Shay Martin Lovette is a songwriter and guitar player, based out of Boone, North Carolina. Growing up in Wilkesboro, the home of Merlefest, he was raised around NC music. Despite his early indoctrination into roots music, he resists any classification as an “old-time” musician.
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Last week Charlie Smarts, MC and founding member of Kooley High, brought down the house at the second installment of Music at the Museum.
It was such an exciting evening of music at the NC Museum of Art with Lakota John! John Lakota Locklear hails from both the Lakota and Lumbee tribes, and grew up in Pembroke, NC, near the Lumber River.
For the past five years, Kinston's Choci Gray has hosted the Chitlin Circuit: an annual community event that features stellar performances by some of the town's most celebrated Black musicians. Gray's Chitlin Circuit event hearkens back to the time of segregation, when Black entertainers were forced to leave white clubs immediately after their performances. These entertainers would head to a Black-owned venue in the same town to perform, eat, and be in fellowship. This network of venues was called the Chitlin Circuit.
The band Stray Local was formed in Wilmington by married duo Hannah Lomas and Justin Rowen. Originally organized as a largely live band, their music is changing in a world with less live music.
Rissi Palmer is a Black woman in country music. In her career she has brought a genre-bridging approach to her work. Beyond her musicality, she is dedicated to highlighting other country artists of color, continuing this mission in her show Color Me Country Radio and in the Color Me Country Artist Fund.
By Karl Galloway
North Carolina Music is American music. Be it blues, jazz, hip hop, folk, bluegrass, or beyond, Carolina will be there.
On May 14, 1932, the North Carolina Symphony played its first concert at Hill Hall on the campus of UNC.