2023 Summer Concert Series

Beech Mountain Resort presents a summer of live music featuring The Revivalists w/ Son Little, Amos Lee w/ Langhorne Slim, and Grace Potter w/ Morgan Wade

June 10th

The Revivalists w/ Son Little

The Revivalists in New Orleans, LA 2022

Eight-piece rock ‘n’ roll collective The Revivalists – David Shaw [lead vocals, guitar], Zack Feinberg [guitar], Andrew Campanelli [drums], George Gekas [bass], Ed Williams [pedal steel guitar], Rob Ingraham [saxophone], Michael Girardot [keyboard, trumpet], and PJ Howard [drums, percussion] – have made the journey from hole-in-the-wall gigs to sold-out shows at hallowed venues, multiplatinum success, more than 800 million streams and major media praise. Their fifth album, Pour It Out Into The Night (Concord Records) is a life-affirming album about living in the moment, fueled by lessons in gratitude and life realizations. As the world came to a standstill in the years since their last album, Take Good Care, personal experiences and life challenges abounded, with band members having their first children, getting married, and navigating the mental hurdles of lockdown. On lead single “Kid” – a hopeful anthem about capturing the essence of life, self-belief, and living for the spirit – piano peeks through bright acoustic guitar as a bold beat powers the chantable chorus, “Hey kid, just sing the songs that wake the dead, then you keep them ringing in your head.” “Kid” introduces an album that offers a nostalgic hopefulness rooted in living for who you are, an unburdening, and an appreciation for the here and now. Renowned for their live prowess, soulful alt-rock anthems, distinct mix of many of the classic styles of American music, and outward generosity through their philanthropic Rev Causes initiative, The Revivalists broke through with 2015’s Men Amongst Mountains, which featured the double-platinum smash single and Billboard Hot 100 hit “Wish I Knew You.”

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Son Little, praised by American Songwriter as “one of the best songwriters working today,” conceived his latest album, Like Neptune, in a cabin overlooking the Delaware River in upstate New York. Trading in the existential dread permeating his previous work for unbridled joy and self-acceptance, Son Little transmutes the chronic pain of self-doubt into a beautiful and freeing opus about overcoming generational trauma. Hailed by Afropunk as “a stunning statement of purpose,” Like Neptune decorates the altar of the primordial blues and elevating the labor of healing to high art. “I’ve always felt as though I was making music because I had to, something inside compelled me. Fueled me,” Little shared. “This the first time in a long time I’m making music for the pure joy of creating.”

Son Little and his band, comprised of Little on vocals/guitar, Steve McKie (drums), and DeShawn Alexander (keys/bass), will tour North America for the first time support of Like Neptune through November and December.

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July 15th

Amos Lee w/ Langhorne Slim

With one foot in the real world and the other in a charmed dimension of his own making, Amos Lee creates the rare kind of music that’s emotionally raw yet touched with a certain magical quality. On his eighth album Dreamland, the Philadelphia-born singer/songwriter intimately documents his real-world struggles (alienation, anxiety, loneliness, despair), an outpouring born from deliberate and often painful self-examination. “For most of my life I’ve walked into rooms thinking, ‘I don’t belong here,’” says Lee. “I’ve come to the realization that I’m too comfortable as an isolated person, and I want to reach out more. This record came from questioning my connections to other people, to myself, to my past and to the future.”

In the spirit of fostering connection, Lee made Dreamland in close collaboration with L.A.-based producer Christian “Leggy” Langdon (Banks, Meg Myers). “I met with Leggy, who I really didn’t know anything about, and before we even started to work we had a very open and vulnerable conversation about what was going on in our lives,” he recalls. “So much of what I do is solitary work, and it felt good to find someone I could connect with—sort of like, ‘I’m a lonely kid, and I wanna play.’” Thanks to that palpable sense of playfulness, Dreamland embodies an unpredictable and endlessly imaginative sound—a prime showcase for Lee’s warmly commanding voice and soul-baring songwriting.

