The Purple Onion

Lyle de Vitry
2024-11-14 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | The Purple Onion, 16 E Main St, Saluda, NC, 28773, United States
Much like life itself, the music of Lyle de Vitry comes in cycles. With his intricate, ambient fingerpicking guitar style and suede-soft baritone voice, de Vitry mesmerizes audiences into meditative serenity. Immersed in rich and nuanced harmonic composition, listeners are gently drawn into the here and now. Effortlessly moving between unity and dissonance, voice and instrumentation, rhythm and melody, de Vitry seamlessly integrates the comfort of folk music with the spine-shivering emotional release and intentionality of classical compositions. In so doing, he manages to create a sound as dynamic and honest as the ocean’s eternally flowing tides or the planet’s ever-changing seasons.

The Feels
2024-11-16 20:00 - 22:00
Singer-songwriters, Lange Eve and Sarah Roberts bring their soulful and engaging energy as they showcase their original music. This five-piece group packs their sets with fusions of Soul, R&B, Funk, and Groove with tasteful throwback/retro vibes that will make you feel so many things! In addition to Lange on guitar/vox and Sarah on Ukulele/vox/percussion, this dynamic group is backed by Matt Gardner on lead guitar, Brian Grasso on bass, Matthew Roberts on drums, and often other special guests! The Feels is a fun mix of artists from the (past and present) WNC music scene. These musicians have a long history of music and good times together that can be felt and heard!

Charlotte Bluegrass Allstars
2024-11-21 19:30 - 21:30
Charlotte Bluegrass Allstars are a genre-defying 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.

Lazybirds
2024-11-23 20:00 - 22:00
A classic American roots band, the Lazybirds Band specializes in good time music, impossible not to move to. Pulling from blues, jazz, and good old ragtime, this band has a hillbilly flare that gets your toes tapping. With a talented ensemble that plays strings, piano, and harmonica, they cover all of the great sounds rooted in Rural America. Gritty Mississippi blues to Dylan classics, with some early American string band thrown in, the Lazybirds are just as comfortable vibing out with an original to covering one of the greats. Founded back in 2000, the Lazybirds have been showing audiences a good time for over 20 years.

Anya Hinkle W. The Billy Sea
2024-11-24 19:00 - 21:00
Using the medium of Appalachian string band tradition, Anya Hinkle is a force when it comes to storytelling through song. With arresting honesty and a beautiful voice reminiscent of whiskey – smooth with an alluring hint of smoke – Hinkle straddles the bounds of bluegrass and country, resulting in some of the best Americana Roots has to offer. Playing tunes that flutter through beautiful finger-picked themes, invoking folk melodies from the past, Anya Hinkle will walk you through an artfully crafted story, evolving into an unknown inner psychological and surreal music space. It’s the honesty and grit in Hinkle’s music that pulls you in.

Peggy Ratusz Trio
2024-11-30 20:00 - 22:00
A tambourine totin’ Blues Chanteuse named Peggy Ratusz and her Trio perform an infectious, sultry, multi-layered brand of original, traditional and modern Blues, Soul, R&B, and Jazz. She and her backing bands are particularly impressive during live performances where audiences witness her very core as it shines and is inspired by the rhythm, the melodies and content of the stories she tells.

Newfound Gap
2024-12-05 19:30 - 21:30
Newfound Gap is an old-time sound string band from Leicester, North Carolina. Made up of siblings Bayla, Sylvie, and Judah Davis, the three have been playing music together since they were six years old. Newfound Gap has performed on the Kid’s Stage at IBMA World of Bluegrass, and at MerleFest, Folkmoot, Shindig on the Green, and on the Woodsongs Kids television/radio program. This youthful group blends traditional Appalachian music with progressive influences and is a show one would be remiss to pass up.

Underhill Rose
2024-12-07 20:00 - 22:00
Harmonies. Soul-touching lyrics. Eye-catching stage presence. Underhill Rose has become synonymous with beautiful music, charming personalities, and rippling success. Since 2009, the band from Asheville, North Carolina has independently released four albums, with two landing in the top of the Americana Music Association Airplay Chart and Roots Music Report Chart, all the while garnering critical acclaim from around the globe. Get to know the joyful soaring voice of Molly Rose and her acoustic guitar and the distinctive styling of Eleanor Underhill’s open-back banjo and salty-blues vocals. Underhill Rose creates music that is real and inspired.

