SINGER-SONGWRITER | Ayala Asherov
Wed. Sept. 2
7 p.m.
$12
Woolfe Street Playhouse
Israeli-born Charleston singer-songwriter Ayala Asherov has spent recent days collaborating with Hootie and the Blowfish’s Mark Bryan to release a brand new album, Colors & Shapes. Also a CofC songwriting professor, Asherov’s past work includes songs in both English and Hebrew, and she showcased her work as a composer in such events as the biennial Athena Music Festival. Ayala’s new album is a set of light pop reminiscent of Vanessa Carlton and Norah Jones. “After years of writing for television, film, museums, the recital hall, starting to teach at the college, launching an educational program called Music Tells the Story, and occasionally performing, I felt it was time to record some of the songs that have been collecting — and this time in English,” Asherov says. She hopes to foster close communication with her audience during her album-release show. “I tend to tell the stories behind the songs, of why and how they were written,” she says. “I will also sing a few songs in Hebrew from my Hebrew album.” Bryan will join Asherov on stage for a few songs, and pop-rocker Angie Aparo will also be a guest performer. —Kaleb Eisele WEDNESDAY
STRING BAND | Rodeo Clown
Thurs. Sept. 10
6 p.m.
Free
Palmetto Brewing
The Grateful Dead, a band known best for their extended, experimental onstage jamming, went in the exact opposite direction when it was time to record their best studio work. Their two 1970 albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty form the backbone of the Dead’s catalog, and they both pull from the bluegrass, country, and folk influences the band all had roots in. But’s it that return to the basics on those two albums that allows the Charleston string band Rodeo Clown to exist. The group uses their standup-bass, banjo, mandolin, National Steel, and acoustic guitar setup to pay tribute to the veteran ’60s road warriors. The band creates vocal-harmony-fueled bluegrass-style shuffle versions of Dead chestnuts, but they also apply that formula to songs that weren’t on American Beauty or Workingman’s Dead, like “Deal,” (recorded for Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s first solo album in 1972) and “Stealin’, a 1920s folk song that the Grateful Dead performed regularly in the mid-to-late 1960s. In addition to a weekly gig at the Pour House, Rodeo Clown are beginning a free weekly Thursday-night residency at Palmetto Brewing. The band’s first show will feature $5 craft brews. —Vincent Harris THURSDAY
PUNK BLUES | Red Honey
Fri. Sept. 4
10 p.m.
Free
The Mill
Red Honey is led by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Erika Jane, who bassist Sam Steele says is in charge of everything from songwriting to making sure the boys are wearing the right hats. Together with drummer Colin Townsend and guitarist/truck-stop finder Brad Pope, the Asheville foursome create music inspired by the blues, rockabilly, bluegrass, honky tonk, swamp rock, and country. “Erika Jane makes everyone listen to new country’s Kip Moore, ‘Somethin’ Bout a Truck,’ on the way home after every show — at full volume — singing at the top of her lungs, while Pope dies a little in the backseat,” says Steele. “Lately, Erika Jane has been really diggin’ Memphis Minnie, a pioneer in the 1930s. There’s just so much good stuff, speaking to Southern music, to soak up. And I think it leaks back out in our tunes, from Elvis to RL Burnside to Wanda Jackson to Waylon and on and on.” The last time Red Honey came through town, Wade Malloch of Awendaw Green took the band kayaking through Lowcountry swamps at owner/organizer Eddie Green’s Swamp House. “I think that inspired at least three songs in itself,” Jane says. Red Honey is currently working on a new album as well as a Christmas EP featuring holiday originals and a couple of classics. Jane says, “We love that warm, fuzzy holiday feeling, when it’s all mistletoe and magic.” —Kelly Rae Smith FRIDAY
RED-DIRT AMERICANA | The Travelin’ Kine
w/ Don Merckle & the Blacksmiths
Sat. Sept. 5
10 p.m.
$5
Tin Roof
Singer/guitarist Slaton Glover of Charleston’s own The Travelin’ Kine had little on his mind other than a solo show when he played at an Edisto watering hole called the Thirsty Fish one night in 2013. But a friend had other plans. “A buddy who ran the club introduced me to Dave Vaughan, who’d played mandolin with James Justin & Co. and recorded with Dangermuffin,” Glover says. “Dave had just left James Justin, and we kind of just hit it off and started writing and playing as a duo.” Six months later, they were a string band with a little honky-tonk thrown into the mix. “Dave certainly has a lot of bluegrass in his background, and the project certainly started out with the idea of leaning more toward bluegrass,” Glover says. “But our sound just turned out to be more country, and we kind of just rolled with it. It wasn’t anything we tried hard to do — that’s just how it went.” Perhaps part of the genre choice had something to do with some of the Travelin’ Kine’s early members. “Our first bass player was Gary Hewitt, who was Gary Allan’s bass player for years, so he had a really country-styled behind-the-beat playing, and then we had a guy named Walter Biffle, who played guitar with us who was a session guitarist in Nashville for years, so he brought a lot twang to it,” says Glover. —Vincent Harris SATURDAY
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