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Three bands rep hard for AVL.
With a back-to-back-to-back block of some of the notable ensembles emerging from the Asheville market, Americana/indie unit Brothers Gillespie, psychedelic/indie-rockers Pink Beds, and soul/R&B-powerhouse Abby Bryant & The Echoes bulldozed through powerful sets at the Grey Eagle in the River Arts District.“AVLfest feels like the culmination of everything that makes this place such a special corner of the world,” Bryant says.

“This is a unique, wonderful place that’s full of extraordinary talent among artists who genuinely uplift and celebrate each other.”“Having a local festival of this magnitude is huge for our area and community,” adds Aaron Gillespie, guitarist for Brothers Gillespie. “Asheville is at this nexus of the Southeast where all points in the region converge, [where] there’s a certain draw that brings some heavy talent.”

American pastoral: Brothers Gillespie release new album, plot summer tour

(From left) The Brothers Gillespie are Chance Kuehn, Clay Gillespie, Davis Gillespie, Aaron Gillespie and Zack Edwards.Within its upcoming sophomore album, “American Pastoral,” rising Haywood County-based Americana/rock act The Brothers Gillespie has cultivated a vast, vibrant landscape of sonic and lyrical textures.

At its core, the album encompasses the emotional sentiments and cultural climate of our modern society, one which continues to wrestle with its identity in the 21st century, especially in a post-pandemic world.

The 19-song rock odyssey careens across the entire musical spectrum, making additional stops in the alt-country, indie, soul, psychedelic, grunge and folk realms.Regardless of its intent on this latest release, the band itself remain a steadfast, hardnosed rag-tag bunch of genuinely talented musicians, each as hungry and determined as the next to prove themselves in studio, but more so onstage — the setting by which The Brothers Gillespie have truly defined and set themselves apart from local and regional counterparts. Real talk? It’s this deep, perhaps renewed, sense of self, that passion and purpose at the foundation of The Brothers Gillespie that will only nurture and yield the fruits of the honest labor put forth by this quintet.