Paper Crowns
2024-12-12 19:30 - 21:30
The Paper Crowns are the multi-instrument, genre crossing power duo of Spiro and Nicole Nicolopoulos. The Paper Crowns are earning their reputation as the genuine article and as a band on the cutting edge of modern roots music. Their musical chemistry is a gumbo of Appalachian folk and bluegrass, Dixieland melodies, delta blues, acid rock, murder ballads, outlaw country and Southern Gospel that they cook up into a sound all their own. As a duo they have a full band sound with drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitars and banjo as well as live looping on the spot compositions. Their mix of modern and traditional performance creates a captivating intensity yet always honors their intimacy and emotional rawness as a duo.

81 Drifters
2024-12-14 20:00 - 22:00
Hailing from the scenic mountain landscapes along Highway 81, the 81 Drifters weave a tapestry of sounds ranging from fearlessly raw singer-songwriter originals to western swing, jamgrass, blues, and Appalachian folk. They captivate audiences with their infectious energy, lyrical depth, and powerful harmonies that take listeners on a journey that transcends time and tradition. The band exudes a remarkable chemistry that brings the songs to life as they improvise around each other, exploring melodies in new ways with each performance.

Cowboy Judy
2024-12-15 19:00 - 21:00
A return performance quickly becoming a tradition at the Purple Onion, this energetic group of ladies is an event you don’t want to miss. Cowboy Judy always brings the show to, well, every show they perform. Couple their infectious stage presence, melodic songs, and penchant for grooving tunes you can’t sit still to? Exhilarating. Throw in some holiday cheer and festive motifs? Pure Magic. Female fronted super group, Cowboy Judy (formally Sweet Claudette,) is the bringing together of worlds, in the best of ways. Singing an upbeat hybrid of country and motown, you would be hard pressed to find another group as gifted with their harmonies and charisma as you have here.

Wilder Flowers & The East Coasters
2024-12-19 19:30 - 21:30
The Wilder Flower is an Upstate SC and Western NC based trio, featuring Danielle Yother on guitar, Madeline Dierauf on fiddle, and Molly Johnson on banjo. Playing throughout the Carolinas, the group has traveled and toured as far as Ohio, Alabama, and Georgia. Their collaboration flexes between folk, Americana, bluegrass, and Old-time tunes. Vocally, the trio thrives on three-part harmonies and originals.
The East Coasters are Calum Bell, Madeline Dierauf, and Richard Osban, an Irish trad group from up and down the East Coast. Calum is a multi-instrumentalist who regularly tours internationally and when home, plays six nights a week in and around his native Boston; Madeline is an Irish and Old-time fiddler from Brevard, North Carolina, and plays full-time with Appalachian trio The Wilder Flower; and Richard is a driving and dynamic guitarist and music school director who has played festivals across Europe and North America, now settled in Baltimore, Maryland.

West End String Band
2024-12-21 20:00 - 22:00
Dedicated to playing and performing traditional bluegrass music and old country songs with modern appeal, the West End String Band has been walking the perfect balance between nostalgia and a thumping good time. Don’t let the name fool you. The West End String Band is refreshing and invigorating, while holding true to the roots that formed this unique tradition of music. Formed back in 2008, the West End String Band blends the gritty and energetic vocals of lead Charlie McDaniel with harmonies from Kathy McDaniel and the driving banjo of Jim Rollins. Rounded out with the rich baritone and unique mandolin of Matt Purinton, this group is weaving together americana, bluegrass, and country in the best of ways.

Michael Reno Harrell
2024-12-26 19:30 - 21:30
Michael Reno Harrell is an award winning songwriter, as well as a veteran storyteller and entertainer, and he’s from the South. One could compare Michael’s performances to his granddaddy’s pocket knife: well worn and familiar feeling, but razor sharp, and with a point. His original songs and stories have been described as “Appalachian grit and wit” but, as his writing shows, Michael’s awareness is much broader than the bounds of his boyhood home or even the Southern Experience. Between the approachable, feel-good nature of his music, and vivid story-telling that leaves you smiling, Michael creates an auditory experience that has to be witnessed in person.