The very first song that Lee and Langdon created together, “Hold You” set the standard for Dreamland’s open-hearted confession. With its delicate convergence of so many exquisite sonic details—luminous guitar tones, ethereal textures, tender toy-piano melodies—the track finds Lee
looking inward and uncovering a deep urge to provide comfort and solace. “Especially if you’ve grown up with a less-than-appealing inner voice, you have to start with yourself,” he notes. On “Worry No More”—the mantra-like lead single to Dreamland—Lee shares his hard-won insight into riding out anxiety. “I’ve had a lot of episodes with anxiety in my life and now I feel much more equipped to handle them, partly because my family and friends have always been so supportive of me,” he says. “Music has also been so healing for me, and helped me to find a place in my mind that isn’t purely controlled by fear.” To that end, “Worry No More” gently exalts music’s power to brighten our perspective, with the song’s narrator slipping into a headphone-induced reverie as they wander a broken world (“I’m listening to the sounds of Miles/Spanish sketches, playground smiles/Crowded streets and empty vials/For all to share”). All throughout Dreamland, Lee embraces an unfettered honesty, repeatedly shedding light on the darkest corners of his psyche. On “Into the Clearing,” for instance, the album takes on a moody intensity as Lee speaks to a desire for obliteration. “There’s always a longing to be one with the universe, to be one with nature, to be one with the sky,” he says. “And sometimes the only way you can be with the sky is to be smoke.” A powerfully uplifting track with a gospel-like energy, “See the Light” evokes a fierce resolve to hold tight to hope (“Since I know I’m going to be singing these songs over and over, I like to infuse them with helpful messages to myself,” Lee says). With its soulful piano work and soaring string arrangement, “Seeing Ghosts” reflects on anxiety’s insidious ability to warp our perception. “For a lot of people with anxiety disorders, there’s this fog that sets in, where your brain becomes overwhelmed and you disconnect,” says Lee. “I’ve definitely seen ghosts my whole life.” In a striking tonal shift, Lee then delivers one of Dreamland’s most euphoric moments on “Shoulda Known Better,” a radiant piece of R&B-pop fueled by his dreamy falsetto. “That song’s looking at the messy side of life,” he says. “It’s saying, ‘I was dumb, I shouldn’t have done that, but we had a lot of fun. I don’t regret it at all.’” In the making of Dreamland, Lee found his songwriting indelibly informed by his recent reading of Johann Hari’s 2018 book Lost Connections. “It’s about depression, which I have a pretty deep history with, and how our society and our generation looks at mental health and healing in terms of medication rather than thinking about our personal relationship to the people and the world around us,” he says. And with the release of Dreamland, Lee hopes that his songs might inspire others to live more fully and free of fear. “Over the course of my life I’ve come to understand that music is my bridge to other people,” he says. “I have no idea what the waters are like below that bridge—it might be lava for all I know—but music allows me to float over the whole thing and connect. To me that’s the whole point of why we do this: to give people something to listen to and be enveloped by the love of another human being, and just be reminded that humanity is beautiful.”

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Langhorne Slim didn’t write a song for more than a year. A battle with clinical anxiety disorder and prescription drug abuse, which came to a head in 2019, had dimmed the light within. The man who once seemed to ooze spontaneity was now creatively adrift, stumbling along in the fog.

In December, he entered a program and, for the first time in a long time, a path toward healing began to emerge. He began to see that inner peace was possible, even with the world outside raging.

A few months later, in February, a tornado came and decimated East Nashville, his adopted hometown. Covid-19 took root just days later, changing lives forever. In the early days of his recovery, a different reality was beginning to take shape, both within and without. New worlds were being born; old worlds were dying.

Knowing he was struggling to write songs and make sense of it all, Slim was finally able to flesh out a throwaway ditty one afternoon. His close friend Mike then suggested he try penning a song a day. Slim didn’t like the idea, but he gave it a shot.

To his surprise, the songs came. In a flurry of stream-of-consciousness writing, the new tunes tumbled out, one after another, like little starbursts of joy, gifts from the gods you might say. Slim was tuning out the noise and finding beauty in the madness of a world coming undone. Over the course of a couple of months from March to May, Slim penned more than twenty that were certified keepers. Out of this bumper crop came the songs that make up his new album, Strawberry Mansion, which is being released this winter on Dualtone Records.

“I wasn’t sitting on the songs and I wasn’t overthinking them,” Slim says of the writing process of those months. “Something cracked open with the slowing down and the stillness of quarantine.

After finishing a song, whether he liked the tune or not, he’d call Mike, a videographer, and they’d record it and post it to Instagram. It was a form of therapy, he now realizes. “There was nothing precious about the process and it was a bonding thing between me and Mike as much as anything else,” Slim says. “It also gave me a release and maybe some potential form of healing, and was an opportunity to not always listen to the shitty thoughts in my head. I wasn’t ever thinking that I was writing songs for a new record.”

Prior to this creative outburst, Slim’s anxiety had grown so acute there were times when he actually feared picking up his guitar and trying to write. With the help of therapy and friends, he was now learning to confront his demons rather than run from them. So, in the midst of a panic attack one day, he picked up his guitar and the song “Panic Attack” was born. It’s a raw, off-the-cuff number that rises above the dark subject matter with spirit, irony and humor. “I called a healthcare professional/ Wanna speak to someone confidentially/ Don’t know just how I’m feelin’/ But I’m feelin’ feelings exponentially,” he sings.

Album-opener “Mighty Soul” details a world beset by Biblical-grade plagues (coronavirus, the Nashville tornado) and government malfunction. It ultimately calls for healing through community and the recognition that we can all make a difference. It functions as the album’s spiritual center, a secular gospel number for all mankind.

“Morning Prayer” is inspired by the songwriter’s effort to pray for the first time in his life. “It’s not in the key of any one religion,” Slim says of the number. “For this, I’m grateful that my guitar was unknowingly yet appropriately out of tune. It’s a song to help me practice compassion, surrender, connection to nature, the spirits and beyond.”

The second part of “Morning Prayer” is one of the most affecting moments on Strawberry Mansion, with the singer reaching out and offering prayers for his loved ones who are struggling, for all of humanity, really. “For my friends who suffer/ For my mother, father and brother/ For a world down on its knees/ I pray for thee,” he sings with great poignancy.

