Billy Strings has become known for such intensity in his craft that he may shatter more than a few strings along the way. He plays The Jefferson Thursday night. Publicity photo
With lightening fingertips and a devotion to American roots music, Billy Strings plays the acoustic guitar with a fury akin to a hurricane. His passion for traditional psychedelia inspires the electric country vibes of his 2017 album Turmoil and Tinfoil, on which Strings echoes tradition, then tears into it with his own zeal. At age 26, the young guitarist has become known for such intensity in his craft that he may shatter more than a few strings along the way.
Thursday December 20. $15-20, 8 pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980.
Hiss Golden Messenger plays the Jefferson on December 21. Publicity photo.
As Hiss Golden Messenger, M.C. Taylor has spent the past decade crafting songs that stand on musical traditions while summoning a world all of their own. That’s not surprising when you consider Taylor’s output in the new limited-edition Hiss Golden Messenger box set, Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children—it’s just one dichotomy in a thriving career full of them.
“The first thing that I really consider a real Hiss Golden Messenger record, this record called Bad Debt, it was very small, and that record was for me,” Taylor says. “And I started to realize that the more personal my music was, the more universal chords it seemed to strike. It’s a weird paradox. I find that to be the premise of the greatest art in my life.”
Before making Bad Debt in 2009, Taylor moved from California to North Carolina to attend a graduate program in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As part of his fieldwork, he’d travel around the state collecting stories and songs from indigenous musicians.
“I’m never going to be the kind of person that can remember a whole catalog of fiddle tunes—that’s not how my brain works,” he explains. “I think that the actual contours of a fiddle tune are the by-product of something much bigger…the melody of a fiddle tune, to me anyway, is not the most important part of old-time music. For example, I think there’s way deeper stuff at work that is causing that music to come out…that’s always been the part that’s interesting to me.”
That work, in turn, caused Taylor to look inward. “My relationship with music at the time that I was doing this, it was ambiguous at the very best,” he recalls. “I had been recording records and touring for most of my life already at that point, but I think that creative part of me had gotten confused about what sorts of feelings I was supposed to be conjuring within myself.”
He was meeting with artists of all ages —from children to veteran musicians in their 80s—and he found the direction he needed in the way they lived their lives.
“I was recording a lot of music and it was with people that didn’t have musical careers. They just had a deep connection to music within their communities. Maybe some of them would have liked [a musical career] but it didn’t seem to be at the top of their priority list,” Taylor says. “It was a really good reminder for me at that time in my life that there was a way to exist with creativity in a very valuable way emotionally and spiritually that had nothing to do with, you know, the commerce of the entertainment business.”
It was during this time that Taylor wrote Bad Debt at his home in Pittsboro, North Carolina. With tracks like “Balthazar’s Song,” “No Lord Is Free,” and “The Serpent Is Kind (Compared To Man),” the album introduced a major touchstone of Taylor’s songwriting: the use of biblical language as poetic shorthand to convey larger ideas. A remastered version of Bad Debt is included in Devotion, along with reissues of two other early Hiss records, Poor Moon and Haw, and a compilation of rarities titled Virgo Fool. The packaging features iconographic artwork by Sam Smith that ties in directly with thematic elements of each album.
“I love [these records] because they allowed me something; I don’t love them because I think they’re incredible records. I was very involved in the presentation of them, the actual art of the whole box,” says Taylor. “I didn’t spend a lot of time pouring over the records themselves…it can be almost uncomfortable to spend that much time going back to stuff that I’ve made. I’m not that interested in doing that. I took it as an opportunity to reframe the four of those records under the umbrella of some overarching design, like actually frame them as records that all can live together in that way.”
Taylor is putting the finishing touches on a new Hiss Golden Messenger album at Aaron Dessner’s (The National) studio in New York. And he continues to be guided by that same approach he took away from his time as a folklorist: “Whatever happens with music for me in the public sphere, there is a way to be creative that has a huge amount of value, [that] is just being able to articulate things into the world, you know, with sort of poetry and rhythm that otherwise might not be able to come out.”
Tonia Ray and the T Ray Band performs at IX Art Park at 8pm for the We Code, Too benefit. Publicity photo.
Vocalist Tonia Ray and the T Ray Band bring joy to the season during An Evening of Neo-Soul. With a range of influences from jazz, funk, hip-hop, and electronic to pop, fusion, and African music, the group promises a high-energy set of holiday-themed favorites that will get you moving, while helping others, at this benefit for We Code,Too.
