This Weekend: Marty Stuart's Rhinestones, DÖLTZ's Recharge, and Folk That Lives Here
The middle weekend of August is doing the most, and it's doing it across both cities and roughly four genres. Pace yourself. Here's the plan.
Thursday, Aug 13 — DÖLTZ Day at The Flat Iron (Greensboro). We start loud and local. Greensboro's DÖLTZ throw a release party for their second EP, Total Recharge, at the Flat Iron, with SNIDE and Designer filling out a bill that is unmistakably homegrown. This is the Triad's DIY engine at full tilt — an EP made by locals, released in a dive bar, celebrated by the exact crowd it was made for. Cheap cover, early week, zero regrets. Consider it Thursday's warm-up for a heavy weekend.
Friday, Aug 14 — Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives at The Ramkat (Winston-Salem). The headline event. Country Hall-of-Famer Marty Stuart brings his Fabulous Superlatives — one of the flat-out best live bands in American roots music, rhinestones and Telecasters included — to the Ramkat's 1,000-capacity room. Stuart is a walking archive of country tradition who happens to front a band that can peel paint, and the Ramkat's sightlines are built for exactly this kind of show. Tickets were moving at last check, so don't dawdle.
Friday, Aug 14 — Local Folk Season 2 at The Carolina Theatre (Greensboro). Same night, other city, different mood. The North Carolina Folk Festival presents Local Folk Season 2 on the Carolina's main stage at 7:30 p.m., turning the region's flagship old room over to the artists who actually live in the Triad — a preview of sorts for the big downtown festival this fall. If Marty Stuart is the marquee, this is the heart.
Also Friday, Aug 14 — Lefty Gunplay at Cone Denim (Greensboro). For the hip-hop crowd, Cone Denim keeps its lane warm with Lefty Gunplay, proof that a single Triad Friday can hold country royalty, hometown folk, and a rising rap bill without anyone having to leave the county.
Look at what Friday alone offers: rhinestone country in Winston-Salem, homegrown folk and touring hip-hop in Greensboro, and a local EP release the night before to set the table. That's not a compromise itinerary you settle for because you couldn't get to Charlotte — that's an embarrassment of riches two overlooked cities cooked up on the same weekend. Pick a lane, or greedily try to catch two. Either way, be a local out loud. The map keeps forgetting us; the marquees keep proving it wrong.
Sources: Events — The Ramkat; Events Archive — Carolina Theatre; Summertime fun and good music — Yes! Weekly; Cone Denim Entertainment Center — Songkick