Totally Slow, LMI, and Snide
Singer Songwriter Series hosted by Abigail Dowd, featuring: Nicholas Edward Williams and Jack McKeon
Jack McKeon – A Nashville-based singer-songwriter with an honest, plainspoken vocal, an eclectic-roots sound and a knack for bringing crystalline characters to life, Jack McKeon harbors a deep love for the written word. First inspired by literary musical icons from Hank Williams and Guy Clark to Tom T. Hall and John Hartford, McKeon arrived in Nashville in 2021 and has since established a reputation for his own message-driven lyricism – a value which shows up in its full sonic serenity on his 2024 album debut, Talking to Strangers. Nicholas Edward Williams – Honoring and blending the American roots music spectrum in his own flair, Nicholas Edward Williams is a multi-instrumentalist, storyteller and preservationist who has spent the last 15+ years touring three continents. He’s opened for Taj Mahal, The Wood Brothers, CAAMP, Dom Flemons, Ballroom Thieves, John Craigie, John Paul White and Town Mountain, and his 2019 debut record, As I Go Ramblin’ Around, hit the Top 10 Folk DJ charts for album and song. His critically acclaimed sophomore release Folk Songs For Old Times’ Sake has been heralded by well-regarded figures such as David Holt, Oliver Wood and JP Harris, and his newest traditional record, titled Rags, Folk and Blues, Oh My! releases in the Spring of 2025. Abigail Dowd Our fearless host who still enjoys music most when it’s embedded in real life, sitting around a fire, singing harmonies around an old family piano, 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.
An Evening with Rick Price
Audiences all over the globe are moved by Rick Price’s amazing voice and soulful songs. A multi-instrumentalist, he is the consummate performer and master storyteller. From his humble beginnings as a child performer with his family band in country Queensland dance halls this fan favourite is known for his classic hits “Not a day Goes By,” “Heaven Knows,” “Walk Away Renee” and “River of Love.” As a self-taught Australian singer/songwriter he has multiple gold and platinum selling albums and won numerous music industry awards. Including the prestigious APRA Song Of The year award for his song “Heaven Knows” and both the APRA, Global APRA Music Awards 2020 and Export Music Australia awards for his outstanding achievements abroad. In 2009 a move to the United States sparked not only new influences and a broader style for Price but also a return to his childhood musical roots in country, rhythm and blues, though the ever-present pop influence of Price’s songwriting still rings through his albums and EP such as ‘The Water’s Edge’, ‘Tennessee Sky’, ‘Soulville’, ‘Wayfairing Stranger’ and his latest album, ‘Hometown’. Price has worked with numerous artists as a vocalist, songwriter and record producer including Tina Arena, Tommy Emmanuel, Mitch Grainger, Regine Velasque, Jack Jones and Dami Im. Currently Price resides in Nashville, Tennessee where he continues to write and record his music. His 12th studio album “Hometown” is due for release in 2024.
Taylor Hunnicutt w/ Carri Smithey Band
Taylor Hunnicutt makes old-school southern music for the modern world. She’s a proud daughter of Alabama, writing songs that nod to the state’s tradition of country storytelling, rock ‘n’ roll rebellion, and guitar-driven grit. Sharpened by a touring schedule that’s kept her on the road for roughly 200 days a year, she makes her full-length debut with Alabama Sound — an album that unfolds like a love letter to the American South, written by a road warrior who’s spent most of the decade far away from home. “It’s a little country, a little singer/songwriter, a little Americana, and a lot of soulful southern rock,” says Hunnicutt, an opera-trained vocalist who began writing songs after dropping out of music school, landing a waitressing job at a blues juke joint, and sitting in with the bands that came through town. She’s no longer the guest artist, though — she’s the main act, and Alabama Sound showcases her high-energy, hellraising brand of southern stomp, country-rock twang, and amplified attitude.