Friday 12/21 $10, 8pm, IX Art Park, 522 Second St. 207-2355.
Sarah While will perform her newest non-traditional holiday songs at The Southern Café and Music Hall December 22 at 8pm. Image: Rebecca D'Angelo.
Sarah White had a banner year with the release of a new album, High Flyer, in August that included a duet with Dave Matthews, caught the attention of Rolling Stone, and spurred a round of festival appearances.
In planning her 15th annual Sarah White’s Country Christmas, the songstress says to expect the usual non-traditional holiday songs that convey “something about the season, family, friends, cold, snow, dogs,
angels, loneliness, lights, heaven, death, life, darkness, and desire. Plus cookies without nuts this year.”
Saturday 12/22 $15, 8pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Tchaikovsky's classic ballet will play at various times through December 23 at Charlottesville Ballet. Publicity photo.
When young Clara’s beloved godfather brings her a peculiar Christmas gift, the simple act of holiday spirit inspires a midnight war on mice, and a journey to alternate realms. Charlottesville Ballet’s Nutcracker is magical and enthralling, as it follows Clara and her wooden friend—now a mysterious prince—deep into the Land of Snowflakes and Sweets to restore him to his true self. Accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s lively score, this classic ballet is a whimsical performance for all ages.
Saturday 12/22 $20-75, times vary. V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr., PVCC. 961-5376.
Mortal Engines, starring Hera Hilmar, plays on themes of current global crises to an unsatisfying end.
Image courtesy UNIVERSAL PICTURES
If you’re not going to get a good movie for your money, you may as well get a lot of one. So it goes with Mortal Engines, a YA fantasy novel adaptation that seems to have learned from the overlong Divergent series by packing the entire Mortal Engines trilogy into one movie. Or, perhaps producer Peter Jackson (not director, as you may have been led to believe by the marketing) learned that lesson from the world’s Hobbit fatigue, and insisted it all come for the price of one ticket. All three are entirely too much, but at least when the movies are split up, the viewer has the option to bail, while Mortal Engines keeps you captive for an interminable journey where you already know the destination, like an Uber ride with a too-chatty driver.
The setting is a distant future in which the society we know has been eradicated by a horrible weapon released the world over. (Shown, of course, as a series of blasts on the Universal logo. Are they greenlighting movies specifically so they can incorporate it into the prologue?) Over a thousand years later, the cities we know are no more, replaced by mobile municipalities that still have names like London and Bavaria for some reason. London specifically is what’s known as a predator city, roaming the earth and consuming smaller, weaker cities for resources, and absorbing their populations. Why yes, that is a metaphor for colonialism, congratulations on remaining awake.
The narrative follows scavenger Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) and sheltered museum employee Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) as they struggle to expose the evil of London leader Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving). Thaddeus, a former anthropologist appointed by a stuffy aristocracy that he seeks to overthrow, has to use those ancient, world-destroying weapons against the resistance that has taken refuge in Asia behind, you guessed it, a wall. So now we have refusing to learn the lessons of the past, the end of the class system in England, and globalization.
All of these are fine topics, and Mortal Engines has its heart on the right side of the subjects. But if this movie shows anything, it’s that an apt metaphor is not always a worthwhile one. There’s not much insight into how or why colonial powers operated or the mentality behind a person who supports the endeavor. It is quite satisfying to see a resistance made up of nationalities that suffered colonial brutality, but that joy is drained when the characters become hollow foils for the two white kids in love.
All of this is to say nothing of the slog of a second act concerning an undead robot named Shrike (Stephen Lang under lots of CG) who is obsessed with finding and killing Hester for reasons totally unrelated to the main plot. It introduces an entirely new mythology and then acts like it never happened when it’s time for the big battle. It may have worked as a standalone story about the nature of a soul, anchored by a solid performance from Lang, but as a glorified subplot it’s peculiar and out of place.
Director Christian Rivers has made a pretty movie, but it is exhausting—and not just from all the burnt fuel.
John Grant’s “Attraction,” which includes the piece "Dahlia Mary Ann," seen here, is on view at Second Street Gallery through January 18. Image courtesy of the artist
On the cusp of winter, the garden behind John Grant and Stacey Evans’ home is a spectrum of browns, greens, bare trees, bamboo shoots, and naked stems. It’s all askew as the fading light of day shines orange through the spaces formerly occupied by verdant leaves and vibrant blooms.
