The third day of the 2022 Beale Street Music Festival unfolded under crisp, clear skies after the rainstorms from the night before cleared away. The beautiful conditions encouraged music fans to arrive early for the final day. The musical lineup featured the most diverse of this year's gatherings. The Bud Light stage was again the focus of African roots music, but unlike the days before, the focus was not solely on the rap genre.

Today, after almost two decades since their last release, Carolina’s favorite rock and rollers the Blue Dogs are back in the game with the release of a brand new full-length album, Big Dreamers. Produced by accomplished guitarist and longtime Blue Dogs fan—and at times, guitar player—Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit), Big Dreamers marks a long-awaited comeback for the band and an inevitable full-circle moment for their producer.

Organ great Ronnie Foster returns to Blue Note Records with the July 15 release of Reboot, his first new album in 36 years which arrives 50 years after his 1972 Blue Note debut Two Headed Freap.

Bluegrass at the Crossroads, the collaborative sessions series that earned a quintet of Crossroads Label Group artists a 2021 IBMA Instrumental Recording of the Year award for “Ground Speed,” now releases “Timber Train,” a powerful tale of a Gilded Age logging boom’s impact on western North Carolina.