Music
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Adrian Crutchfield Is Bringing Sax Back with Latest Album, ‘Slick’
When Adrian Crutchfield was 4 years old, his parents took him to a Kenny G concert. The smooth jazz saxophonist saw the child sitting on his father’s shoulders and invited him up onstage. After chatting with the preschooler, Kenny G gifted Crutchfield a small Casio synthesizer saxophone. Crutchfield never forgot…
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AJR Continues to Entertain at PNC Music Pavilion
It was only 16 months ago that AJR performed at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center, so maybe it wasn’t surprising that parts of Saturday night’s show at PNC Music Pavilion felt a little familiar. After the second song, singer Jack Met talked his bandmate brother, keyboardist Ryan Met, and how he always…
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Thomas Rhett Puts on More Than a Country Show at PNC
It seems a bit odd to place Thomas Rhett in the country category. Sure, many of his fans were wearing cowboy boots to his show at PNC Music Pavilion on Friday, but just a few songs into his set I started to wonder how he can be labeled in that…
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PREMIERE: Featherpocket’s Mini-Western ‘Cowboy Hat’ Lays a Liar to Rest
Jason Cline’s country-adjacent alt-rock band Featherpocket delivers a delightful four-minute pocket Western in the jaunty new single “Cowboy Hat,” which premiered today and can be found below. Drawing on Cline’s chiming, coiling guitar; producer Justin Aswell’s cantering percussion; and Jason Atkins’ tinkling honky-tonk piano and swirling zydeco accordion, the catchy…
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Rapper and Singer Belis Returns Home and Rediscovers Her Voice
Bryce Gotta opens the video for her latest single “Gucci” in an abandoned industrial park at night. Illuminated by a pulsing searchlight, Gotta, who raps, sings and crafts sensual, relatable and mysterious songs as Belis, glances over her shoulder. Her expression is inscrutable, like Mona Lisa without the smile. Is…
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The Head and the Heart Keep the Momentum at Skyla Amp
A lot of bands save their best songs for last — usually the encore. Rarely do bands come out of the gate with a few of their biggest hits. The Head and the Heart is not like most bands. At Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre on Tuesday, the indie-folk outfit took…
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Lynsea Unlocks Memories with HitClips-Inspired Rollout for ‘last call’
When local pop singer Lynsea was looking for a new platform to release her latest single, “last call,” she considered all the usual streaming platforms and media types — then she went back about a quarter-century to unlock a memory for many of her millennial fans. On June 27, Lynsea…
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Hopscotch Festival Set to Return for 15th Year, Here’s Who’s Playing
Hopscotch Music Festival, a three-day event showcasing upcoming and esteemed names in indie rock and experimental music, has released the initial lineup for its 15th anniversary in the heart of Raleigh later this summer. The festival will spread across the city, with major acts split between two main stages and…
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Camp Spectacles DIY Music Festival Returns to Copperhead Island
You know what’s cooler than a DIY house party? A DIY house party that lasts three days. But what happens when you want to go even bigger? Why not rent out an island and hold a whole DIY music festival? That is the basic line of thought behind the creation…
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Kendrick Cunningham Pivots from Politics to Music as OB Swank
In our 2024 Election Guide, describing the platform of NC State Senate District 41 candidate Kendrick Cunningham, Queen City Nerve wrote, “Cunningham’s approach to politics is encapsulated by his Next Step Framework, a blueprint meant to guide Charlotte’s communities to healing from systematic disenfranchisement” before noting his focus on housing…
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PREMIERE: Jon Lindsay and Chris Walldorf Hit the Mark With ‘Dear Assassin’ Video
Jon Lindsay’s “Dear Assassin” video starts like a power-pop gem accompanying a head-over-heels love story. As Lindsay basks in the sunshine, chunky guitars gambol under his crystal-clear reverb-laden vocal. “I’m beggin’ won’t you please bring a steady hand/ If your aim is true, I don’t stand a chance…” Coiling snakelike…
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Teen Ettore Buzzini Builds Hope for One of Charlotte’s Oldest Music Scenes
When Ettore Buzzini was 6 years old, his grandfather on his mother’s side, a family that hails from eastern Tennessee, gave the young boy his old iPod and told him he could clear the data and put whatever music he liked on it. Young Buzzini hadn’t quite fleshed out his…
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Weekend Friend Creates Summer Soundtrack with ‘Days Like June’
There are many ways to welcome the first day of summer, but with a heat dome bearing down on the Carolinas during this year’s seasonal transition, an indoor observation of the solstice may have been the most prudent pick for 2025. Fans eagerly standing at the barricade of Amos’ Southend…
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Vocal Powerhouse Adina Rey Unleashes Stunning, Moving Debut
Thick piano chords, plangent guitars and cantering percussion set the stage on “Hi & Lo,” one of six subtly challenging pop tunes on Adina Rey’s self-titled debut EP, which dropped Wednesday. It is the previously unknown singer-songwriter’s powerful, supple and emotionally rangy vocals, however, that grab the spotlight. Rey’s voice,…
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Gauxstman Represents Charlotte’s Southside on New Album ‘28217’
Charlotte rapper Gauxstman comes from a long and mostly venerable tradition of shit talking. Rappers like Too $hort, Suga Free and even Snoop Dogg circulated narratives of salacity and sagacity, playing off of their predecessors like Red Foxx, Moms Mabley and Richard Pryor. These comics built off an earlier tradition…
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Krystle Baller’s Debut Solo Project Is Meditational, Immersive Art
In shamanic mediation, shamans use an introductory drum beat to pull you into a spiritual journey and a closing beat that calls you back out. The repetitive, rhythmic beats throughout the meditation lure the listener into a trance state, guiding their spiritual bodies through grief, loss and healing. For Krystle…
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