Gardening season has passed, but it’s easy to imagine the trees bursting with green growth, beds full of tulips, ranunculus, zinnias, foxgloves, dahlias, roses, anemones (Evans’ favorite), poppies (Grant’s favorite), and whatever else they manage to grow.
The garden works out well: Evans likes to plant the flowers, and Grant likes to pick them. Grant also likes to make art with them. In fact, many of the blooms in “Attraction,” Grant’s show of larger-than-life botanical works now on view at Second Street Gallery through January 18, were plucked from this very garden.
Grant’s interest in visual art began in photography, when he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War (“I had a bad draft number,” he says). One of his fellow shipmen had a camera, and when they were in port, they’d disembark to photograph the sights, in Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, The Philippines, and Alaska—when they docked in Japan, Grant purchased a camera of his own.
After the Navy, a graphic design career led him to publishing (he co-owned Thomason Grant, which published children’s and photography books from local and nationally known writers and photographers), and then to a lengthy stint as vice president of creative for Crutchfield Corporation. During his 12 years at Crutchfield, technology changed drastically—and his attention turned to digital scanning.
Flamboyant, 2018, 38 x 38 inches; mounted sheet: 43 x 43 inches. Image courtesy the artist
“Somehow, I started scanning flowers,” says Grant.
Both of Grant’s parents were master gardeners, as were his paternal grandparents. His mother practiced Ikebana—the Japanese art of flower arranging—and he was always captivated by the colors, the textures, and the relationship between the flowers.
Grant found that the scans—he’d place the flower on the glass bed of the scanner and leave the cover open so the delicate bloom wasn’t crushed, then scan the flower at a high resolution and make a larger-than-life print of it—resonated with colleagues.
Eventually he began selling scans of “new and fresh-looking” flowers to stock photography company Getty Images, and they sold so well Grant was able to leave Crutchfield. One photograph, of a red and white ruffled tulip, was used on the cover of Stephanie Meyer’s mega-best-seller Twilight: New Moon. The more picture-perfect botanical scans he sold, the more he started to wonder: What is it about flowers?
“Some people have a truly visceral response to botanicals,” he says. We plant flowers in gardens and clip them from their stems to display in vases on our tables. We give them as gifts. We wear them on our clothes. We spray their essence on our skin. Grant says he can’t quite put his finger on the why, but he knows that attraction has something to do with it.
“The whole element of attraction in our lives is a really important thing to become aware of, because it may be very, very close to the core of our existence,” he says. “That we have that feeling of attraction, whether it’s for flowers or another person, or any kind of thing, if you start to think about what it feels like to be attracted, and pull it apart, it’s a really cool concept, a really deep subject that we gloss over.”
Viewers may be drawn to the pieces in “Attraction” for their size. All of the works are large, (some are more than three feet on each side), and afford a close look at each individual petal, stem, stamen, and bead of pollen. Some of the images—a white ranunculus with a jammy purple center, a white dahlia with a smear of pollen, a hot pink hybrid gerbera daisy—pop forth from black backgrounds, like planets floating in space, at once familiar and mysterious.
Anemones, 2018, 30 x 32 inches; mounted 37 x 35 inches. Image courtesy the artist
In some cases, Grant has pulled the flowers apart—removed the petals from a red tulip, or a foxglove, and rearranged them. Others (“Iris Ocean,” “Offering”) are more experimental, where Grant uses water, acetate, and paint to create different types of backgrounds and atmospheres.
“Magnolia in Repose,” which depicts a browning magnolia bloom on a stark black background, explores the beauty of dying blooms, sad and lovely in how the petals begin to curl in upon themselves.
All of the works highlight the singularity of the blooms, what Grant likes to call the “body language” of the individual flowers. How one seems a bit bashful, another proud. A grouping of two poppies might look like lovers, while five or six poppies together may look like they’re having a party. “Attraction” is not a show about perfection, says Grant. “I’m not into capturing a storybook flower.”
Grant’s botanicals are rather scientific, and they are also quite emotional—people tend to separate the two, says Grant, but there’s something to be said for combining close examination with emotion.