Tina and Her Pony
2024-12-28 20:00 - 22:00
Indie, Appalachian-folk band, Tina & Her Pony, was formed in 2009 in Asheville, North Carolina by Tina Collins. Internationally known for their tight, sweet, smooth harmonies and simple, exposed, crafted instrumentation on cello, tenor ukulele & guitar, Tina and Her Pony has a fresh, palatable, sound that is bewitching. With warm smiles and honest simplicity, Tina & Her Pony bring a unique sound to the American folk tradition, featuring original songs that echo the sound of Appalachia, while creating new waves with radical, queer lyrics, uncommon instrumentation and vocals tighter than your mamas’ brazier.

The Funky Junk Joy Peddlers
2025-01-11 20:00 - 22:00
Funky Junk Joy Peddlers, formerly known as The Shana Blake Band, is an innovative new take on the classic soul cover band. A Purple Onion favorite, the band’s sound is filled with energetic, danceable music of the Motown era through current hits. Throwing in deeper cuts you know and love from R&B, soul, and funk favorites. The group will have you grooving in your seats and keep you smiling with their infectious, upbeat vibes.

The Moon and You
2025-01-16 19:30 - 21:30
At its core, The Moon and You is a charismatic husband-and-wife team. Melissa Hyman plays cello, Ryan Furstenberg plays guitar and banjo, and both sing in “voices that sound like they were made for one another” (Bill DeYoung, Connect Savannah). But whatever you might assume based on their gorgeous vocal blend and heartfelt lyrics, this ain’t your basic folk duo. With a rotating cast of talented friends to add unexpected instrumentation to their lineup, The Moon and You never plays the same show twice. This ever-evolving, expandable and collapsible model leaves the band constantly reinventing itself in ways both surprising and satisfying.

The Get Right Band - "Endless Summer Jam"
2025-01-18 20:00 - 22:00
The Get Right Band is a psychedelic indie rock power trio from Asheville, NC. They are a band focused on following their muses to honest self-expression, to whatever excites them and pushes them into unexplored territory. Proudly carrying the torch for a long line of genre-bending power trios from Cream to The Jimi Hendrix Experience to The Police. It’s the space between the notes, the rawness and the maneuverability, that makes a power trio, well, so damn powerful. The Get Right Band has tight and diverse jams along with a distinctive, intellectual – but accessible – worldview.

The Get Right Band
2025-01-18 20:00 - 22:00

Holler Choir
2025-01-19 19:00 - 21:00
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. Robert’s wordcraft and explosive vocal range is met with the dulcet clawhammer banjo plucking of long-time collaborator Helena Rose, the gutsy timekeeping of upright bassist Joey Brown, and the cracking leads of fiddle player Nat Copeland. Together they create playful songs which explore deep places.

Lillie Syracuse
2025-01-23 19:30 - 21:30
In a velvet stream of joy, grief, and love, Lillie Syracuse’s voice and music pours deep from the heart of the in-between. Just as her heart was woven from tree, waterfall, birdsong, and red mountain clay, so was her song writing. Lillie’s hope, in song-craft, is to foster shifts towards a deeper connection with nature, community, authenticity, creativity, and magic in the lives of those who hear her music. Described as a sound worker and poet, alongside her talents as a singer and songwriter, Syracuse is a talent truly sculpted by the roots of these mountains.

Lillie Syracuse feat Jeff Sipe and Chris Rosser
2025-01-23 19:30 - 21:30

Darby Wilcox
2025-01-25 20:00 - 22:00
Darby Wilcox is a stage presence not likely to be found anywhere else. Hardly surprising, given that her bio begins with her being brought up by wolves. With a booming voice, wonderfully quirky stage persona, and lyrics that speak of truth, she is an all encompassing show. Starting at a young age, Darby taught herself how to play the guitar, ukulele, harmonica, and even the kazoo. That driving passion still remains with her today and is present in all of her music. Pulling her own truth through the listener’s mind, Darby Wilcox’s music is an ethereal escapade influenced by the likes of Radiohead, Elliot Smith, The Beatles, and Bjork.

