Dehlia Low, Corduroy Road perform March 28 at DragonFly

Dehlia Low joins Ian Thomas and The Corduroy Road for a night of live music at the DragonFly Theater and Pub on Saturday, March 28.

Dehlia Low, a young Asheville-based band focused on early bluegrass, country, and original music, offers songs with honest, hard-hitting vocals with tight harmonies backed by masterful dobro and mandolin playing, lively fiddling, solid guitar, and a booming upright bass.

Dehlia Low performs original songs, as well as classic and modern bluegrass and old country numbers influenced strongly by Hazel Dickens, the Stanley Brothers, James King and others.Dehlia Low came together, as many bands in Asheville do, through the rich local bluegrass jam scene. The band was built around the vocal harmonies of Anya Hinkle and Stacy Claude, who met in early 2007. The band quickly grew, and Dehlia had their first show in August 2007 at the Grey Eagle in Asheville. Since then, Dehlia Low has been incredibly busy performing regionally and nationally and released an eight-song EP in February 2008. Since then, Dehlia Low was listed as 316 of 100 in WNCW’s top 100 list.Described by the Asheville Citizen-Times as the band “poised to become the next buzz band in the continually expanding scene of new school old-time. Mixing vintage country sounds, tight picking and high lonesome harmonies, the group has quickly developed a traditionally minded original brand of mountain music,” Dehlia Low has quickly been winning over fans, and were announced No. 16 on WNCW’s top 100 CDs of the year.

“We’ve fallen in love with this CD over here, every one of us…” Dennis Jones of WNCW said. “We’ve had more requests for it than any other disk in the past year and a half. It’s a hit record... fresh... solid songwriting and the vocal duet is what gets them. It’s the thing folks ask… ‘Who’s that singing?’”

Dehlia Low is poised to enter the national bluegrass scene with their newest release, Tellico. There are 13 songs on this Appalachian bluegrass/country album, all originals, except one Norman Blake piece; Every song on Tellico is performed by Dehlia Low in entirety and each member has penned at least one song on the album, Anya Hinkle having written “Plains of Tellico,” from which the CD is named. The official release date is May 5.

Asheville-based songster Ian Thomas will also perform, along with The Corduroy Road, which has melded roots in Americana, folk rock, and old-time country with the rawest of live performances.

The group will bring one such performance to the DragonFly Theater and Pub on Saturday, March 28.

The Corduroy Road was founded by Drew Carman (vocals, banjo) and Dylan Solise (guitar, vocals) in early 2006. The two were born and raised in the Central Kentucky Bluegrass Region, where they learned their craft until relocating to the musical gem of the southeast: Athens, Ga.

With the addition of John Cable on drums and Tim Helms on bass, The Corduroy Road quickly gained a reputation in Athens as an up and coming band on the folk scene after sharing the stage with such notable bands as The Avett Brothers, Paleface, The Packway Handle Band, Ian Thomas, Langhorne Slim, Drakkar Sauna and more.

The Corduroy Road released a six-song, self-titled EP in October 2008. Of the EP, Go Triad writes, “Up and coming The Corduroy Road gained attention in Athens, Ga., sharing the stage with artists such as Paleface, The Packway Handle Band and the Avett Brothers, whose sound and spirit of playing are echoed on Corduroy Road’s latest EP. These six catchy, toe-tapping tunes feel like the kind of songs your friends end up playing around a campfire well into the night. They’re familiar, bright and earthy.”

The Charlotte Observer writes, “The Avett Brothers’ influence on this plucky, acoustic outfit from Athens is obvious - you can hear it in the elastic banjos, the organic, fly-by-your-pants flair and the rich vocals.”

The band will release the “Just One Drop” EP on April 7, which will be followed with the release of the full-length “Love Is a War” on June 23.

Both CDs were produced by renowned producer John Keane (Widespread Panic, REM, BR549, Uncle Tupelo) and will be released on the Athens-based label, Mule Train Records.

The show begins at 10 p.m., and the cover charge is $6. The DragonFly is located at 215 Boone Heights Drive in Boone. For more information, call (828) 262-3244.