“It’s a way of taking things inside so that you can live with it, and so that you can understand your relationship to it more fully,” he says. “The more you observe, the more overpowered you are with that sort of magnitude of greatness of our being.”
John Grant’s “Attraction” is on view at Second Street Gallery through January 18.
Shelby Marie Edwards performs her solo storytelling piece, Holly’s Ivy, directed by Chicago-based actor, writer, and teaching artist Earliana McLaurin, at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center on Thursday. Photo by Joel Moorman
Shelby Marie Edwards still switches between “is” and “was” when talking about her mother.
After all, it’s not yet two years since Holly Edwards passed away in early January 2017. And in many ways, she remains present, not just in her daughter’s heart and mind, but in Charlottesville.
Shelby, a theater artist and performance artist now based in Chicago, will perform her original one-person storytelling show, Holly’s Ivy, on Thursday night at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to help both herself and the community work through the lingering grief.
Holly was a nurse known for her compassion and care, for her advocacy on behalf of low-income citizens and residents of public housing, for the work she accomplished on the city’s Dialogue on Race steering committee and on the board of the JSAAHC, for her service as vice mayor…the list goes on.
“Mom did a lot for the community, and thecommunity did a lot for her, too,” says Shelby.
Holly’s Ivy carries Holly’s name, but it is a show about Shelby, focused on formative moments and rites of passage the 23-year-old has experienced. She tells stories, she moves, she dances, she sings. She explores how her family has shaped who she is.
“Grief is one of those things that everybody goes through,” says Shelby. “Everybody loses something or someone at some point. And yet, we’re expected to deal with it so privately. And that’s something that, ever since mom passed away, has been baffling [to me]. Grieving never ends,” she says.
Shelby began writing the show in December 2016 during a solo performance class when she was an undergraduate in Virginia Commonwealth University’s theater program. The following month, Holly died and the show “kind of sat in the corner” as Shelby grieved the loss of her mother and finished college. She spent the summer in Charlottesville, and during that time, she needed “some type of outlet,” so she finished writing Holly’s Ivy.
“The first half of the show is really like a fossilized version of who I was, and the second half is my journey afterwards,” she says. She used the “ritual poetic drama” methodology to write the show, an approach to storytelling theater that focuses on a journey toward transformational change both for performer and audience.
Holly’s Ivy runs about 45 minutes long, and while it’s often difficult to perform, Shelby feels it’s necessary. “There’sa moment in the show, towards the end, where I just feel it, every single time,” she says. “Words, performance—they give me power and help me feel like I can talk about it, and therefore heal. I really do believe [in] the power of the tongue.”
Shelby says she’s nervous to perform the show in Charlottesville, perhaps because her ties to her audience—and her audience’s ties to her—are tight.
“Everyone knows the backstory. Everyone knows how important she is, or was,” says Shelby. “I think a lot of people [in Charlottesville] haven’t actually grieved mom.”
This will be Shelby’s first time performing Holly’s Ivy in Charlottesville, and it will likely be the last. “I think it’s amazing that we want to honor her as much as we do, but I think it’s also important that we start the moving-on process. She wouldn’t want us stuck in this forever,” she says. She’s ready for the next step in her journey. “I hate ultimatums, but I think this will be the last time I do this show” anywhere, she says. “This time, it’sfor Charlottesville, it’sfor me. It’s for catharsis. It’s for healing.”
Executive chef Ryan Collins (right) teamed up with Oakhart Social’s Tristan Wraight and Ben Clore to open Little Star, coming to West Main December 30.
Photo: Amy Jackson Smith
Little Star, the sophomore dining venture by Oakhart Social’s Ben Clore and Tristan Wraight, is slated to open its doors December 30, when its warm hearth and welcoming vibe should be a respite from the chill.
Joined by third partner and executive chef Ryan Collins, the team has put together a restaurant they hope will make patrons feel right at home, complete with bright, Spanish-style tiled walls, large but cozy booths, and warm lighting throughout.
“The theme we liked was more based upon being a kid, harkening back to a time when we didn’t have fears and worries,” Collins says. “It’s like what our hospitality is: Come in, we got you, we’ll take care of you…there’s good food, a little smoke, and a big hearth.”
Collins, who spent eight years working for renowned Spanish-American tapas chef and Nobel Peace Prize nominee José Andrés, says his menu will reflect his affinity for both Spanish- and Mexican-influenced fare, as well as some unexpected takes on barbecue.
