The Reason for the Benefit

Why is it important to keep places like White Horse Black Mountain alive and well?

White Horse Black Mountain makes a difference in the lives of people.

The venue has been a huge asset for the people of Black Mountain and the surrounding areas of Western North Carolina. The venue has been praised by musicians, audience members, and members of the community for it's quality peformances and it's warm and welcoming spirit.

But it goes beyond that. White Horse Black Mountain has demonstrated that it truly cares about people and desires to make a difference in the lives of people; locally, regionally, and around the world.

During early March, White Horse Black Mountain held it's 2nd Help Haiti Heal Benefit event. Asheville resident and friend of White Horse, Lorin Mallorie, was in Haiti at the time and helped arrange and remote Skype broadcast of Haitian musicians who once again had a stage to share their lives and music with the world. Their performance was shown live on the huge screen at White Horse and White Horse arranged to have the performance webcast live ..... so that anyone in the world could see and hear the voices and music of Haiti.

Lorin Mallorie describes the impact of that event as follows:

On Saturday evening we stage a "live" concert via satellite call to White Horse Black Mountain, which is hosting a Haiti benefit. James Vergenau (aka Rebel) of the Haitian reggae band Yizra'el sings an original tune called "Mother Nature"; Jagat accompanies him on the hand drums. The smaller venues here are still closed for reconstruction, and it's Rebel's first performance since the quake two months ago.

They tell me the White Horse audience was in tears. But what stays with me from that night in Kenscoff is the look in Rebel's eyes, alive and inspired to once again be playing the music he loves — this time for a little town in far off America.





Malcolm Holcombe

MALCOLM HOLCOMBE
www.malcolmholcombe.com


"Not quite country, somewhere beyond folk, Holcombe's music is a kind of blues in motion, mapping backwoods corners of the heart." ~David Fricke- Rolling Stone Magazine

Born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, Malcolm Holcombe is being recognized by the contemporary U.S and European folk/americana community as a performer of national stature, and an uncommonly unique guitarist/vocalist about whom Rolling Stone Magazine says: "Haunted country, acoustic blues and rugged folk all meet [here]..."

A new 12 song Malcolm Holcombe CD, Gamblin' House, was released January 29, 2008. There is strong and positive press surrounding this CD, including feature articles in the January/February 2008 No Depression Magazine, and in The Wall Streeet Journal(2/14/08), and rave reviews from Billboard Magazine, Harp Magazine, and Paste Magazine.
Gamblin' House was in the top 20 of the Americana Music Association chart for 9 straight weeks.
As always, there are echoes of John Prine and Guy Clark and the lesser-known kindred spirit Bill Morrissey, but the total package is all Malcolm Holcombe. His is a sound that combines harmonica-blessed folk, acoustic blues, stringband country, and smalltown-bred soul.

The small town in question is Weaverville, North Carolina, a burgh of a couple thousand just 10 miles north of Asheville. That's Malcolm's Mom and Dad and two older brothers on the cover of his 2005 release I Never Heard You Knockin', standing in front of the Weaverville homestead.

His uncle played guitar, as did his neighbor. "He'd sit on the porch and play electric guitar," Malcolm recalls of that neighbor, adding, "And he had a couple of cute daughters." Perhaps with that added incentive, Malcolm started playing guitar. "I was just another kid with the Mel Bay chord book, and I only got through the first page," he says.


"....... you need to see Malcolm onstage; his legendary performances are intense and all out. "If you're gonna do something, do it," is his explanation. "If you're gonna dig a ditch, dig a ditch. If you're gonna shine a shoe, shine a shoe." In other words, if you're gonna stand in front of a crowd of strangers with just your guitar and your songs, make it worth their time. He does it by presenting those songs with a gospel fervor (call it half howl, half hosanna) and with a penetrating stare, aimed (thank goodness) at nothing and no one, that becomes almost as deeply ingrained as his songs. It's sinewy and unfussy, the man, the music, and the delivery.

"We all have our demons, and we all have our spirituality, whatever keeps us going," is how Malcolm puts it. "When it comes to the end of the day, it's God, family, and neighbors."