Authentic perspectives on Appalachian music, literature, entertainment, and culture.

Trent Wagler Tours on Two Wheels
Take a look at Trent Wagler’s tour schedule and you can see that the talented Virginia-based singer-songwriter is going to be spending a lot of time in the van. In this energy-conscious age, that translates to a lot of carbon emissions. Inspired to lessen his footprint, Wagler and band [...]

Banjo visionary Danny Barnes has worn many labels. In the 90s he pioneered punk-grass in the popular unorthodox string band Bad Livers. He’s scored films for acclaimed director Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Dazed and Confused). He’s been a reliable sideman for Texas troubadour Robert Earl Keen and newgrass ace Tim O’Brien. These days, though, [...]

The Buzz:
Nathan Blake Lynn spent four years tearing up the road with jamgrass genre-benders Bawn in the Mash. Now traveling solo, Lynn’s songs are returning to a simpler fashion, built by just a man and his guitar. His latest writing reflects his recent residence on the banks of the Mississippi River, where the spirits of [...]

The Georgia Theatre will be rebuilt. Last summer the downtown Athens landmark and iconic independent music venue was gutted by a fire. The cause is still listed by authorities as “undetermined.” Built in the late 1800s, the historic space was once a YMCA and a movie theatre before being turned into a music venue in [...]

The Avett Brothers
I & Love & You
The Avett Brothers took a jet plane to Malibu and cut their major-label debut with powerhouse producer Rick Rubin. The influence is immediately apparent. The band’s delicately ragged Appalachian-hued punk pop has been polished even further. With all of the hype behind their energetic, foot-stomping live shows, this album [...]

SEC frat boys from the mid-90s are rejoicing everywhere, because Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ is back! Check out a video of the first single from the Georgia band’s new album Great American Bubble Factory.

Steve Martin—side-splitting Saturday Night Live comedian, blockbuster film star, and prolific author—is now exposing the world to his musical talent on the banjo. Most people don’t know that the Hollywood legend picks a mean tune, which can be heard on his recently released album The Crow—a collection of all-original Martin compositions. This year Martin is [...]

In a manner of speaking, Kevn Kinney’s musical career was down the drain. Having given up on music, Kinney was toiling in an Atlanta-area sewage plant, and it was only after being rescued from potential obscurity by local musician Tim Nielsen that Drivin N Cryin was born and Southern rock history was rewritten. Hailed as [...]

Dispel any notion that Patterson Hood’s new solo record, Murdering Oscar (and other love songs), will be the soundtrack for your next romantic rendezvous. The ominous opening chords of the title track – a tale of gun shots and salvation found at the altar of oneself – are classic Patterson Hood: foreboding, introspective, and most [...]

Bill Wilson has to be mighty proud of his boys. After their early 20 something wanderings took them all over the country, Wilson brothers James, Sam, and Abe returned to their native Charlottesville in 2005, formed Sons of Bill with friends Brian Caputo and Seth Green, and commenced to taking their country-tinged rock and roll [...]

Last summer, while most bands were pulling into the massive Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in giant, gas-chugging tour buses, Ben Sollee rolled up on a bike—pulling his 60-pound cello behind him. The Kentucky-based folkie biked 330 miles to the Tennessee festival from his home in Lexington, stopping along the way to play concerts in [...]

The Buzz
The Corduroy Road is the latest band lobbying to add its name to Athens, Georgia’s musical legacy. Begun as a duo by Drew Carman and Dylan Solise in 2006, the group expanded to a quartet in early 2009 and now includes John Cable on drums and Elijah Neesmith on upright bass. An aggressive touring [...]

If you like ambience as much as the sounds coming off the strings, check out these five essential music rooms in the South.
The Purple Fiddle
Thomas is a tiny town on the Blackwater River near West Virginia’s Monongahela recreation mecca, filled with epic mountain biking trails and enough backcountry to get lost for days. A town [...]

On Coal River
In this upcoming documentary, meet four different people who live in the Coal River Valley of southern West Virginia. They’ve had their lives changed forever by the devastating effects of mountaintop removal mining in their backyard. Ed Wiley is a former mine inspector whose granddaughter has been sickened by a coal processing plant [...]

Get a grasp on current problems and proposed solutions with these five recent environmental books.
Green Collar Economy – Van Jones
President Obama made a wise choice earlier this year when he tapped Van Jones as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation. The longtime civil rights and environmental activist has a vision to simultaneously tackle [...]