Interview: Golden Shoals

Amy Alvey plays fiddle, Mark Kilianski plays guitar, and together they make beautiful roots music as Golden Shoals.

Formerly based in Asheville, the duo are now spread out in Nashville and Vancouver, respectively, but return to the area for a Thursday, May 12, show at The Grey Eagle. Back in town prepping for that show and others, Alvey and Kilianski spoke with Asheville Stages about their time in Buncombe County, working together from afar, and reconnecting with their pre-pandemic songs.

Edwin Arnaudin: Which years did you live in Asheville and what brought you here?

Mark Kilianski: We honed in on Asheville in 2017, after a year of touring the country and scoping out different cities. Asheville has the music, the nature, and it's pretty van friendly, (Amy was living in her van at the time.) While we were touring near constantly and never made a hard move here, Asheville was our home base up until the pandemic.

EA:What are some of your favorite memories from your time in WNC?

MK: The old time scene can't be beat. In addition to multiple public jams throughout the week, we were always going to house parties with four or five different sessions going on, and the level of skill and commitment to the music here is unrivaled. It was also really easy to go to fiddlers’ conventions on weekends we weren't gigging, entering the contests and jamming with other folks from all over the Southeast.

EA: How did it feel playing at Highland Brewing Co. in March? What thoughts and emotions did you experience on that stage and being back in town in general?

MK: It was glorious to see old pals at the show — people we hadn't seen since 2020 or 2019. It made us want to spend some more time here, and we are spending some extra days here preparing for our May shows. We've gotten to play music with friends and enjoy this luxurious spring weather.

EA: What prompted your moves to Nashville and Vancouver? What's standing out to you about your new locations thus far?

MK: I moved to Vancouver for love. My partner is Canadian and I went to Toronto in 2020 to be with her. Last year, she got her degree in midwifery and got a job in her hometown of Vancouver — which is beautiful, situated between mountains and water. I was loving the winter there: rainy, but rarely below freezing, so I did a lot of running, which is crucial for my mental and physical health. There's a lot of love for bluegrass and old time music there, so I'm finding a good niche.

Amy Alvey: Nashville seemed like the place that made sense for me and my boyfriend, who are both very connected to the old time and bluegrass performance world. Not only did we have a ton of friends living here, but Nashville is usually an easy and cheap place to fly internationally. The level of musicianship is what sets it apart from any other place; the number of incredible fiddle players alone makes it unlike any other. We were looking for a place to live together that would push us musically, and it sure has delivered.

EA: How has the international distance impacted your creative processes and the ways you collaborate?

MK: Mainly, we're recording and releasing singles instead of albums, which streaming encourages anyway. Things come together very much the same way they did before: one of us brings a song to the table with a general sense of the arrangement, and we carve out the finer details together, but working with producers in the studio adds more ideas to the mix, which is really fun and freeing.

Photo by Kaitlyn Raitz

EA: I’ve enjoyed listening to your self-titled album! And I’m curious about your relationship to these songs nearly two years later. Have global events or personal experiences occurring in the interim changed the meanings of any particular tunes or lyrics for you?

MK: Depends on the song. [laughs] The more explicitly political songs may be less timely, but no less relevant. We may have a different president, but we still have most of the same problems, plus the repercussions of the previous administration. Besides that, I really love every song on Golden Shoals and still delight in playing them at every show.

EA: Have you played The Grey Eagle before or will this be a first?

MK: In 2019, we played there with Jackson Emmer and Alexa Rose, both of whom we love as people and artists. That’s also the case this time around. We've been friends with Twisted Pine since our Boston days — I played a fair amount of gigs with Chris [Sartori (bass)] and Dan [Bui (mandolin)] at that time. I was also roommates with Anh [Phung (flute)] during lockdown in Toronto last year. We just posted some reels of our house jams from that time. We've known Bill and the Belles for years as well, played shows with them in the UK , and been on their Farm and Fun Time program. It'll just be a big party with our badass friends!

EA: What else do you have planned for the rest of 2022? Any notable goals you’d like to accomplish before the year is through?

MK: We've got a fair amount of touring on the books, playing Green Riverfest in Massachusetts in June, Shakori Hills in North Carolina in October, and a whole mess of shows in between. We're releasing some cowboy songs in June, and some full band original tracks in the fall. We're excited about this year and looking forward to next year as well, hoping things go as smoothly as possible and to keep doing what we love.

IF YOU GO

Who: Twisted Pine + Bill and the Belles + Golden Shoals
When: Thursday, May 12, 8 p.m.
Where: The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave., thegreyeagle.com
Tickets: $15

(Photo by The Foxes Photography)