Charlottesville Jazz Society kicks off its concert season with guitarist Charlie Ballantine and his trio. Ballantine’s music pays homage to his childhood in the Midwest through a unique melding of folk and jazz. Among his influences are some of the greatest jazz, rock, and pop musicians of the ’60s and ’70s, and his latest release, Life Is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan, showcases his devotion to American music.
It’s not a typo—The Brother Brothers are named that for a reason. Adam and David Moss are identical twins with a shared love of country and folk music, and it shows in the tunes the duo creates and performs. After pursuing individual music careers, the brothers came together in 2016 to tour as one act. Although their appearance might provoke a double-take, their music is anything but repetitive, with songs alternately soaring to country’s most joyous peaks and diving into the moodiest corners of Appalachia.
Based in Richmond, folk singer-songwriter Graham Stone has been gaining traction as one of the region’s up-and-coming artists. His 2017 debut album, Until the Day, showcases Stone’s impressive scope of songwriting, and ranges from solo standards to full-band shredders—and while paying tribute to influences such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, it also traverses the trail blazed by Thrice’s Dustin Kensrue.