Much of this food will come from the hearth, the centerpiece of the open-plan kitchen, where they’ll be burning through a good cord of oak hardwood each week.
“In the smoking oven, a lot of prep will get done in there—even desserts, like a smoked milk custard with charred orange,” he says. “We’ll have roasted vegetables for escalivada—which are roasted and charred, then steamed with their own heat, peeled, cleaned, and all the juices from being steamed go to make the dressing.”
Little Star will offer a shaved pork loin with a mole manchamanteles—a fruit mole with pasilla chilis, plantains, raisins, pineapples, onions, and nuts, topped with crispy sweet potatoes. Also featured: pork short ribs, marinated and slow-cooked in spices and herbs then pulled off the bone (reminiscent of barbecue but without the sweet sauce); hand-cut ham; patatas bravas in a ranchero sauce; and a sweet, tangy salad of barbecued sunchokes with caramelized onions, mojo picón, and shaved apples.
Collins says Andrés and his primarily Spanish team strongly influenced his cooking style, as did working with famous chefs whom his boss brought in as guests, including Diana Kennedy, a renowned authority on Mexican cooking.
More recently, Collins was the chef at Early Mountain Vineyards, and collaborated with Wraight and Clore on some side events, including a hugely popular taco pop-up at Oakhart in the summer of 2017. They’d discussed opening a restaurant, and happened into the former Threepenny Café site, just across the street from Oakhart, before the general public knew it was for rent, nabbing it before anyone else could get it.
They retrofitted the spot to showcase the oven, with greater visibility from outside to give it a high impact from the street. While the space at Oakhart is tighter and more intimate, they wanted Little Star to be more spacious and comfortable, Clore adds.
“We wanted an open kitchen—we want it to be a show,” he says. “When you’re walking down the street, we want you to say, ‘oh—there’s a fire in there! What’s going on?’”
Manning the bar will be bar director Joel (pronounced Ho-el) Cuellar, who’s spent the past 14 years as beverage director at Brandy Library in Tribeca. He’ll be taking over the bar at Oakhart as well, as long-time bar manager Albee Pedone departs for a dream job in Maui. While Pedone’s departure leaves big shoes to fill, Cuellar has the bona fides to do so.
“He’s the real deal,” Clore says. “It’s like Scotty Pippin came to play for a local high school team. He’s going to be an amazing addition to the local bar scene.”
Collins said Cuellar will be managing and developing the cocktail program as well as educating the staff about cocktails, while he and Clore curate the wine list. Bar patrons will be treated to a gratis tapa—a small bite of something special cooked up by the chef. “We want to provide exceptional hospitality,” Clore says.
The team hopes the new space will appeal to diners of all stripes. “We want to have options for people to get in and out of here for a reasonable price,” he says. “But if you choose to, you can celebrate, get the high-end fancy bottle of bubbles, and enjoy the caviar service, the large dishes, the special mezcals, and sherries. We will give you all the tools you need to celebrate, big time.”
Hours: 5-10pm, Sunday-Thursday; 5-11pm Fridays and Saturdays.
Among the many Christmas rituals going on at this time of year is the Mexican tradition of las posadas (literally, “the inns”), which commemorates Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter in Bethlehem. In the nine nights leading up to Christmas, families, friends, and neighbors go on a candlelight procession, knocking on doors and asking for a place to stay. When they reach the host’s home (sometimes a church) they are at last invited in, and a celebration begins.
It’s a fitting time, then, for this week’s cover story, which takes a look
at the everyday struggles of Charlottesville’s community of undocumented immigrants, and the local groups that have stepped in to offer them help and refuge. “To welcome the stranger is one of our greatest and most consistent religious commandments,” says the Reverend Brittany Caine-Conley, who
recently traveled with other local advocates to provide humanitarian aid to
migrants at the U.S. border.
Reasonable people can disagree about the particulars of our country’s
immigration laws. The question of who gets to stay here, and why, has been debated since the United States was founded. But you don’t have to be
religious to think that people fleeing danger and looking for a better life
deserve to be treated with decency and kindness.
The tradition of the posadas is a reminder that we, too, may at one point be the pilgrims, the ones seeking a safe place for our family to stay. And that if we are lucky enough to be the ones with the shelter, we can give the gift of welcome.
