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Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
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In early 2007, five of the Asheville areas finest bluegrass pickers joined forces to form a true all-star bluegrass band called Balsam Range. All five musicians were from Haywood County and all had a wealth of
experience and a common vision for the sound they wanted to create,
and their sound gelled quickly. On the strength of their individual
musical resumes, big things were expected from the band. But no one
expected them to achieve their current level of success so quickly.
Although barely a year old, Balsam Range has garnered consistent high
praises from bluegrass fans and from the media and performed a numerous
festivals.
This weekends appearance at a local festival on the
same bill with the top names in bluegrass music today is a fine honor
and perfect cap to the inaugural year for Balsam Range.
 Balsam Range will appear as one of the headline acts at this weekends Bluegrass First Class Festival at the Crown Royal Plaza resort here in Asheville NC. They share top billing with stellar bands including Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, J.D. Crowe and the New South, IIIrd Tyme Out, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, and Doc Watson.
As a special treat, Balsam Range will perform with bluegrass legend Tony Rice
on Saturday February 23rd. Tony Rice is perhaps the most influential
guitar player in the past 4 decades of bluegrass music. His
appearance and performance with Balsam Range will certainly be a
highlight of the festival.
Widely acclaimed as one of bluegrass music's true stylistic innovators, and perhaps the greatest acoustic flat-picked guitarist since Clarence White, Tony Rice has a distinctive style of playing which countless young musicians have attempted to emulate for the past 30 years. He is a master flatpicker of traditional acoustic bluegrass but also helped create the newgrass and jazz grass sounds of more recent years.
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Monday, 11 February 2008 |
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Few Asheville bands have acheived the national and international following of Asheville-based heavy metal rockers Sanctity. Sanctity boasts one of the strongest followings on MySpace of any Asheville band with the possible exception of Secret Lives of the Freemasons.
As of Feb 11, 2008 Statistics on the Sanctity MySpace site showed:
MySpace Views: 314,900
MySpace Plays: 397,826
MySpace Fans: 22,461
The band keeps up a grueling tour schedule with appearances across the nation and into Europe where they've built a large and loyal base of followers. Keeping up such a heavy touring schedule is a difficult life, especially when you have family and other concerns at home. In the past few days, two core members of Sanctity made the tough decision to leave the immensely successful band and devote more time to the home front. Lead vocalist and guitarist, Jared, became the father of a beautiful baby girl in December of 2007 and as any parent knows, your whole life changes when that child comes into your life. Bassist, Derek, has also left the band to tend to devote more attention to needs at home. Fellow band members have voiced their total support Jared and Derek in their decisions.
Fortuitously, Sancity had already planned to add a new member to the lineup early this year. Brian Stephenson (ex Annihilator) was already scheduled to join the band on the current tour and is performing with the band now.
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Wednesday, 06 February 2008 |
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Peggy Ratusz and her band (Duane Simpson, Jill Fromewick and John Mulholland) just returned from a enjoyable weekend of performing at the prestigious Memphis International Blues Challenge. They were invited to perform as a result of winning the regional Piedmont Blue Challenge competition in 2007. Peggy's band was one of the few acoustic blues bands selected and received numerous compliments from blues aficianados and their fellow blues musicians throughout the weekend.
Peggy stated;
The most resounding compliment was our cohesiveness, not to mention the praise we received individually for our musicianship. I wrote a song 2 days before the competition and we performed it as if it were a tune we'd been playing regularly for months!
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
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Veterans of the Asheville area music scene, Mars Fariss and Chris Kew, have teamed up to form a new band called Junco Partner. The new duo features mostly acoustic blues and some R&B and is building a following with a weekly Friday gig at Rivals bar on Hwy 74 south near Fairview. The band covers a wide spectrum of music with songs from everyone to Robert Johson to Ray Charles and a Junco Partner setlist is also likely to include songs from other greats such as Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Professor Longhair.
Fariss has been a member of numerous regionally known bands including Acoustic Syndicate, Big Blue, Laura Blackley, Bluestring, Dave Desmelik, Greg Hester, etc and has been an invited guests on recordings by several Asheville bands. Before relocating to Asehville NC, Chris Kew was a member of some impressive bands as well, including Hypnotic Clamback and The Recipe.
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Saturday, 02 February 2008 |
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Allison WIlliams is quite familiar to many local bands and music lovers from her excellent work as Sound Engineer for concerts at The Grey Eagle. But the Asheville musician is quite comforatable on both sides of the microphone. For several years, Allison was a member of the old-time band, The Forge Mountain Diggers which had a wide touring schedule throughout the country.
In 2007, Allison left the band to focus on her solo career and she hopes to release her first solo CD later this year. The work will feature both orginal and traditional material and most of the recording work was completed in December of 2007.
Allison's live performances have been described as "an exuberant mix of oldtime, country blues, and originals, woven together by her resonant voice and infectious energy" and her upcoming CD is certain to reflect these qualities as well.
Allison recently launched a new website at http://www.allisonwilliamsmusic.com
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