Three-part weekly acoustic concert series to benefit Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR) will be held in the beautiful sanctuary of downtown Asheville’s Central United Methodist Church
Blue Ridge Public Radio and NewSong Music have announced the upcoming ‘Sanctuary Sessions,’ a concert series to benefit BPR. The concerts take place the first three Saturday evenings in June (June 2, 9, 16) and feature some of North America’s most talented emerging singer-songwriters. Concerts will be held in the beautiful and acoustically stunning sanctuary of Central United Methodist Church, located in the heart of downtown Asheville at 27 Church Street. Performers include Rose Cousins, Max Hatt & Edda Glass, Beth Snapp, and Wilder Atkins.
BPR’s General Manager and CEO David Feingold said “Blue Ridge Public Radio reports on our region’s vibrant creative sector and we deeply appreciate the support and encouragement we received from Central Methodist Church to present these concerts. The three partners – BPR, NewSong Music, and the Central United Methodist Church – share a vision of supporting the arts and directly engaging with our community. We deeply appreciate having the Sanctuary Sessions serve as a benefit for BPR, which relies on community financial support to continue our high quality of public radio service to Western North Carolina.”
Tickets for each concert are available in advance for $15.00 at The Orange Peel website, and will be available at the venue on the day of show for $20.00. 100% of the ticket proceeds will benefit Blue Ridge Public Radio, NPR for Western North Carolina.
The concerts feature general admission seating in the 800-person capacity sanctuary, and will begin promptly at 7:30 PM. Doors will open each evening at 7:00 PM. Ample downtown parking is located in the new parking garage located immediately behind the church at 40 Coxe Avenue.
Each of the three concerts pairs two acts from across the continent.
Saturday, June 2
Advance tickets: http://theorangepeel.net/event/beth-snapp-and-wilder-adkins/
Wilder Adkins (Birmingham, AL)
Beth Snapp (Kingsport, TN)
Wilder Adkins is a recent grand prize winner of the international NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition. Adkins’ sound is deeply rooted in the folk traditions of the South, deftly blending thoughtful lyrics with an accomplished fingerpicking style. wilderadkins.com
The music of Beth Snapp drifts across folk, bluegrass, pop, early R&B and jazz. Her new EP Don’t Apologize was recently recorded at Asheville’s Echo Mountain Recording Studios. Her band features some of eastern Tennessee’s most accomplished bluegrass and Americana players, who are joined by guest artists Dave Eggar (cello) and Cruz Contreras of the Black Lillies on the new recording. bethsnapp.com
Saturday, June 9
Advance tickets: http://theorangepeel.net/event/max-hatt-edda-glass/
Max Hatt / Edda Glass (Santa Fe, NM)
Becca Leigh (Charleston, SC)
Max Hatt / Edda Glass have a “unique sound” (Larry Groce, NPR) that’s taken them across the county from NPR Mountain Stage to NYC’s Lincoln Center, DC’s Kennedy Center, and the Sundance Film Festival. Praised for her “impeccable vocal command” (PopMatters) and compared to a gamut of singers from Astrud Gilberto to Billie Holliday, Glass’s voice ultimately “one of a kind…you cannot confuse her with another artist” (New York Theatre Guide). Hatt’s equally distinctive guitar work combines the harmonic innovations of jazz and classical with the melodic resonance of folk, creating music that’s “subtly poignant, elegantly funky, and haunting without trying to be” (Nels Cline, Wilco). Together with Glass’s literate lyrics, this Jazz Americana evokes the grandeur of the western landscape, telling intimate stories of little people on Great Plains, and leaving audiences with a feeling both light and deep. maxhatteddaglass.com
Becca Leigh (Becca Leigh Nicholson) is a songwriter based in Charleston, South Carolina. Her songs emerge from a folk tradition, focusing on melody, imagery, and emotion. They press on the tension between melancholy and hope, beauty and pain. In November, 2017 she was selected as a finalist in the New Song Music Competition and performed at the songwriter showcase at Lincoln Center in New York City. beccaleighmusic.com
Saturday, June 16
Advance tickets: http://theorangepeel.net/event/rose-cousins/
Rose Cousins (Halifax, NS)
Maya de Vitry (Nashville, TN)
Rose Cousins lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia when she’s not touring internationally. Her 2012 album WE HAVE MADE A SPARK won a JUNO, 3 ECMAs, a CFMA, was long listed for the Polaris Music Prize, and made featured/best of lists in USA Today, NPR and Oprah Magazine. Her music has appeared in several TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy and Nashville. To make her new record NATURAL CONCLUSION, she enlisted GRAMMY award winning producer Joe Henry. The result is what Cousins calls “the most honest and vulnerable thing” she has made to date. rosecousins.com
A lover of the strange and beautiful conversation between words and music, Maya de Vitry experiences and embraces being alive through song. She has spent the last six years touring the United States, Canada, and Europe with her celebrated Americana band The Stray Birds. In her solo work, her lone, dynamic voice, and her muses and meditations, explore a striking new landscape. Originally from Pennsylvania (and twice a resident of Asheville), Maya makes her home in Nashville, where she has watched more sunsets on the same lake than ever before in her life. www.mayadevitry.com