The road to Strawberry Mansion, which was recorded at Daylight Sound in Nashville with longtime compadres Paul DeFigilia (Avett Brothers) and Mat Davidson (Twain), began in 2019 with Slim’s decision to get sober. Even though the singer-songwriter kicked alcohol years ago, the insidious monster of addiction had crept back into his life in different guises. The last straw came during a road trip with a friend, who, at the end of the journey, let it be known that the man he knew and loved was no longer recognizable. So Slim called his manager and loved ones and soon checked into a program. That experience and his ongoing recovery program have given him a framework for grappling with the personal demons that have always skulked in the shadows, and helped him find light in the void. “It’s important for me to talk honestly about these things, because I feel it gives me strength, and it might help others along the way.” he says.

Strawberry Mansion is the singer-songwriter’s seventh full-length album. He released his first record, Electric Love Letter, back in 2004. Since then he has graced the stages of Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival, and the Conan O’Brien show, winning fans over with his heart-on-a-sleeve sincerity and rousing live shows.

Born Sean Scolnick in 1980, Slim took part of his artistic moniker from his hometown of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, a place he’s still very much connected to despite making his home in Nashville. Since the advent of Covid-19, he has been traveling back to PA once a month to see his mother and grandmother, and, like many Americans, finding strength in his origins and family bonds. The title Strawberry Mansion refers to the neighborhood in Philadelphia where both of his grandfathers grew up, a place he calls “dirty but sweet, tough but full of love, where giants roamed the earth and had names like Whistle and Curly.” That idea of a mythical wonderland informs the new album from head to toe. Strawberry Mansion is not so much about nostalgia for the past as it is about the possibility of better days ahead in this world. These are songs that remind us we’re all part of a collective “Mighty Soul,” united in one journey, just like the characters in that old Philly neighborhood. It’s a life-affirming album for these times.

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July 28th

Sheryl Crow w/ Southern Avenue

Songwriter. Activist. Rock star. Woman. Champion. Mother. Nine-time Grammy winner Sheryl Crow is many things, but at the core, she remains a creative spirit channeling her talents into music that lifts people up, brings them together, and speaks to the truths on the horizon. Twenty-five years after winning her first Grammy, as well as Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “All I Wanna Do,” the Kennett, Missouri-born guitarist/vocalist/creative thought about all she’d done, the places she’d been, the lives that’d touched hers – and saw the rich tapestry her journey had become. Crow’s is a career beyond dreams, with songs that defined the third wave of feminism, a rockist’s ability to sweep the pop charts without losing any edge and enough wide-open Midwestern joy to captivate the world. Her first nine studio albums have sold 35 million copies worldwide; seven charted in the Top 10, and five were certified for Multi-Platinum sales. Crow has been feted by a new generation of singer-songwriters who have covered her songs and talked about her influence, including Phoebe Bridgers, H.E.R, Haim, Maren Morris, Lorde, Sasami, Best Coast, and Brandi Carlile. In 2019, Crow released her critically acclaimed album THREADS via The Valory Music Co., a collection of collaborations made with and in tribute to artists with whom Crow has musical connections. And in turn, she seeks to inspire people through her music and songs, especially the younger generation. “The passion and ability of our young people to dig deep and express themselves energizes and encourages me endlessly,” Crow says. “It thrills me to see their passion and will to change the world.” Most recently, the full-length documentary film based on Crow’s life and career, entitled Sheryl, premiered to critical acclaim at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival ahead of its network premiere on SHOWTIME. An intimate story of song and sacrifice, Sheryl navigates an iconic yet arduous musical career while the artist battles sexism, ageism, depression, cancer, and the price of fame, before harnessing the power of her gift.

Crow is known as well for her passionate support of multiple charities, including The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, The World Food Program, Feeding America, ADOPT A CLASSROOM, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, MusiCares, the Delta Children’s Home and many other worthy causes.

Abounding with musical creativity, confident songcraft, and deeply felt emotion, BE THE LOVE YOU WANT marks the GRAMMY® nominated, Southern Avenue’s most ingenious and personal effort thus far, marrying soul power and jam band liberation, gospel, blues and righteous R&B, to craft their own timeless brand of American music.

BE THE LOVE YOU WANT, produced by multi-GRAMMY® winner, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Deer Tick, Susan Tedeschi, Jackie Greene), and co-produced by Ori Naftaly showcases an exhilarating, and deeply emotional collection of songs that captures all of the shared experiences that bring us together – joy and sorrow, unity and separation, love and hate. “On the last record, we had something to prove,” Tierinii says. “And the GRAMMY® nomination made it feel like we got the job done. We’re grateful for the moment, but we do this for the love of music and for the freedom of our spirit and hope that it frees other people from whatever they’re going through.”