Conner Kelly And The Time Warp w/ Jacoozy
BJ Barham (American Aquarium Solo)
For nearly two decades, American Aquarium have pushed toward that rare form of rock-and-roll that’s revelatory in every sense. “For us the sweet spot is when you’ve got a rock band that makes you scream along to every word, and it’s not until you’re coming down at three a.m. that you realize those words are saying something real about your life,” says frontman BJ Barham. “That’s what made us fall in love with music in the first place, and that’s the goal in everything we do.”On their new album The Fear of Standing Still, the North Carolina-bred bandem body that dynamic with more intensity than ever before, endlessly matching their gritty breed of country-rock with Barham’s bravest and most incisive songwriting to date. As he reflects on matters both personal and sociocultural—e.g., the complexity of Southern identity, the intersection of generational trauma and the dismantling of reproductive rights—American Aquarium instill every moment of The Fear of Standing Still with equal parts unbridled spirit and illuminating empathy. Recorded live at the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, The Fear of Standing Still marks American Aquarium’s second outing with producer Shooter Jennings—a three-time Grammy winner who also helmed production on 2020’s critically lauded Lamentations, as well as albums from the likes of Brandi Carlile and Tanya Tucker. In a departure from the stripped-down subtlety of 2022’sChicamacomico(a largely acoustic rumination on grief), the band’s tenth studio LP piles on plenty of explosive riffs and hard-charging rhythms, bringing a visceral energy to the most nuanced and poetic of lyrics. “In our live show the band’s like a freight train that never lets up, and for this record I really wanted to showcase how big and anthemic we can be,” notes Barham, whose bandmates include guitarist Shane Boeker, pedal-steel guitarist Neil Jones, keyboardist Rhett Huffman, drummer Ryan Van Fleet, and bassist Alden Hedges. Mixed by four-time Grammy winner Trina Shoemaker (Queens of the Stone Age,Emmylou Harris),The Fear of Standing Still shares its title with one of the first songs Barham wrote for the album—a soul-baring look at how raising a family has radically altered his priorities and perspective. In the process of creating what he refers to as “a record about growing up and growing older,” Barham also found his songwriting closely informed by his ten years of sobriety, as well as his ever-deepening connection with American Aquarium’s community of fans. “Whenever someone tells me that one of our songs helped them in some way, it encourages me to be more and more open—almost like peeling a layer off an onion,” he says.“This album is a writer 18 years into his career, peeling away the next layer and seeing just how human we can make this thing.”
Fo Daniels + Virginia Man
Evan Blackerby (full band/album release show) W/ Tyler Dodson
mssv (mike baggetta + stephen hodges + mike watt) W/ Thousand Dollar Movie and Spirit Of Hamlet
mssv, composed of guitarist Mike Baggetta, Stephen Hodges on drums and mike watt on bass, creates music that is a heretofore unimagined hybrid of a punk power-trio and a dreamy experimental rock band, though they prefer the term “post-genre.” Their last full-length album, Human Reaction, finds the oddly memorable hooks of their noir-tinged adventure music with a lot more vocals from Main Steam Stop Valve leader Baggetta, adding more personality than ever before, alongside his bandmates, Hodges and watt, who also share in the vocal duties throughout the album. With inventively churning drum textures from Hodges (an instantly identifiable sound honed in his days with Tom Waits and David Lynch) and the full-steam-ahead all-in attitude from watt, (as he’s displayed throughout his storied career with MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE, and The Stooges), there is the impression of “pressure, combustion, power, and hissing clouds of sonic poetry,” as Premier Guitar said. Also evident is the more fearless exploring that comes from a band that has spent a lot of time together crafting their vision, as well as making room for guests like J Mascis, Petra Haden and Nels Cline on some of their previous releases. Even though Baggetta, who has also worked with David Torn, Jim Keltner, Psychic Temple, Jeff Coffin, Henry Kaiser, Rev. Fred Lane, and Viktor Krauss among many others, wrote all the songs specifically for these bandmates to play, there’s no telling which way the band will turn at any given moment, a proposition that becomes a promise when they break down and reassemble these songs live, with an instinct for restraint and an openness to anarchy. mssv’s 3rd full-length studio album comes out Spring 2025 on BIG EGO Records.
SUSTO (Solo) w/ Special Guest: Clint Roberts (Holler Choir) and Fancy Gap (trio)
A season of drastic change is what brought SUSTO frontman Justin Osborne to the band’s fifth full-length LP, My Entire Life [New West Records]. There was a divorce, difficulties re-building his band after the pandemic, and the pain and helplessness of witnessing family members struggle with addiction and mental illness. Despite these challenges, Justin ultimately found himself in a new landscape, with new love and a deeper perspective, all of which is masterfully projected into My Entire Life. * Led by the lyrical craftsmanship of singer, guitarist, and songwriter Clint Roberts, the distinctly Appalachian, old-time sound of Asheville’s Holler Choir combines haunting harmonies, stirring string compositions, and heart-wrenching ballads, yet hardly conforms to a stereotypical genre. Call it a confluence of old-time, Americana, and bluegrass, but, by its own exceptional design, the sound and atmosphere of Holler Choir are singular.
