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Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hosts Muusic Room on February 14 Featuring Alexa Rose, Jane Kramer, and Earleine

A new music series in the High Country will begin on Wednesday February 14 when Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hosts local and regional favorite singer songwriter Alexa Rose and her friends Jane Kramer and Ashley Wright (Earline) for an evening of original songs and the stories, ideas, or moments that inspired them. The evening will begin at 6:00 PM with a community pot-luck in the Founder’s House with music beginning at 7:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall. A suggested donation of $15 per person will support the performers and Hospitality House.  

The series was to begin December 10, but was cancelled due to weather. Therefore, this will be the first of what is hoped will be an ongoing series.

Rev. Tommy Brown, Ministry Consultant at Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, says of the series, “Boone and this region is filled with wonderful singer songwriters like Alexa Rose. What we haven’t had is a great listening room venue in which these artists can really share their amazing songs.” Brown continued, “The idea for the Muusic Room is to bring to Boone and High Country an evening of music like one can experience in Nashville at the famous Bluebird Cafe or other venues where the folks who write the songs come and share them in a acoustic listening room space where the songs and music can be really heard and appreciated.”

The Muusic Room at BUUF featuring Alexa Rose and guests is also scheduled in 2018 for Wednesday Sunday April 22, and Wednesday July 11.

Each evening will begin at 6 PM with a Community Pot-Luck meal in the BUUF Founder’s House. Members of BUUF and the community are invited to bring salad, sides, entrees, dessert and other items to share. The evening is also bring-your-own-beer-or-wine.   Following the meal, the performance will begin at 7 PM in the adjacent Fellowship Hall. This is an intimate space with good acoustics. Each singer-songwriter will have about 20 minutes to share a selection of their original songs during the first hour. In the second hour all three performers will come back to share songs in a song-circle format where they can play with one another in an original and non-rehearsed format. This sharing may include new songs inspired by each evening’s theme or inspiration.

“I’m very excited to come back to Boone with these wonderful friends from the singer songwriter network I have found in Asheville.” said Rose, who graduated from ASU with a degree in Sustainable Development, “Even in Asheville there aren’t very many venues or events where the focus is on the songs and songwriters. Earleine, Jane, and I are very excited about sharing songs and music with everyone in Boone at the Muusic Room”

WNCW’s Local Color wrote of Alexa Rose, “Alexa Rose’s voice is a dream come true. It pivots from more traditional Americana sounds all the way to older tones, like folk tales from an ancient shore.” Her website (alexarosemusic.com) states, “Carolina songstress Alexa Rose crafts clever lyrics and boot-tapping mountain magic in her own brand of modern folk. She has spent her formative years curating original music in the Blue Ridge, releasing two albums in her early twenties. You can often catch her sporting her dusty Frye boots in some southern lagoon, or on the regional radio stations that spin her latest full-length release, “Low and Lonesome.” Written on a hand me down guitar from her mother, the title track is a toast to Rose’s heritage, and its anthem-like chorus haunts the listener with a somberness evocative of Gillian Welch. Her band currently tours under the moniker, Alexa Rose & The Midnight Stringbird, and delivers heartfelt performances with stringed instruments and warm family-style harmonies. Since Rose began her run as a touring artist last year, she and her bandmates have shared stages with Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Ragbirds, and The Wild Reeds. Her song “Lottery Ticket” was featured WNCW’s Midnight Folk pick of the week, and “Borrow Your Heart” was a finalist in the 2017 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. In October 2016, Rose won Asheville NC’s Brown Bag Songwriting Contest.”

Lauded by UK music reviewer Three Cords and the Truth as sounding like she was “…born to gypsy poets and raised by Emmylou Harris,” Asheville based songstress Jane Kramer has garnered international recognition for the sultry, heartrending originality of her vocals and for the heavy-hitting lyrical eloquence of her songwriting. With deep roots in the traditional music of her beloved Appalachia, Kramer’s songs are introspective and gritty. They elegantly sweep listeners down the gravel roads and southern coastal highways, midnight truck stops and lonely motel rooms of ‘hard learning’ and lead home to the Blue Ridge Mountains with moving acceptance of our flawed human experience. (janekramermusic.com)

Ashley Wright (Earleine) was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, just 40 miles outside of Nashville. Earleine grew up immersed in musical culture. At 18 she picked up the guitar, and soon began writing her own songs. Genuine and shockingly honest, her songwriting is mixed with poetic lyricism, and dreamy harmonies that seem to lift hard time memories into ephemeral realms. Earleine’s style is Americana music with a swirl of folk, rock, and roots under a blanket of soul. (www.earleine.com)

“We hope everyone comes out on Valentines,” said Brown, “If it is a date night, or a no-date night either is great. It will be a night of great music and community that you won’t want to miss. We welcome everyone!” The Fellowship Hall at BUUF holds just over a 100 persons, parking is available at the church, next door at AJ’s tire, or in the Town of Boone lot on Tracey Circle.   For more information please call Boone Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 828-264-4456 or contact Rev. Tommy Brown at tommybrownmdiv@msn.com.