“We’re definitely a melting pot of different experiences, different backgrounds and different cultures. It’s hard to put us in a box, both literally, and musically. Southern Avenue doesn’t sound like anybody else. And that’s something that I’m very proud of.” – Ori Naftaly

The Memphis, TN-based band’s third studio recording sees Southern Avenue pushing themselves towards bold new ideas of what it means to be a blues band in the modern world, bending and reshaping their musical heritage with electrifying performance, vivid production, and a remarkably clear vision. Operating from their distinctively international vantage point, Southern Avenue has produced a wide-ranging collection of original music – predominantly co-written by Israeli-born guitarist Ori Naftaly and powerhouse lead vocalist Tierinii Jackson – that links them to their home city’s glorious past while at the same time, demonstrates their ambitious intent to evolve Memphis music to contemporary effect. Songs like the sensual, sun-dappled “Love You Nice And Slow” and incendiary title track evince striking new musical range, more than a match for the astonishing gravitational force of Jackson’s widescreen vocals and equally potent lyrical voice. With BE THE LOVE YOU WANT, Southern Avenue continue driving the Southern soul legacy into the 21st century, preserving its glory and tradition while striving towards something diverse, universal, and altogether their own. “Southern soul is the foundation for so many different styles,” Tierinii says. “We use those influences, we can just run across the board and explore. It’s good.”

The road to Southern Avenue began when Naftaly – a gifted guitarist with a lifelong passion for American roots music – first arrived in Memphis from his native Israel to compete in the prestigious International Blues Challenge. There Naftaly met Tierinii and her ferociously talented sister, drummer Tikyra “TK” Jackson, both of whom had grown up in the church and were only just beginning to perform secular music. Blown away by the sheer force of their ability and personalities, Naftaly invited Tierinii and TK to join his solo blues combo but soon realized that together they had become something both new and special. Taking a name from the main thoroughfare running due west from East Memphis to 926 East McLemore Avenue – a.k.a. Soulsville, the original headquarters of Stax Records, Southern Avenue swiftly began developing a distinctly contemporary approach towards their own reverent sound. Signed to Stax in 2016, less than a year after their initial formation, the band released their self-titled debut early the next year. SOUTHERN AVENUE was an immediate phenomenon, reaching #1 on iTunes’ “Top Blues Albums” chart before being honored with 2018 Blues Music Award for “Best Emerging Artist Album.” 2019’s KEEP ON proved to be an even greater success, debuting among the top 5 on Billboard’s “Top Blues Albums” chart amidst worldwide critical acclaim, ultimately earning Southern Avenue their first GRAMMY® Award nomination, for “Best Contemporary Blues Album”).

Having spent nearly all of their half-decade lifespan on the road, Southern Avenue began 2020 with plans to celebrate their GRAMMY® nomination in front of audiences around the world. The global pandemic changed all that but allowed the band a rare chance to finally pull back and take a well-deserved pause. “We kind of needed to sit down and rest,” Tierinii says. “Because we go and we don’t stop. We don’t stop to celebrate and soak in the moment, every time we achieve something great. We just keep going and going and going.”

“We had been going so hard for the last five years,” TK says. “In the beginning, it was like an appreciated break. But after about two weeks, I was definitely feeling the angst, wanting to be able to be in the creative space. But life is made of the good and the bad so we had to find a way to make the best of it.” With seemingly infinite time on their hands, Southern Avenue were able to approach their third album with more attention than ever before, allowing songs and ideas to flow at an unhurried, natural pace. Southern Avenue reconvened in November, coming together at the analog-centric Memphis Magnetic Recording Co. for eight full days of recording.

As is their nature, Southern Avenue worked hard and fast. After such a long hiatus, the band lit up the recording sessions with enough raw power here to spark a sizable electrical fire. “We hit it and quit it,” Tierinii says.

The sessions marked Naftaly’s first time as co-producer, sharing duties with Steve Berlin, a veteran musician/member of Los Lobos as well as a multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning producer with a particular affinity for cross-cultural musical adventurers (Buckwheat Zydeco, Ozomatli, Los Super Seven, Angelique Kidjo, Susan Tedeschi). Southern Avenue and Los Lobos had traveled the Mexican Riviera in 2019 on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise and a kindred musical friendship was formed. “Having Steve there really helped us bring the songs to their full potential,” Naftaly says. “It’s about havinganother set of ears on the music that you trust.”

BE THE LOVE YOU WANT marks an irrefutable enhancement of what has already proven an exceptional canon of material, augmenting the band’s signature sound with myriad layers of guitar tracks, percussion, strings, and brass (courtesy of veteran saxophonist Art Edmaiston and trumpeter Marc Franklin) to create what Naftaly calls “the most Southern Avenue album yet.” Songs like “Control” and the house-quaking album closer, “Move On,” fully came to life during recording, arranged to accentuate the band’s uncanny interplay and exceptional musicianship. “Don’t Hesitate (Call Me)” is marked by Naftaly’s chromatic chord changes and psychedelic bridge and while “Heathen Hearts” tacks far from Southern Avenue’s usual full-blooded musical domain, eschewing traditional instrumentation for handclaps, foot stomps, and joyful church choir harmonies.

The ambitious sonic approach expertly counterparts with BE THE LOVE YOU WANT’s rich themes of self-love and self-empowerment, of personal accountability and pushing through towards something greater. Songs like the spectacularly uplifting “Control” offer immediate evidence of Tierinii’s growing muscle as an individualistic, communicative songwriter with a particular knack for affirmative intimacy. “I’m very proud of where we went lyrically with this album,” Tierinii says. “It’s the way I speak to myself. I talk to myself a lot. It’s a way of overcoming different things, fears, or traumas. I speak very positively to myself, sometimes I’m very hard on myself, sometimes I give myself self-love. Sometimes I’m very accepting of my thoughts. And sometimes I have to comfort myself and not be so hard on myself. I feel like this album reflects the way that I have to speak to myself to make it through life.”

