Music Features
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Singer-Songwriter Ashlyn Uribe Branches Out with Autobiographical Film Project
It’s a still, muggy July night, but onstage at Starlight on 22nd, a storm is brewing. Accompanied on drums and keyboards by her producer and husband Michael Finster, singer-songwriter Ashlyn Uribe delivers a succession of her playful, seductive dance pop tunes in a warm, rangy mezzo-soprano. Midway through her set,…
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Lindsey Stirling Dances the Night Away at Skyla Amp
I’ll have whatever she’s having. Seriously. At 39 years old, violinist Lindsey Stirling was a whirlwind of energy on stage at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre on Saturday for the Charlotte stop on her Duality Tour. From the first notes of her cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” through the final rounds…
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Stellar Awards Place Charlotte’s Gospel Scene in the Spotlight
Charlotte is one of nine American municipalities that has been dubbed the City of Churches. A 2015 Business Insider article ranked our city eighth in total number of religious institutions per capita while finding that 83% of local residents are religiously affiliated. With numbers like that, it’s a wonder the…
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I Hate Dave Embraces Ferocious, Political Punk Rock in Latest EP
Screeching feedback, ricocheting drums and grinding guitars collide like a car crash on “Red Circus,” the ominous lead-off track from I Hate Dave’s latest three-song EP. Bearing the unambiguous, call-to-action title, Stop Loving Deviant Authoritarian Vampiric Eugenicists and Start Hating Them, the collection expands the sonic palette of Queen City…
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Group Therapy Grows Its Reach While Dressed to the Nines
There’s something special about wearing a dress shirt and tie onstage, insists Josiah Johnson, who fronts Rock Hill’s energetic, uplifting rock quintet Group Therapy. “When I put that tie on, I feel like a superhero,” Johnson maintains. “I genuinely feel like I’m suiting up and getting ready to save the…
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Jordyn Zaino Whips Up a Quiet Storm with Impassioned Ballads
“What were your musical inspirations growing up?” It’s the obligatory cliche question that all musical journalists ask — more of an icebreaker than an overly meaningful query. Yet when I ask local singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and raw rock frontwoman Jordyn Zaino, her first two answers provide a certain profundity and perspective that…
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Benjamin Burdon Breaks Five-Year Hiatus with Refreshed Name, New Single
When Benjamin Burdon first started working on his forthcoming project five years ago, he did so amidst a personal crisis. Living in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood during the pandemic, Burdon was grappling with compounded loss. A couple of long-term friendships were fizzling out, including a falling out with one of…
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Yungblud Goes Through ‘Changes’ at Skyla Amp
Tears streamed down British alt-rock artist Yungblud’s face as he belted out the final bars to Black Sabbath’s “Changes” at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheater on Thursday night after dedicating the song to the late Ozzy Osbourne. The emotional moment served as the climax of a night that buzzed with intense…
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Emily June and Ali Forrest Hit the Road to Co-headline National Tour
Two recent songs by local women artists overlap in intent if not delivery. On “can i heal?” plangent cross-picked guitars emerge like figures from the mist as Emily June’s quicksilver singing courses clear and vibrato-free: “Learned about survival/ When I was just half a child/ When I walked up to…
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Chance the Rapper Makes Long-Awaited Carolinas Return
By the time confetti was pouring down on the rain-soaked crowd at TD Amp Ballantyne on Friday night, fans had certainly gotten their fill of what was billed as a Carolinas homecoming for Chance the Rapper. The rapper, who spent his childhood summers with his mother’s side of the family…
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Carolina Bloom Music Festival Showcases Local, Regional Indie Acts
As founder of Starbloom Music, an independent booking and artist management agency based in Charlotte, Patrick Wynne has seen the very heart and soul of the lively local music scene. Wynne’s passion for live music has helped him build his company, which now represents acts based in South Carolina, New…
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Crow With No Mouth Delivers Hardscrabble Folk Ballads
The backcountry rhythms laid down by Iain Rocco’s jangling, cantering guitar and Duke Wicker’s heartbeat bass entwine with swells of churchyard organ and Sarah Skye’s dusky alto: “Singin’ til daylight/ I strum until my fingers bleed/ I didn’t even mind/ I can’t feel a thing/ It feels so heavenly, I…
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Creatures of the Sun Prepare Debut Album of Illuminating Psych-Rock
Garrett Ballard’s crooning drawl threads through rattlesnake coils of surf guitar, clacking freight-train drums and growling Harley Davidson bass: “You were obfuscated/ A thief in the night / You were obfuscated/ Now things don’t feel so right…” Charlotte trio Creatures of the Sun (COTS) gets points for using “obfuscated,” from…
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Tracei’s Debut Album ‘MOOD’ Uplifts Romance and Self-Love
Every time we pick up our phones these days, we’re met with scenes of war, bloodshed and destruction, with all signs pointing to escalation. The anxiety is present when we fill our cars with gas and our bellies with food, the sting of bloated costs never far from our minds.…
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Lynsea Returns to the Stage Six Months After Near-Fatal Crash
Lynsea Rohde was born in the backseat of a Chevy Blazer on the side of a Texas road on Nov. 28, 1993. Thirty-two years later, on Sept. 20, 2025, that life was almost snuffed out on the streets of Charlotte, derailed by a reckless driver believed to be impaired at…
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LAMÄR Weaves a Spell of Heart and Soul with Moonseeker Trilogy
Screeching tires cut through the sounds of onrushing traffic before we hear the sudden crash of crumpled steel and breaking glass. A few seconds of silence follow. Then LAMÄR’s husky whisper emerges amid the chirping of crickets: “In shadows cast by silver light/ A wonder roams through the night/ With…
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