Saturday, December 31, 2011

Your Hometown Hiker's Live Band List 2011

It's New Year's Eve and Black Betty and I are going to celebrate tonight at The Grey Eagle in Asheville (our favorite music venue) with Town Mountain and Acoustic Syndicate (two of our favorite groups).

The following is a list of many of the bands that we saw in 2011. We were fortunate indeed to see most of them numerous times. As I said last year, "There were so many incredible shows, so much inspiring music!"




Once again I would like to thank all the outstanding musicians who helped to make our year so incredibly fun and filled with great tunes.You know that we love you! I'm hoping for a repeat in 2012!

Hometown and Black Betty




Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Cooking With Quanta @ Soul Infusion Tea House

Last Friday night, Black Betty and I caught our favorite local band at the Soul Infusion Tea House in Sylva.
It was a jammy night of original music and some pretty groovy covers by our friends in Cooking With Quanta. The fab four (Neil, Scott, Adam, and Greg) rocked the house. We boogied till we dropped!

We love Quanta and we love the Soul Infusion. What a great venue for this group, it really feels like a house party with all your best friends. It was another "mighty-fine" night of live music in western North Carolina.
You really should try to join us next time!


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Town Mountain and The Freight Hoppers @ The Grey Eagle

                                                                                                                                                                     Two of the finest String Bands in the mountains came together on Friday night at The Grey Eagle in Asheville.

The Freight Hoppers are from Bryson City, NC and play Old Time and Traditional tunes from the 1920's and 1930's. David Bass (fiddle) and Frank Lee (banjo, guitar, vocals) have been together since the Freight Hoppers started their Great Smokey Mountain Railroad gig in 1993. After a hiatus of seven or eight years, the band regrouped in 2007 with Issac Deal (guitar,vocals) and Bradley Adams (bass).  www.thefreighthoppers.com/
                                                                                                                                                                     
Town Mountain is, without a doubt, our favorite Asheville area bluegrass band. Black Betty and I try not to miss a local show with this smoking hot, bluegrass band. Their rawness and grit manages to get under your skin, and you become a convert after one Town Mountain show. Their rough around-the-edges sound fueled by Robert Greer's outstanding vocals and the band's skilled licks keep us coming back for more.

Town Mountain's strength and appeal lies in their ability to keep it real and gritty while refusing to allow their sound to become a polished out white-bread Nashville caricature of bluegrass music. This is working man's grass, it's the real deal!  They feature outstanding original tunes penned  by banjo player Jesse Langlais and mandolin player Phil Barker; they also do some great covers, including Bruce Springsteen and John Anderson. If you are extremely fortunate, you may even hear Robert Greer sing a heart-wrenching version of the Grateful Dead's Brokedown Palace. Their newest CD is Steady Operator. http://townmountain.net/blog/