Along with two distinctly groove-powered songs co-written with Tikyra and bassist Evan Sarver (“Let’s Get It Together” and “Pressure”), BE THE LOVE YOU WANT also sees the songwriting core of Southern Avenue teaming up with such friends and fans as North Mississippi Allstars’ Cody Dickinson (“Push Now” and “Heathen Hearts”) and Israeli-born, Los Angeles-based keyboard player/songwriter Itay Shimoni (“Fences”). Perhaps the album’s most surprising collaboration is “Move Into The Light,” a churning, funk-blasted burner co-written with 2X GRAMMY® Award-winning pop superstar Jason Mraz and producer/songwriter/musician Michael Goldwasser (Easy Star All-Stars).

“It’s just such a unique collaboration,” Tierinii says. “Jason understands the vibe of Southern Avenue is very positive, so his approach lyrically perfectly matched the direction for the album. When he turned up with the song, I was so grateful. We reworked it with the band and made it all churchy and soulful and as Memphis-y as we could. It turned out really, really great. It’s kind of a wild card, because it’s more of a dance song, but it’s still got that church vibe, it still has the soul.”

Southern Avenue have showcased that soulful spirit with nearly non-stop touring, their powerful showmanship and locked-in musicality honed through extensive stage experience. The relentlessly traveling band – who have played in over a dozen countries, including show-stealing sets at such festivals as Bonnaroo, Firefly, Electric Forest and Lockn’ – is of course eager to return to the road, keen to introduce fans old and new to their amplified musical vision.

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July 29th

J.J. Grey & Mofro / Dawes

From the days of playing greasy local juke joints to headlining major festivals, JJ Grey remains an unfettered, blissful performer, singing with a blue-collared spirit over the bone-deep grooves of his compositions. His presence before an audience is something startling and immediate, at times a funk rave-up, other times sort of a mass-absolution for the mortal weaknesses that make him and his audience human. When you see JJ Grey and his band Mofro live—and you truly, absolutely must—the man is fearless. On stage, Grey delivers his songs with compassion and a relentless honesty. Grey and his current Mofro lineup offer grace and groove in equal measure.

We wanted a musical drama.
An ensemble cast, with linked arms, kicking highly.

A transcription of a band meeting we haven’t even had yet…

A spotlight on a spotlight:
This one goes out to all the solos BETWEEN the solos.
To the Ands of 3… AND 4.

8 Legs and 8 arms, in a room, stretching deeper than they ever knew they could.
The Intros have Outros.
The Outros have Bridges.

Don’t like the Jam? ……. Just wait five minutes.

Like turtle doves in a snow storm, Fate has brought us together again with Producer and long time collaborator Jonathon Wilson. And for this, we are forever grateful.

our 8th studio record to date. Unless you don’t count the first seven, then this would be our DEBUT RECORD!

We left quite a mess out there, and if each person reading this picks up just one piece of trash on their way out…

Then we’ll leave this planet more beautiful than the day we found it

– Dawes

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July 30th

My Morning Jacket w/ Katie Pruitt

My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket has released nine studio albums, with 2008’s EVIL URGES, 2011’s CIRCUITAL, and 2015’s THE WATERFALL each receiving GRAMMY® Award nominations for “Best Alternative Album.” Summer 2020 saw the surprise release of THE WATERFALL II, with the single, “Feel You,” making history by reaching #1 at Triple A radio outlets nationwide and on Billboard’s “Adult Alternative Songs” chart – My Morning Jacket’s first ever #1 on a Billboard songs chart. The album was further met by worldwide critical acclaim, with Pitchfork writing, “If its predecessor was about conflict and healing – it’s My Morning Jacket’s thorniest album, emotionally speaking – then this follow-up is more about what comes after that healing.” In 2021, My Morning Jacket released their self-titled album that reaffirmed the rarefied magic that’s made the band so beloved, embedding every groove with moments of discovery, revelation, and ecstatic catharsis. Esquire said, “Its killer ninth album, My Morning Jacket, is an 11-song set that channels an energy as loose and loud as their bombastic live act,” while Rolling Stone hailed, “What keeps MMJ interesting is that their music never becomes too comfortable. It’s a spectacular vision where nothing ever seems quite settled.”

KATIE PRUITT

Katie Pruitt, a 27-year-old artist who recently released Expectations — a defiant coming-of-age debut album about being a lesbian raised Catholic in Atlanta — is about to enter into her Saturn returns era, which means her life is going to get weird. Or so Brandi Carlile, the six-time Grammy winner, tells her. “You’re going to freak out, probably,” Carlile says. “Right when you turn 30.” But, Carlile assures her, “I feel like the best records happened on these big, precipice moments in life.”

It’s here, in this big moment filled with so much uncertainty and turmoil, Pruitt is choosing to embrace the weirdness. Whether it’s going deep exploring and questioning her spiritual identity on her breakout podcast, “The Recovering Catholic,” or bearing her soul with her trademark wit and wisdom each night on stage as part of her extensive fall headline tour, or showcasing her mischievous side with her forthcoming holiday song, “Merry Christmas, Mary Jane,” it’s clear Pruitt is coming into her own and establishing herself as not only an incredible musician, but an artist with a real voice and distinctive perspective.

