Jordan Smart + Willy Tea Taylor w/ Jodi Jones
Jordan Smart is a folk singer based in Latonia, KY. Covering a broad range of subjects — from parental epiphanies and questionable lavatory visits, scathing political commentary and hitchhiking cross country, satirical talking blues to love, loss, grief and even pickles — Smart aims to have a song for every occasion. If he can’t make you laugh, cry, or at very least think, feel free to approach him for a refund. There is no question that Willy Tea Taylor’s life as a singer/songwriter was predetermined – his role realized the moment he wrote his first song. His inspirations drawn from two separate wells; Living the life of a cattleman’s kid and experiencing true visionaries music like Greg Brown, John Hartford, and Guy Clark. The image of Guy Clark and friends sitting around the kitchen table loaded with ashtrays full of butts, half-smoked cigarettes, food, and booze on one Christmas Eve in 1975 burned into Taylor’s soul. Those guys, swapping songs without pretense, lit Willy Tea’s fire. And ever since, its led purpose with passion – finding a hang by curating relationships through musical friendships that get him closer to his own Clark style kitchen table. From his early days co-fronting The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, to singing solo in countless cowboy bars, to pitching countless wiffle ball games, Willy Tea has never lost the vision. Now Willy Tea Taylor has taken his vision of the “hero hang” on the road. and his talented traveling band The Fellership is made up of his fantastically talented buds who play Willy’s songs with a brand of reckless abandon and utter humility that spits in the face of pretense. The way The Fellership plays Will’s songs is the way they demand to be played and, in their short time together, they have been awe-ing every audience lucky enough to see them. Folksinger Jodi Jones is determined to boldly dream a better tomorrow in the wake of a broken and weary world. Deeply rooted in the musical traditions of her childhood home in the hills of Western Pennsylvania, her work is a poetic and unflinching account of the beauty and hardship of working class experience in America. With defiant wit and innate musicality, she beautifies the bitter truths of our modern age into song as an act of love and solidarity. Art may not save us from our problems, but Jones believes it is crucial to surviving them with our humanity intact. To sing is to live, to live is to hope, and to hope is to find the strength to fight another day in these dark and uncertain times. With guitar, banjo, fiddle, and even dulcimer in hand, she seeks to alchemize pain into purpose and break old ground to plant new seeds of hope and change.
Chris Acker
In a genre full of tall tales and marketable lies, New Orleans’ Chris Acker crafts candid songs – weaving his wit and woes into a body of work that exposes the stale plight of the American Songster to the honest, and sometimes hilarious, light of day. In the tradition of Guthrie and Prine, Chris lends a quavering voice to the half-rotten romance of the unremarkable and unrefined. Regardless if you’re sitting by a backyard fire on a muggy Louisiana night or standing stage-side in some far flung town, when you hear Chris Acker playing, you’re hearing the end result of countless hours of observing the masters of the craft…and the end result of repeating their mistakes. From the folk revival through the golden age of country music, deafened by punk shows and brass bands alike, Chris’s songwriting is a nod to the absurd yet muted brilliance that inhabits the molded corners of the bars he patrons and cratered street he treads, paired with a pained honesty that merits a long second look. Acker released his fourth full-length album, Famous Lunch, on Gar Hole Records in October of 2024. Famous Lunch contains some of his best work yet: laid back, country-rockers like “Wouldn’t Do For You (Buddy)” and “Shit Surprise” (which Paste Magazine called a “song of the year contender” in 2024), a few raucous, bar-ready joints like “Don’t You Know (Who I Think I Am)” and “Bunn Machine”, and tender, folky triumphs like “Stubborn Eyes” and “Eyelash”, all showcasing Chris’ gift of building “vivid scenes at an impressively low word count” (No Depression). Acker tours solo or with his band The Growing Boys — Zach Thomas (bass), Nikolai Shveitser (pedal steel), Dave Hammer (guitar, vocals), Sam Gelband (drums, vocals), and occasionally Howe Pearson (piano).
Tyler Millard Presents Eight Track: A Songwriter Showcase with a Twist
Four of your favorite songwriters or songwriter teams will be writing eight songs over eight weeks. At the end of the writing period , they will be performing at least half of the songs they just wrote as part of their sets.
