The A-List: My recommendations of arts happenings to see + hear, Oct. 1-4

It says a little something about this festival, now in its 14th year, that beer gets top billing over the music. In one sense, that isn’t surprising—Burial Beer produces this, after all. But in touting the more than 60 brewers on hand, the fest could do a little more to boost the music. In promising a full slate of music, Burial has only revealed three artists in the lineup.

Headlining is Lucero, a Memphis-born band with 12 records in the can since forming in the late ‘90s. Their music spans Southern rock to Stax-inspired Memphis soul. Ryan Davis + the Roadhouse and Hearts Gone South are also on the card. I’d like to see more details of the lineup, but with 60 brewers on hand, after a while, you may not care who’s on stage.

For those who haven’t already heard the ‘splanation, I need to mansplain the East-West Asheville thing. Haywood Road is the latitudinal northern border of West Asheville. Everything to the east of I-240 is East-West Asheville. Nobody has ‘splained to me why everything west of I-240 isn’t West-West Asheville, but I digress …

Lamplight AVL organizes this free evening of art, music and creative exchange. Lamplight resident Elizabeth Ivey (pictured above) presents a selection of work from her September Residency at Lamplight’s residency space at 821 Haywood Road, where other artists are also opening their studios. Harvest Records hosts an exhibition of artwork by Sally Anne Morgan. Story Parlor is offering a glimpse into its listening room programming with music, poetry, and performance throughout the evening.

Christian Howes tracked toward a career in classical music until, in his early 20s, a conviction for drug sales landed him for four years in the Ohio state prison system. There, he meshed with other incarcerated musicians and pivoted to jazz and, after his release, an internationally acclaimed career.

If you haven’t already, watch or listen to my revealing conversation with him, which posted here Tuesday. Howes has lived in Asheville 11 years and led summer music camps in Black Mountain, but this evening at Hotel Eve is the first local performance he’s put together since moving here. At press time, the first set was already sold out, but catch him at 9:30p, if you can.

Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective’s fourth annual series juggles about a dozen monologues and minimally staged plays into a unique combination each night. This year’s theme calls on stories of inspiration, success and survival, despite the odds.

These works are often the roots of larger staged productions down the road. Performances continue Friday and Saturday nights through Oct. 17.

Three teenaged Asheville sisters—Montgomery (guitar/vocals), Andersen (drums) and Kittredge (bass)—are an indie rock trio with serious songwriting chops and just-as-serious ambition. If you’re in Hendersonville Friday night, you absolutely have nothing better to do than to catch Detective Blind.

For a preview, give a listen to my conversation with them, peppered with a performance of their original tunes, on my previous podcast, The Overlook.