Posts by Jody Mace

It was midnight the first time Charlotte-based folk/rock band Time Sawyer stepped through the gates of Echo Mountain Studios. They had been invited by engineer Jim Georgeson to tour the studio after performing at IBMA Bluegrass First Class in February of 2015. The studio, a repurposed old brick church on the edge of downtown Asheville, […]

North Carolina’s Sinners & Saints released their second full-length album, On The Other Side, on March 10th. Although Sinners & Saints consists of two members, Perry Fowler and Mark Baran, whose harmonies are front and center, don’t think of them as an acoustic duo. With Baran on the upright bass, Fowler adding color with the […]

Virginia native Caroline Spence’s 2015 debut full-length album, Somehow, introduced listeners to one of the purest, clearest soprano voices to be heard in or out of Nashville. But that remarkable voice is just the beginning of the story. Her straightforward, honest songwriting has won top honors at Kerrville Folk Festival and from American Songwriter Magazine. […]

Every year indie folk singer/songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov does what he calls “this hippie thing” with his manager. They write down a list of things that would be really cool if they happened. He always loved orchestral music, so one of those “pipe dreams” was to perform with a symphony. Turns out it wasn’t that […]

Get to know this overachieving little festival You can be excused for not knowing (yet) about Reevestock, which takes place in the small town of Elkin, North Carolina, population 4,001, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a grass-roots festival, run by volunteers, with proceeds going toward a scholarship fund for local students. […]

Knoxville’s Cereus Bright plays infectious, high-energy folk music that’s receiving increased attention, especially after recent slots opening for high-profile artists like Sturgill Simpson, Jackie Greene and The Lone Bellow. The band’s five-song EP “Happier Than Me” demonstrates the emotional and sonic range of their music, from contemplative to raucous. The most interesting and complex song […]

MerleFest, which took place April 23-26, wrapped up its 28th year of bringing “Traditional Plus” music to Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The festival started in 1988 as a tribute to the memory of Merle Watson, the son of music legend Doc Watson. Its focus is on bluegrass and old-time music from the Appalachian tradition, as well […]

Five Things to Know About Merlefest 2015 Merlefest, a highlight of North Carolina’s spring festival season, which takes place April 23-26 on the campus of Wilkes Community College, bills itself as “Traditional Plus.” So alongside the old-time and bluegrass bands, festival-goers can also expect to see the musicians who are taking those roots and growing […]

The album Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith grew from the admiration Avett and Mayfield share for the songs of Elliott Smith. A three-year project, it was recorded in their spare time, partly in both of their homes. Perhaps it was the homegrown and personal nature of the project that inspired the […]

[rating=8.00] “Quirky” is a word that has often been used to describe the North Carolina-based chamber/pop band, Bombadil. But their fifth studio release, Hold On (Ramseur Records), doesn’t include the kind of characters who have inhabited their previous releases. There are no circus animals like “Oto the Bear” from Tarpits and Canyonlands or a philosophizing […]