White Squirrel Weekend 2025

Quack Shack

5:30 pm - 6:30 am

Quack Shack will be opening the show. They are local teen jazz, funk jam All-Stars

Kindred Valley

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Indie folk band Kindred Valley started when three friends with a passion for music met at Marshall University in 2020. Initially under the name Back Row Baptists, Blake Lacy, Noah Freeman and Brett McCoy met in Huntington, West Virginia, and began writing and recording music together. The band released its first singles as a trio but found its footing in 2021 with three new members – Husband and Wife Rachael and Jadon Hayes and Kaden Salmons. With three new members and a flurry of new ideas, the band needed a new name. Now named Kindred Valley, Lacy and Salmons wrote an early version of the band’s single “Whistle” during the group’s first meet-up. With new blood and fresh ideas flowing, Kindred Valley released its fifth single, “The Wedding Song,” in 2021.
After almost two years of creative efforts, the group released its self-titled debut album at the end of 2022. The album contains remastered versions of some of the band’s first singles and new music that showcases Kindred Valley is still connected to their Appalachian roots while casting a bold vision for their future.

HEADLINER

Red Clay Revival

8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Red Clay Revival was founded by Doug McElvy and Ben Joseph in Tuscaloosa in 2010. Musicians such as Evan Dudley, Mark Griffin Jr. and James Cook have since joined the band, contributing to its bluegrass tunes. RCR has been on several tours over the years, headlining the Rapid Grass Bluegrass Festival in Idaho Springs, Colo., two years in a row.

McElvy, a guitarist, has played with Yonder Mountain String Band, bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice and ­musician/songwriter and frequent Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival performer Keller Williams, who is featured on RCR’s latest album, “Barefoot.”

Davidson River Taiko

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

The Davidson River Taiko drumming team, a Japanese music course at the Davidson River School, helps struggling students cope with social and emotional issues, and is one of only two such teams in North Carolina.

Lazy Rooster

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

WNC’s Lazy Rooster serves up a muscular blend of outlaw country, Americana and roots rock inspired by the dynamic genre interplay of the 80s & 90s.

Holler Choir

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Led by the lyrical craftsmanship of singer, guitarist, and songwriter Clint Roberts, the distinctly Appalachian, old-time sound of Asheville’s Holler Choir combines haunting harmonies, stirring string compositions, and heart-wrenching ballads, yet hardly conforms to a stereotypical genre. Call it a confluence of old-time, Americana, and bluegrass, but, by its own exceptional design, the sound and atmosphere of Holler Choir are singular. Robert’s wordcraft and explosive vocal range is met with the dulcet clawhammer banjo plucking of long-time collaborator Helena Rose, the driving timekeeping of upright bassist Joey Brown and mandolinist Jackson Grimm. With a rotating cast of gifted musicians featured on Holler Choir’s recordings and electrifying live performances, it’s no wonder they are the band to watch in 2024. The band’s inception began when recording Robert’s 2022 solo release, entitled “Mountain Air”. That fortuitous collaboration of gifted roots musicians at Asheville’s Crossroads Studios proved to be the genesis of an unmistakable new sound built on that shared experience. Produced by Grammy award-winning multi-instrumentalist, Michael Ashworth, of The Steep Canyon Rangers, the five-song EP lit the fuse and Holler Choir was well on its way to delight audiences throughout the southeast and beyond. For their debut full-length record, “Songs Before They Write Themselves,” Holler Choir again teamed up with producer Michael Ashworth. Released in January 2024, the album was tracked in the historic Echo Mountain Studio’s church room and boasts the engineering prowess of Jason Richmond (Avett Brothers, Rising Appalachia), and was mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer, Kim Rosen. “Songs Before They Write Themselves” is a record at the crossroads of modernity and tradition, with songwriting and lyrical themes that are firmly in both camps. The name of the record itself implies an uncertain future for the creation of music, that we will soon be able to generate entirely original music with a click of a mouse. Roberts writes to familiar themes of heartbreak and melancholy, while simultaneously pondering existential questions not typically tackled within string band music. “I believe this record may not appeal to all of those who are preoccupied with the confines of a music genre,” says Roberts. “But I also believe meaningful music is not made whilst in the act of trying to please everyone.” You be the judge of Holler Choir’s latest release “Songs Before They Write Themselves”.