An Evening with John Schneider
Meet and Greet at 6pm: $80.00 General Admission Doors at 7pm The Dukes of Hazzard Star John Schneider As a four-time chart-topping country artist with 29 albums to his credit, John Schneider could quite realistically be counted amongst the most prolific and recognized entertainers of all time. He’s of course known all over the world for his Role in Dukes of Hazzard and Smallville and countless other TV and Movie appearances over the years. His Musical Journey has been amazing from performing at Farm Aid to The Grand Ole Opry. His hit singles such as “It’s Now Or Never” (the top charting Elvis Presley cover of any genre ever), “Them Good Ol’ Boys Are Bad,” “I’ve Been Around Enough To Know,” “Country Girls,” “It’s A Short Walk from Heaven to Hell,” “I’m Gonna Leave You Tomorrow,” “What’s a Memory Like You (Doing in a Love Like This),” “You’re the Last Thing I Needed Tonight,” “At the Sound of the Tone,” “Take the Long Way Home,” “Love, You Ain’t Seen the Last of Me” and “Ruffled Skirts” right up to “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” which he performed on the 2018 finale of Dancing with the Stars after personally duking it out for seven highly heralded weeks. He even has lately performed on The Masked Singer and 2025 saw John performing more and more to sold Theaters and Outdoor events.
Abigail hosts Colin Cutler and Carlos Rising
Colin Cutler Colin Cutler is a Greensboro, North Carolina-based singer-songwriter, folk musician, poet, and storyteller toting a banjo and guitar. Whether solo or with his band, Hot Pepper Jam, he is a wide-ranging performer whose musical roots draw from the breadth of American folk music—from Appalachian oldtime to blues to gospel to country to rock’n’roll—to form what No Depression has described as “one magnificent tapestry of roots music.” The last couple years have seen Cutler playing across the Southeast, with appearances at Merlefest, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, the North Carolina Folk Festival, Antlers and Acorns Songwriters Festival, and the Carolina Bible Camp Bluegrass Festival. Carlos Rising Carlos Rising is a singer-songwriter and frontman based in Wilmington, North Carolina. Growing up as a multi-instrumentalist, he started writing original songs at 13 years old. His work covers a multitude of styles, ranging from indie rock to R&B and soul. In 2023, Carlos competed on Season 23 of NBC’s The Voice, where both Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson turned their chairs during his blind audition. Following the show, he released his first EP, it’s just a phase—a collection of bedroom-produced songs showcasing his vocal ability and songwriting. Carlos has toured the country playing solo shows and band gigs from coast to coast. He’s currently working on his debut album, Amsterdam, rooted in the Wilmington community that’s supported him from the start. Abigail Dowd Our fearless host who still enjoys music most when it’s embedded in real life, sitting around a fire or every third Tuesday night at the Flat Iron. Each month Abigail invites musician friends to fall into space with her and the audience for what she describes as an evening in her adopted living room. They collaborate, share new songs, play old favorites, make things up, make you cry, make you laugh and most of all make you glad you came
Abigail Dowd will host Joey Recchio & Willie Shane Johnston
Matteo Joey Recchio was born in Sparta, NC and started playing the guitar at age 12, playing his first live show at 15. He started in the rock cover scene through college, shifting to blues in the mid 2000’s. As a member of Contagious Blues Band he was a winner of the Charlotte and Triangle Blues society’s IBC competitions. In his second trip to Memphis for the IBC, his band won the Kings of Beale Street contest. In 2009 he joined forces with some of his High School friends in Big Daddy Love and transitioned to the jam band scene. They immediately won the Floyd Fest “On The Rise” competition and followed it up with 4 albums. He has opened for, or shared the stage with, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Los Lobos, BlackBerry Smoke, Lukas Nelson, Jimmy Vaughn, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, among others. Clocking in over 2,000 live performances in nearly 40 states, his devotion to writing and performing music has never wavered. Keep an ear out for new recordings and live shows with Big Daddy Love and The Deluge, as well as a solo EP being recorded with the help of his musical comrades Jeremy Merritt and Willie Shane Johnston. Willie Shane Johnston is from Grenada, Mississippi. Between Grenada and his father’s hometown of Clarksdale, there was ample influence of Delta Blues. As a child his grandmother gave him his first harmonica, and lessons, but asked him to keep it a secret since