In the last year-and-a-half and in spite of the pandemic (which hit the month following her album was released), Pruitt has forged ahead, garnering widespread acclaim and praise from press and fellow artists including Carlile, Ruston Kelly, Leslie Jordan, Bob Weir and many more. In addition to being nominated for Emerging Act of the Year at the Americana Music Association, Pruitt has been highlighted as a Rolling Stone “Artist You Need To Know,” one of NPR Music’s “Slingshot: 20 Artists To Watch” and Southwest Magazine’s “Artists on the Rise” and was featured on NPR Music’s “Tiny Desk (Home) Concert” series as well as “CBS Saturday Morning.”

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August 12th

Grace Potter w/ Morgan Wade

Grace Potter is a Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and internationally acclaimed rock musician from Waitsfield, Vermont. She formed Grace Potter & the Nocturnals in 2002 while attending St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals toured extensively, playing festivals and venues throughout North America. After signing with major record label Hollywood Records, Potter and her band went on to release four full-length studio albums: Nothing But The Water (2006), This is Somewhere (2007), Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (2010), and The Lion The Beast The Beat (2012), with the latter two both debuting in the Top 20 of the Billboard charts. Potter also duetted with country singer Kenny Chesney on the Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling hit “You and Tequila” in 2010.

In 2011 Potter established the Grand Point North Festival, a Vermont-based two-day music festival that has featured The Avett Brothers, Fitz & The Tantrums, The Flaming Lips, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Trey Anastasio, and many more. Potter has played every major US music festival, including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo, as well as international festivals such as Byron Bay Bluesfest, Rock in Rio, and Fuji Rock. She has shared the stage with legendary artists such as The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers Band, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Mavis Staples. In 2015 Potter received the ASCAP Harry Chapin Vanguard Award by WhyHunger for her charitable work. She was also honored by her home state with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Vermont’s highest honor in the creative sector. Her 2015 album, Midnight, was released to critical acclaim, debuting at #17 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Potter released her latest album Daylight (Fantasy) in 2019, garnering two Grammy nominations. Described by Spin as “one of the greatest living voices in rock today” and by SF Weekly as “the whole package,” Potter continues to impress both critics and audiences with her musical achievements and captivating live shows. Potter has plans to release new music and tour extensively in 2023, as well as continue to pursue her passion for filmmaking, podcasting, and writing.

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Morgan Wade didn’t write to be a sensation, for critical acclaim or massive concert tours. She wrote to speak her truth, to save her own life – and perhaps throw a rope to others struggling with the weight of a world moving too fast, loves where you fall too hard and nights that, good or bad, seem to go on forever.

2021 saw Reckless, her Thirty Tigers/now Sony Music Nashville debut, and lead single “Wilder Days” topping critical lists from Rolling Stone, TIME, Stereogum, New York Times, Boston Globe, FADER, Tennessean, Whiskey Riff, Billboard, and The Boot and Taste of Country who both proclaimed, “a once-in-a-decade debut.” With a voice that is raw hurt, deep knowing and somehow innocence retained, Wade wrote or co-wrote a song cycle about the reality facing teens and 20-somethings that embraced raw desire, the reality of getting high and getting sober, the realm of crawling through the wreckage with a tough vulnerability that is as singular as the young woman from Floyd, Virginia. “I didn’t know anybody like me when I was a kid, listening to music,” she confesses. “That’s why I fell in love with Elvis, that raw emotion. He held nothing back, and I loved that, so when I started writing, that’s where I went. I didn’t know you couldn’t. And to tell kids ‘do your own thing,’ that’s a bit much, but if I can show them something else? That might light a fire.” The sinewy songwriter covered in ink understands striking that fire. Wade, shamed for singing at school, felt the singe. She recalls, “I’d spent so long being told, ‘Your voice is weird’ by other kids, and it’s such a pivotal time. They’d say, ‘What’s wrong with you? You can play for yourself but do it at home.’ “And it helps,” she knowingly concedes, “because you do it for you.” Developing her distinctly singular – turpentine and honeycomb – vocal tone, her emotional transparency suggests Etta James, Adele, Patti Griffin, Lana Del Ray, St. Etienne’s Annie Clark, even Alison Krauss.

With insider trade HITS proclaiming, “Imagine Kris Kristofferson as a Gen Z woman,” The New York Times raving, “she sounds like she’s singing from the depths of history” and FADER offering, “Wade has a voice like a jagged blade, sharp enough to draw blood but lustrous under the light,” Reckless landed hard and true. A product of her collaboration with Sadler Vaden (guitarist in Jason Isbell + the 400 Unit) and engineer Paul Ebersold, the trio worked to keep the guitars forward, the edges rough and her voice the star in the loose tumble of players meshing on the edge of Tom Petty/Lucinda Williams’ rock & roll. Just as importantly, Vaden – who came across Wade at a music festival, where his guitar tech asked for a CD – recognized the power of a woman being truly honest. Rather than shy away from her faltering places, self-doubt or demons, the first thing they worked on was “The Night,” a white-knuckled account of rough emotions and meaner addictions. The straightforward lyricist explains, “Growing up in the South, people are always saying, ‘Well, you’re just having your feelings…’ But instead, you’re having a panic attack, or you’re masking something. You have to ask, ‘So, what’s causing that?’ “For so long, we try to act like ‘I’m fine, you know.’ I got sober. It’s all hunky dory,” she continues. “But it’s not. No one wants to talk about the struggle, but it happens. I wrote ‘The Night’ in an obviously dark time – and people really responded; that song means so much to so many people, I can’t tell you. But we figured since it had already been out, we didn’t need to include it on Reckless.”