Andrew Scotchie

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Andrew Scotchie and his explosive band have been revered far wide for their engaging, interactive High-Energy, Funk-ti-fied Rock n’ Roll show. Couple the abilities and in the moment spirit of a jam-band with a punk rock fierceness and energy, and you’ll get a show that will have familiar songs but with a twist that offers a listener something only in that moment. Consistent studio recordings, year round touring from NY to FL and NC to ID, earnest songwriting and sharing bills with such greats as Neal Francis, Eric Gales, Futurebirds, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Dylan LeBlanc, Here Come the Mummies, Bob Margolin, Sonny Landreth, Blind Boys of Alabama, Drivin N Cryin, Ghost Light and Bettye Lavette has made Andrew Scotchie & the River Rats one of the industry’s fastest growing Rock n Roll bands, and voted Western North Carolina’s best Rock band/all around favorite band since 2015.

HEADLINER

Shovels & Rope

8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

One night in the middle of the night there were a series of noises coming from above which lead to a series of thoughts. It sounded like something was working. Building something.. A nest for its family? A trap for its prey? This led to more thoughts about unseen things at work. A God? A voice in your head? It all feels kind of made up until someone responds to it.

Less means more. That’s kind of always how it’s been with us. This time the rules were simple: we can only use what we work with live and whatever we put down on tape must be accomplishable on a stage in a live setting. That’s always seemed to be when we’re at our best. Or most twitchy. Many times we’ve made records that we loved and then, after figuring out how we’d perform it live, we end up falling in love with the live arrangement because being a 2 piece band it took some real risk and struggle which led to innovation which gave it a whole new life. (Consider the tortured grape.) So with this one we just started there and worked backwards. The result encapsulates, more than anything we’ve done before, the sound of our live performance. Resulting in what one might consider by definition, a definitive album.

Dave Desmelik

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Dave Desmelik is a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist whose musical focus is on original compositions. What attracts listeners to Desmelik’s tunes, old and new, is the element of authenticity incorporated in them. There is no sugar coating involved. His songs are not wrapped in false smiles, rather they are stark and open and tend to settle on the pulse of everyday life. An unclosed and evolving journal of thoughts set to music and melodies in prose and instrumental performance. Desmelik was born and raised just outside of Atlanta, GA, but has traveled and lived in a multitude of landscapes. He currently resides in Brevard, NC. He was an original member of Onus B. Johnson, a successful band based in Flagstaff, AZ in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. This band was on the front wave of jamgrass while maintaining the passion for songwriting. Today, Desmelik continues to pursue an ascending path as a solo artist.

Barrett Davis

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

For Western North Carolina singer-songwriter/guitarist Barrett Davis, he chose the life of a ragged troubadour. It’s a whirlwind existence of stages and microphones, of anonymous faces in the crowd eager to see what you have to offer, an arduous trek along that lost highway — constantly in search of your inner truths and honest self.

Travis Book & Friends featuring Mike Guggino and Jon Stickley

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

For the last 20 years Travis Book has anchored the Grammy Award winning Bluegrass ensemble The Infamous Stringdusters with his upright bass playing and lead and harmony vocals. As one of the band’s principal songwriters he’s shaped the sound of this legendary powerhouse band.

Every Tuesday he hosts collaborative musical journeys at 185 King St. in his home of Brevard, NC. These shows run the breadth of Americana music, from Bluegrass to Jazz, Rock to Funk, Folk to Swing. These shows have become a cornerstone of the thriving music scene in the Western North Carolina town of Brevard.

He’s also planted a flag in the podcast realm with The Travis Book Happy Hour. Once a month he produces a music/interview podcast that is available anywhere podcasts are found.

He shares a duo with guitar player Andy Falco that pays tribute to the late Jerry Garcia and his vast repertoire of music. Occasionally he plays with his own ensemble, The Travis Book Band or solo or as a duo, and a few times a year he reunites with his old bandmates in The Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band.

When he’s not playing music he can be found playing in the mountains.

HEADLINER

Woody Platt and the Bluegrass Gentlemen

8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Grammy Award Winning

Bluegrass Artist

Professional Fly Fisherman | Passionate Environmentalist

Woody has always found a home in music and in the water. He has been blessed with the opportunity to successfully follow his passion for music and being a champion for the rivers and streams of Western North Carolina.

A founding member of Steep Canyon Rangers, Woody has won numerous awards collaborating with the likes of Steve Martin, Del McCoury, and Jerry Douglas. In 2018, Woody and the Rangers were inducted to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.