$20 adv tick/ 25 day of

4 Day Event Pass for Oct 10th – 13th $60

Laura Blackley has been making music in Western North Carolina for several years.She’s a singer, songwriter and guitarist who specializes in country, blues and rock with an emphasis on songwriting. Blackley plays in several bands and she and her band the Wildflowers won first prize in the 2016 North Carolina Piedmont Blues Preservation Society’s Blues Challenge. This win sent them to Memphis, TN to perform in the International Blues Competition.

She also plays classic country music with the Old Chevrolette Set, a group led by local radio host and pedal steel player Tom Pittman.

When not playing music Blackley is a Pre-k through 8 th grade Music Teacher at Rainbow Community School. She earned 2 nd place (Best Music Teacher) in Asheville’s Mountain Xpress Best Of competition in 2022. Laura Blackley joined the team at Blue Ridge Public Radio as a part time weekend and All Things Considered Host in June 2022 and is very excited to be behind the mic again.

She enjoys performing live, hiking in our beautiful WNC mountains, gardening and traveling to new places. She lives in the Hominy Valley community of Candler with her daughter and their dog and two cats.

Original classic-style country and honky tonk full of heart and soul, laced with wit and woe. Bringing fire and feeling to the age-old stories of heartbreak, love,loss, and victory for the underdog. They shoot straight from the hip with impassioned vocals, a tight rhythm section, and smoking leads to hit their target dead on. Hearts Gone South is based out of Asheville, NC, founded by front woman Tricia Tripp, with members hailing from Asheville, Bristol TN/VA and Shelby NC, they have played sawdust strewn floors to festival stages everywhere from Anchorage to Atlanta. Hearts Gone South has 3 albums under their belts, with a fourth one on the way, capturing hearts and putting a wiggle in the walk in folks near and far.

Summer Dean puts on a hell-of-a show.  Armed with three albums, constant tours, and a hot five-piece band behind her, Summer struts onto every stage with the confidence and vulnerability of a songstress that has cemented her place among the top rank Texas tunesmiths. Her live show takes the concert goer on a ride of original songs bleding bravado, vulnerability, and a novelist’s eye for detail. Whether with her full band or all by herself, listeners and watchers are treated to an authentic, funny, and honest storyteller performing her way into legendary status. Recently named Texas Country Music Awards Female Artist of the Year, Summer has performed with an array of country aces, including Colter Wall, Marty Stuart, Asleep at the Wheel, Hayes Carll, Silverada (Mike and the Moonpies) and Charley Crockett.

There is indeed a rawness and a reality to Dean’s songs which sets her apart as a songwriter of real substance. It’s no wonder Texas legends like Bruce Robison, wanted to produce her album based on the strength of Dean’s simple iphone-recorded demos, calling her work “bracing.” Her candor is palpable in every syllable and sound of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s new record, The Biggest Life, a profound, vivid document of the songwriter’s might. I’m very proud of myself and this record,” Dean says. “It’s the most real and vulnerable I’ve ever been with my writing.” You can hear hard-earned humanity in “Big Ol Truck,” a wry ode to reality not always matching expectations, just as you can hear it in the woozy cantina swirl of “She’s in His Arms, But I’m in the Palm of His Hand,” and particularly in the album’s shattering closer, “Lonely Girl’s Lament,” Dean’s most formidable moment on record to date.

“It’s a human story she’s telling,” Robison says. “She’s showcasing life from her perspective. There are things in Summer’s songs that can resonate with people, even if they’ve never lived anything she’s talking about.” For her part, Dean says Robison’s stamp of approval was “incredibly validating.” “His credentials as a writer gave me the confidence I needed to make this kind of album — completely analog, unfiltered and organic,” she says. Dean has been steadily gaining momentum since the release of her break-out 2021 LP Bad Romantic. Critics hailed Romantic, with Texas Monthly saying Dean showed “deft skill at disarming listeners with her vulnerability,” while the Boot said Dean “spins vibrant tales of her blue-collar life, turning life’s ordinary moments into extraordinary ones.”

Dean’s devotion to honesty in the making of The Biggest Life extended to its creation, with these 13 songs being recorded completely analog at the Bunker, Robison’s Lockhart studio, with a hand-picked band of collaborators. It’s a fitting approach for music that leaves nowhere to hide and spares no detail. Embracing an approach which made every studio take a high wire act suited Dean’s sensibility for this new material: “It made me let go of perfection,” she says. “I think when any artist does that, they do their best.”