Unprepared for the response to her debut album, the relentlessly touring artist just kept bringing her music to the people. A stouter kind of country that never sacrifices lyricism, she spent the fall on the road with Lucero, the hard-driving Memphis-based soul/rock/Americana icons. With “Wilder Days” becoming a SiriusXM Highway Find, then hitting No. 1 on their fast-tracking country station, Wade’s song – one of TIME’s 10 Best of 2021 in any genre – opened a portal for Americana, alternative and rock fans to an artist straddling the craggy terrain across genres, but also life. Signed to Sony Music Nashville by a label head who’d grown up in bands with Kim Richey, Byron House and Bill Lloyd, the power of defying genres in the name of harder truths inspired Randy Goodman to want to bring Morgan Wade to the biggest audience possible without compromising what made her so special.

As people caught on, the reaction to songs like “The Night,” the ones not on the album, created a conversation about what else might not have been included in her exquisite ten song debut. With as much life lived – Wade formed her first band off Craigslist; “my friend and I drove over to this house in a pretty rough part of town, went down to the basement and found some pretty good players” – and absorbed, she was fearless in documenting her journey. In college, studying medical sciences, she played out after a break-up, performing a song to put it all out there. Without a role model, she performed the same way she learned to sing and write: for herself, to herself. But when she gigged, something happened. People connected to her alienation, distress and seeking answers for things no one was talking about. “I guess the songs are saying the things they can’t say,” she concedes. “I see these big guys crying. I’ve had these great big men come up to me after my shows to tell me I’m saying what everybody’s thinking.”

That drove her forward, bringing Reckless to fruition. The loping want-you-now reality-checking “Matchsticks and Metaphors” with its confession, “if you don’t want me, that don’t bother me at all/ don’t be upset when I don’t answer if you call…,” the stark Appalachia of “Met You” and the swirling, snapped finger compulsion beyond drugs or alcohol “Last Cigarette” captivated listeners for their white knuckled hold on reality. Like “Wilder Days” – with its j’accuse “You said you hate the smell of cigarette smoke…” hook, which Rolling Stone called “the year’s most irresistible country-rock chorus” – the sense of mystery allows listeners room their own lives in her songs. “I’m not naming names,” Wade says, eyes rolling at the idea. “But I’m always for whatever paths gonna pave the way for the next outcast, the next person who feels so alone. If the songs speak to the people who need to hear them, it makes me feel good about having been so vulnerable and honest. When people scream ‘Wilder Days’ right back to me or tell me they feel like they have a story, their story in my story, that’s when you know you’re not alone.”

To that end, Wade, Vaden and Ebersold talked about what’s next. With songs left uncut, songs that expand the story, it seemed a shame to move on. “We decided we wanted to share some more. Take ‘The Night.’ In concert, people sing that back to me as loud as ‘Wilder Days,’ so there were things we wished we could change – there’s a B-3 part that got buried in the mix – and this way, we could bring back it into the story. To me, that’s what all of this is… The story of where I was, what I want and where I’m going.” In a nod to Elvis Presley, whose “Suspicious Minds” she’s been scalding live with a portion of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me (All Night Long)” interjected, Deluxe contains a sizzling rendition that dials up its sexual obsession. At the other end of the spectrum, there’s “Through Your Eyes,” a chiming power- pop perspective shift on her recklessness.

“When you have younger siblings, when they say ‘I wanna be like you,’ thinking you’re so cool, that’s sobering,” Wade explains. “You see all of it in a very different light. You know, it’s one thing when you know you shouldn’t, and you do it anyway; it’s another when you realize a three-year-old is taking it in.”

As for Elvis, “It’s very sacred to cover one of his songs, and I wanted to choose one I could make my own. I have a lot of younger fans who don’t know, who think it’s my song, so I love that I can take something and introduce it to a new generation… but we wouldn’t have done it, just to do it. “Vocally, it works for me; it’s got a great range, especially when I hit that chorus. I’m kind of weird about covers, but when I asked the band, ‘What do you think about this?’ They were all in.”