some family members viewed blues as “the devil’s music”. Willie has played blues from Florida to International festivals in Canada; New York to Colorado. He has recorded 4 albums. He has opened for Delbert McClinton, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, George Jones, Shamekia Copeland, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Hubert Sumlin, R.L. Burnside, John Hammond and many other artists. Over the years, his bands WSNB, and The Red Dirt Revelators have won every single blues society competition in North Carolina, and Cape Fear, SC. WSNB placed third in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, with a performance at the historical Orpheum Theatre. Willie continues his pursuit of writing, recording, and performing blues music at every opportunity. Abigail Dowd Our fearless host who still enjoys music most when it’s embedded in real life, sitting around a fire or every third Tuesday night at the Flat Iron. Each month Abigail invites musician friends to fall into space with her and the audience for what she describes as an evening in her adopted living room. They collaborate, share new songs, play old favorites, make things up, make you cry, make you laugh and most of all make you glad you came
Diali Cissokho Trio w/ Demeanor
The Diali Cissokho Trio brings together three internationally acclaimed musicians whose work blends deep cultural roots with emotional resonance. United by their devotion to the transformative power of music, each member of the trio brings a unique perspective, celebrating and crossing cultural boundaries with their mastery of West African rhythms and instruments. Diali Cissokho, a virtuoso kora player and percussionist from Senegal, hails from a long line of Manding griots, whose role as historians and storytellers has been passed down through generations. Diali’s music, steeped in his ancestral heritage, merges explosive rhythms with hypnotic grooves, sharing the history, wisdom, and spirit of his culture through song. After years of performing in Senegal and Europe, Diali moved to the U.S. to continue spreading the beauty of traditional West African music. Will Ridenour, a kora player and percussionist from Greensboro, NC was drawn to West African music after a life-changing encounter with traditional dance. Studying in Mali and Senegal, Will’s music blends both traditional and modern global influences with his original melodies. He has performed in 40 states and 28 countries and works with a variety of artistic ventures across North Carolina, including the West African dance band Kaira Ba and Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Atiba Rorie, a skilled percussionist and founder of the multi-genre band Africa Unplugged, has studied with masters such as Bradley, Simmons, Babatunde Olatunji, and Chief Bey. His performances span prestigious venues worldwide, from Dance Africa in New York to Presidential Inauguration Celebrations. Atiba teaches at Guilford College and continues to inspire with his mastery of percussion, using music as a tool for connection and healing. Together, the Diali Cissokho Trio creates a powerful collective force, merging their individual expertise to uplift and inspire. Through their performances and teachings, they offer a profound, cross-cultural experience, using the universal language of music to heal, connect, and inspire.
The Keith Allen Circus + Solar Circuit w/ The Wright Ave.
Tom Hamilton w/ The Wright Ave Duo
Tom Hamilton’s guiding creative principle is very simple: he doesn’t like to repeat himself artistically.For the Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter andguitarist, this mindset stems from a deep-seated motivation to keep pushing himself as an artist —to delve into different lyrical themes and musical detours, to explore potentially uncomfortable and unfamiliar emotional places.”That’s a thrilling prospect,” says Hamilton. “To find the deeper things inside and to open up those doors that I didn’t even know were there.”As founding member of Brothers Past, American Babies, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Ghost Light and Billy and The Kids, Hamiltonhas written/recorded roughlya dozen albums and EPs and shared the stage with everyone from John Mayer to Bob Weir to Billy Strings.Hamilton’s debut record as a solo artist will be released in late 2025.
BMFS AFTER PARTY! W/ NORTH STATE GRASS & YELLER GRASS STRING BAND
North State Grass are a genre-bending powerhouse hailing from the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina. This unique collaboration brings together a diverse ensemble of musicians, each drawing from distinct musical backgrounds, including rock, blues, classical, jazz, and jam band influences. United by a shared passion for Bluegrass, they’ve woven a tapestry of sound that defies traditional boundaries and expectations.