The Asheville Mountain Boys
2025-01-30 19:30 - 21:30
The Asheville Mountain Boys are on a mission to capture not just the style, but the spirit, of traditional bluegrass. A group that firmly stakes its claim to the tradition of the music from the area, The Asheville Mountain Boys spring onto the scene with a thought,” What happened to bluegrass?” It’s not a disparaging one that condemns current styles in the genre but rather asks, “Why do we love this music in the first place” and answers with an approach that is true to the originators of the genre in the sense of both style and philosophy. Bluegrass is raw emotion, excitement, drive, and authenticity. It is not sanitized or compromised but a reflection of the lives of those who play it. It’s storytelling that follows a throughline of tradition.

“The Doors: Unhinged!” (An AMC Production)
2025-02-01 20:00 - 22:00
This Asheville-based quintet, fronted by the charismatic and electrifying Reggie Headen, features an all-star, highly sought after group of musicians: Jonathan Pearlman, Taylor Pierson, Connor Law, and Jay Hoots. Reggie Headen started his professional career as a featured performer at New York’s famous Broadway concert venue Town Hall, playing to giants and peers in the industry. The power and panache of his live performances are ones for the history books. A fearless performer and heartfelt old soul vocalist. Pearlman says, “There’s something very daring, dangerous, and dark about the Doors’ music. We’ve tried to capture that. We found it challenging to approximate their chemistry and alchemy. I believe that we got it right!”

Rudy's Rhythm & Revue
2025-02-06 19:30 - 21:30
Rudy’s Rhythm & Revue delivers a health and happiness show, with upbeat songs and positive energy. Five-time, Four Corner States, banjo champion, Rudy is a singer/songwriter, as well as multi-instrumentalist on banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. ​Rudy’s music spans a variety of​ original compositions, from bluegrass, rhythm & roots, Americana/country, classical, to world chants. The nucleus of the band includes Rudy Cortese and Elizabeth Kronlage on harmony vocals, tenor guitar, cello. The award winning duo presents a traditional and energetic bluegrass mountain experience.

Bob Sinclair and The Big Deals
2025-02-08 20:00 - 22:00
Bob Sinclair and the Big Deals is a North Carolina-based acoustic band with 15 years of performing original, upbeat, gypsy-jazz music. Using acoustic instruments this ensemble could be playing in a Paris café or a barn dance – comfortable, a little sophisticated, and more than a little fun! A thoroughly unique spin on country and jazz, Sinclair’s narrative coupled together with great melodies will have you looking for a dance partner in no time. At the heart of it ….Original Front Porch Swing Played By Happy People.

Cary Fridley and Bayla Davis
2025-02-13 19:30 - 21:30
Cary Fridley is an Appalachian singer, bassist, and educator from Asheville, NC. Her music has evolved to embrace all styles of traditional country, blues, folk, and jazz. Cary Fridley is a seasoned performer with an impressive legacy spanning over 20 years, dedicated to celebrating and preserving the cultural tapestry of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. In 2023 she participated in the Fine Tuned program as a mentor to Bayla Davis, reflecting her steadfast commitment to passing on the musical legacy. Cary and Bayla now perform together showcasing the songs of the mountains, taking turns singing and backing each other up with harmonies on guitar, banjo, and fiddle.

Lonesome Road Band
2025-02-15 20:00 - 22:00
The Lonesome Road Band regularly travels as a three piece group, featuring banjo, guitar, and bass. In a nutshell, the band plays country and folk, but that wonderfully rustic country that walks you down a dirt road, with a pleasant breeze tickling your face, while the grasshoppers chirp. Founded back in 1995, the band has gone through a few changes in members, but has never lost its heart and soul – thanks in abundance to its founder Larry Keith. The charming yet stark fervency of The Lonesome Road Band’s music instantly takes audiences back to a time where songs told the world of man’s great love and great sorrows. Huddled around a vintage mic, the group would be right at home next to the Soggy Bottom Boys in “O Brother Where Art Thou.”

Highway 52
2025-02-20 19:30 - 21:30
Highway 52 is an acoustic Blues and Americana group that includes four seasoned, local musicians. Playing Blues and Americana favorites, as well as some more eclectic covers and originals, the band knows how to get a room thumping and singing along. Band members are Bill Loftus on guitar/harmonica/vocals; Mike ‘Country’ Carver, guitar/vocals; Paul McIntire, electric violin; and Lauren Bandy, standup and electric bass.
