Each month, Our State senior editor — and resident soundtrack maker — Mark Kemp, a former music editor of Rolling Stone, curates a one-of-a-kind Spotify playlist featuring North Carolina songs and musicians.
Every April since 1988, Merlefest has brought some of the finest acoustic and Americana music in the world to North Wilkesboro for four days of pickin’ and grinnin.’ Headliners on the main stage at Wilkes Community College for the 2024 festival include multiple Grammy-winners Nickel Creek as well as Molly Tuttle, Lukas Nelson, and North Carolina-related acts Old Crow Medicine Show and the Steep Canyon Rangers.
For our annual Merlefest playlist, we like to put the spotlight solely on the North Carolina acts, and there are plenty to enjoy this year. Kicking things off, we have Old Crow, which got its start busking on the streets of Boone, doing their most well-known song, “Wagon Wheel,” which they co-wrote with none other than Bob Dylan. From there, Brevard’s Steep Canyon Rangers transform Rocky Mount-born jazz legend Thelonious Monk’s classic “Blue Monk” into a foot-stomping bluegrass number; Guilford County’s Chatham Rabbits perform their much-loved “Abigail”; and Nigeria-born, Charlotte-raised singer-songwriter Uwade sings her lovely percussive ballad “Nostalgia.”
Elsewhere, you’ll hear acoustic acts Holler Choir, from Asheville; Jens Kruger, from Wilkesboro; Josh Goforth, from Madison County; Chatham County Line, from Raleigh; as well as High Point bluesman Bob Margolin, and country singer and Troutman native Jim Lauderdale.
If you make it out to Wilkes County during the weekend of April 25, enjoy all the wonderful acts on all 12 of Merlefest’s stages.
North Carolina is known for many things, but nothing more important this week than the qualities of endurance, resilience, and hope.
By day, this adventure park in the Triad is a fall festival to die for. By night, the undead come alive for Halloween tricks. Welcome to one man’s vision of year-round merrymaking.
North Carolina’s border dances across the mountains as it traces four different states. Life here can be more remote, but good neighbors are never far away.
The Blue Ridge Parkway stands out among America’s national parks: Unfurling across six Appalachian mountain chains, it connects dozens of rural communities and binds together generations of families through shared memories.