Between the road, the critical acclaim, the growing radio believers, Wade knows the future is coming – and intends to be ready. With one foot strongly in the realm of where she’s been, she wrote the tumbling the rollicking “When the Dirt All Settles,” with The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston and “Run” – Vaden a co-writer on both tracks – to find a lighter way to escape the things that pull you down. She knows sobriety is a daily battle, that the dark moods and other issues are a fact of life. But the wide-eyed songwriter also knows how we face the day is often up to us. Rather than drowning in boredom or desperation, “Run” is a launching pad, looking both ways and finding whatever escape might be found in the company of someone outrunning their own sad memories – and the galloping running into the distance “When the Dirt All Settles.” “It was fun, the polar opposite of what I thought [writing with someone new would be],” she says.  “I’ve always written out of emotion, out of the moment, so I had it in my mind you had to be all serious all of the time. But sometimes it’s okay to kind of let go, to just have three minutes to just kick it out and have some fun. You can keep the honesty, but maybe take it from somewhere else.” Somewhere else? For Morgan Wade, wherever that is, you can bet it’ll be wild and free and seeking.

“I figure if I keep saying the things I want to say, then people are still going to be thinking them, too. We’re all running into those feelings, so let’s just get it out in the open where we can let ‘em go.”

Tickets on sale NOW

General Show Info

  • This show is open to all ages.
  • 4:30 p.m.  VIP DOORS and FOOD TRUCK VILLAGE | 5:30 p.m. GA DOORS and FOOD TRUCK VILLAGE | 7:00p.m.  SHOW (set times subject to change at artists discretion)
  • This event is rain or shine.
  • There is no re-entry into the concert venue, except for emergency situations.
  • Children 5 years of age and under are admitted free.
  • Camping chairs and blankets are permitted, however chairs will NOT be allowed within 150 feet of the front of stage.
  • All tickets are General Admission.

Food, Beverage, Retail

  • A wide selection of your favorite food and retail vendors will be available. Cold bottled water, beer and wine is also for sale at the event through Beech Mountain Brewing Co.

Drug and Alcohol Policy

You must be 21 to drink and you must possess a valid ID to purchase alcohol. Beech Mountain Resort Summer Concert Series is a zero tolerance venue. All local and State laws will be strictly enforced. There will be no tolerance for illegal activities.

Restroom Facilities

Portable restrooms will be available on site and include hand sanitizing stations.

All tickets are final sale and cannot be exchanged or refunded. In the case of an event cancellation without a rescheduled date, a full refund will be automatically issued to each patron on the credit card used to purchase. By purchasing a ticket to this event, you agree to this purchase policy. Before purchasing your tickets, we urge you to confirm the title, time and location of the event.

Additional Info

Beech Mountain Ski Resort and staff reserve the right to banish any patron (without refund) that is not in compliance with rules and regulations.

Prohibited Items

  • Pets
  • Outside food and beverage
  • Professional photography or video is not allowed, with the exception of written permission from Beech Mountain Resort.
  • Drugs or illegal substances
  • Pop-up tents, canopies, or umbrellas
  • Coolers
  • Weapons of any kind (includes pocket knives, pepper spray, etc.)
  • Laser pointers or air horns
  • Oversized bags or purses.
  • Wagons, chair caddies, etc.
    Failure to comply with bag search will result in denial of entry into the venue. This is strictly enforced.
Poster for Grace Potter with Morgan Wade live concert at Beech Mountain Resort - featuring captivating performances and thrilling music.Beech Mountain Announcing 2023 Summer Concert Series

Prohibited Items

  • Pets
  • Outside food and beverage
  • Professional photography or video is not allowed, with the exception of written permission from Beech Mountain Resort.
  • Drugs or illegal substances
  • Pop-up tents, canopies, or umbrellas
  • Coolers
  • Weapons of any kind (includes pocket knives, pepper spray, etc.)
  • Laser pointers or air horns
  • Oversized bags or purses.
  • Wagons, chair caddies, etc.
    Failure to comply with bag search will result in denial of entry into the venue. This is strictly enforced.
Beech Mountain's Summer Concert Series Expands!

General Show Info

  • This show is open to all ages.
  • 4:30 p.m.  VIP DOORS and FOOD TRUCK VILLAGE | 5:30 p.m. GA DOORS and FOOD TRUCK VILLAGE | 7:00p.m.  SHOW (set times subject to change at artists discretion)
  • This event is rain or shine.
  • There is no re-entry into the concert venue, except for emergency situations.
  • Children 5 years of age and under are admitted free.
  • Camping chairs and blankets are permitted, however chairs will NOT be allowed within 150 feet of the front of stage.
  • All tickets are General Admission.

Food, Beverage, Retail

  • A wide selection of your favorite food and retail vendors will be available. Cold bottled water, beer and wine is also for sale at the event through Beech Mountain Brewing Co.

Drug and Alcohol Policy

You must be 21 to drink and you must possess a valid ID to purchase alcohol. Beech Mountain Resort Summer Concert Series is a zero tolerance venue. All local and State laws will be strictly enforced. There will be no tolerance for illegal activities.

Restroom Facilities

Portable restrooms will be available on site and include hand sanitizing stations.

All tickets are final sale and cannot be exchanged or refunded. In the case of an event cancellation without a rescheduled date, a full refund will be automatically issued to each patron on the credit card used to purchase. By purchasing a ticket to this event, you agree to this purchase policy. Before purchasing your tickets, we urge you to confirm the title, time and location of the event.

Additional Info

Beech Mountain Ski Resort and staff reserve the right to banish any patron (without refund) that is not in compliance with rules and regulations.

Summer Concert Series
Sponsors