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1 week ago | 
smokymountainnews.com | Garret K. Woodward
“It was sort of a recalibration,” Sharp said of the performance. “When the Rangers play a show, everything’s tight and arranged. But, with this, everything is brand new. You don’t really know how these songs will work live or where they’re going to go [musically].”
The “Rangers,” as in Steep Canyon Rangers, the Grammy-winning group that Sharp founded 25 years ago in the dorms while a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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2 weeks ago | 
smokymountainnews.com | Garret K. Woodward
“It feels great to see all these smiling faces,” said Chris Donochod, co-owner of Big Pillow. “And things are starting to feel a little more familiar again.”
Just about eight months ago, floodwaters from Hurricane Helene bulldozed through the mountains of Western North Carolina, with Hot Springs (population: 538) smack dab between the French Broad River and Spring Creek. Both bodies of water ripped through the community, destroying most of downtown in the process.
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2 weeks ago | 
rollingstone.com | Garret K. Woodward
May 18, 2025 Neal Francis onstage in New Orleans, where he played two sold-out shows at Tipitina's.
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2 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Garret K. Woodward
Neal Francis onstage in New Orleans, where he played two sold-out shows at Tipitina's. - Credit: Anthony Guagliardo*Rising funk/soul sensation Neal Francis has just finished a raucous set at the Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina, and the charismatic yet introspective rocker wipes sweat from his face and grabs a seat backstage. The dressing room is purposely quiet and calm, with no one except his bandmates and a curious journalist present.
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3 weeks ago | 
smokymountainnews.com | Garret K. Woodward
“Honestly, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to do this career for as long as we have without persistence,” said guitarist Lee Henke.
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1 month ago | 
smokymountainnews.com | Garret K. Woodward
“There’s enjoyment and there’s convenience,” Mawby said. “As things become more and more convenient, I think people look for ways to invest their time and find enjoyment.”
One of those ways is collecting and listening to vinyl records. Once disregarded as dusty, scratched relics of a bygone era in the music industry, the tangible, yet incredibly intrinsic product that is an actual record has roared back to life over the last decade.
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1 month ago | 
rollingstone.com | Garret K. Woodward
April 30, 2025 Matt Andersen, a Canadian songwriter who just released the new album 'The Hammer & The Rose,' is putting his own spin on Americana music.
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1 month ago | 
shorturl.at | Garret K. Woodward
Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Andersen has an unrelenting work ethic. Since the early 2000s, he’s seemingly always been on tour or recording new music. Andersen immediately cites his father, a self-employed tree logger who worked long days in the northern woods of Andersen’s native province of New Brunswick. “He always told me he wanted to work for himself,” Andersen tells Rolling Stone.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Garret K. Woodward
Matt Andersen, a Canadian songwriter who just released the new album 'The Hammer & The Rose,' is putting his own spin on Americana music. - Credit: Dan Jardine*Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Andersen has an unrelenting work ethic. Since the early 2000s, he’s seemingly always been on tour or recording new music. Andersen immediately cites his father, a self-employed tree logger who worked long days in the northern woods of Andersen’s native province of New Brunswick.
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1 month ago | 
flipboard.com | Garret K. Woodward
1 hour agoThe 29 Ballets of ‘Étoile’: How They Restaged Classic Productions and Created Tobias Bell’s OriginalsWhat are the 29 ballets? Do they build the classic production sets from scratch? And is Tobias' Justin Peck-like choreography actually new?
