humble abode in Waynesville. I’ve been gone for the better part of the last three weeks, albeit working remotely and unrelentingly, as per usual.

A special performance, “North Carolina Symphony: Classical Favorites Celebrating America 250,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Bardo Arts Center on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 

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.

Hello from St. Augustine, Florida. Specifically, a small bungalow a few blocks from the Spanish ruins and the heart of the city. This place has been rented by my folks for the month of March for the last 13 years, these two snowbirds fleeing the frozen North Country that is our native Upstate New York. 

I now realize why coloring books and sidewalk chalk were so appealing when I was a child, why watching snow fall out the window and staring at the flame of a candle calmed my racing thoughts, why exploring our wooded backyard, collecting leaves and rocks, felt like a grand adventure. 

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. 

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.” 

The Asheville Mountain Boys’ self-titled debut album drops on Feb. 12, heralding the arrival of a new era of old-school bluegrass from the Buncombe County quartet. 

Recorded at The Shop Studio with master bluegrass engineer Van Atkins (Doyle Lawson, Balsam Range, Town Mountain), the record blends heartfelt originals about love and loss with a hand-picked selection of bluegrass standards and deep cuts from the catalogs of the band’s musical heroes.