Thirteen Concerts That Rocked Appalachia in 2025
- Dec 30, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Often times people associate Appalachian music with banjos and barn dances. While there’s something to be said for the folk music that is engrained in Appalachian culture, it’s also true that the region is well known for its performance venues that welcome a wide variety of nationally recognized touring artists. Here are twelve concerts that Appalachia Today was at throughout 2025 that left us with good memories as we head into the New Year:
January 2025—The Deslondes at the Barter Theatre
For the past twenty years, the town of Abingdon has hosted its January Jams concert series, featuring performances from artists like Ralph Stanley in 2006, Mavis Staples in 2015, and Charley Crockett in 2020. The 2025 series featured New Orleans-based group The Deslondes on January 18th. One of the highlights of the night was their catchy 2024 tune “Take Me Back”. The band made a lasting impact early in the year in this small town that houses the State Theatre of Virginia, The Barter Theatre.
February 2025—Roseanne Cash at the Bijou Theatre
If there’s anyone in the music business who can legitimately claim the title of royalty, Rosanne Cash may be just that. The daughter of American music icon Johnny Cash, Rosanne found success with a string of songs that would reach #1 on the Billboard Country charts in the 1980s. Hearing Rosanne Cash sing “Seven Year Ache” was one of the highlights of the year when she performed the song live at Knoxville’s Bijou Theatre on February 16th.
March 2025—Southern Culture on the Skids at the Boone Saloon
Southern Culture on the Skids has been pushing the envelope with their unique blend of country-infused surf rock for well over thirty years. The working group tours across the country year after year, and 2025 saw them return to the Boone Saloon in Boone, North Carolina. Concertgoers were treated to the band’s infamous throwing of fried chicken out into the crowd during “Eight Piece Box” before a grand finale featuring their great cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy”. But of course we were left singing "Banana Puddin'" for the rest of 2025.
April 2025—Squirrel Nut Zippers at The Grey Eagle
Squirrel Nut Zippers achieved success in the 1990s with their Hot and Perennial Favorites albums both breaking into the Top 30 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. Led by Jimbo Mathus and featuring strong vocals from female vocalist Cella Blue, the Chapel Hill-based group brings a jazz performance reminiscent of early 20th-century ragtime swing. They performed to a sold-out crowd at The Grey Eagle on April 9, 2025, offering up a top-notch show that was every bit as good as the fantastic carnitas nachos at The Grey Eagle’s taqueria just before the show.
May 2025—AC/DC at Acrisure Stadium
The opportunity to see one of the all-time great rock bands was well worth a day-long drive through West Virginia. AC/DC played at the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers on May 8, 2025, where we saw their show from center stage of the pit surrounded by a stadium full of glittering red light-up devil horns (a nod to the late Bon Scott’s headwear on the band’s 1979 Highway to Hell studio album). Highlights included “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Thunderstruck”, but the best memory of the night was seeing Angus Young’s incredible guitar solo on “Let There Be Rock”.
June 2025—Band of Horses at The Mill & Mine
“Is there a ghost in my house???” That’s the question we had running through our heads for days after seeing Band of Horses at The Mill & Mine in Knoxville on June 24, 2025. Band leader and lead vocalist Ben Bridwell led the group through an onslaught of songs old and new, including the catchy 2007 tune, “Is There a Ghost”. The Mill & Mine in Knoxville’s Old City district is one of the classier standing venues in the region, with plenty of restaurants within a short walking distance. The band and the venue came together to make for one of our favorite shows of the year.
July 2025—The Record Company at The Shed
If you’re not listening to The Record Company, you’re missing out. This blues-infused rock band from Los Angeles brings a strong performance every time they step on stage, and their set at The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson in Maryville, Tennessee, on July 26th was no exception. From their best-known songs like “Off The Ground” and “Life To Fix” to the show-stopping encore of “I’m Getting Better”, The Record Company will rock your face off every time. We were fortunate to get to The Shed early for barbecue and fixins, because we weren’t going anywhere once these guys stepped on stage.
August 2025—David Lee Roth at Hard Rock Bristol
We weren’t sure what to make of the idea of an aging David Lee Roth playing at the "Birthplace of Country Music", where the Hard Rock franchise just opened its latest casino in Bristol within the past year. Expectations were low, but we left on cloud nine after Diamond Dave led the crowd through a tour-de-force of classic Van Halen songs. From “Panama” to “Jump”, Roth’s charisma, energy, and charm were front and center, and he left us smiling as big as his signature grin.
September 2025—TIE: +Live+ at the Great New York State Fair, and Ricky Skaggs at Bristol Rhythm and Roots
It’s impossible to narrow these two shows down. 90’s rock band +Live+ delivered a solid performance to a capacity crowd on September 1, 2025, at the Great New York State Fair. The show itself was a great reminder of the band’s hugely successful 1995 album Throwing Copper, with songs like “Lightning Crashes” and “Selling The Drama”, and the drive into Syracuse was a great reminder that the mountains of Appalachia don’t stop at the Mason-Dixon Line. And who could turn down a trip to see a free show at the Great New York State Fair??
That said, this year’s Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion offered up a lasting memory with a performance from Country Music Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. The highlight of the day was hearing Skaggs sing the Bill Monroe song “Uncle Pen” to a capacity crowd at the Birthplace of Country Music. For clarity here, that song was inspired by the founder of bluegrass music’s uncle, a Kentucky fiddler from the early 20th Century who died just a few years into the “hillbilly” music craze that began in earnest in Bristol in 1927. Skaggs told the story of Uncle Pen in song to the crowd on September 21st this year, tying our contemporary experience to a lineage that stretches well beyond Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, back to before recorded music was a thing. What a memory for those in attendance at this year’s Bristol Rhythm and Roots!!
October 2025—Turnpike Troubadours at Harrah’s Event Center
Turnpike Troubadours are a band that we had heard good things about going into their Asheville show at Harrah's Event Center on October 25th, but we weren’t super familiar with their music. That all changed for the better that night, as the band left us shell-shocked with a two-hour-long performance featuring great song after great song. From 2015’s “Down Here” to 2023’s “Chipping Mill”, this group is the real deal for classic country enthusiasts. The night was also a bit of a two-for-one deal with the fantastic Dawes opening the show with strong renditions of their hits “When My Time Comes” and “All Your Favorite Bands”.
November 2025—The Last Waltz at The Grey Eagle
It’s hard to beat the music of The Band, and this annual tradition put on by “All Aboard AVL” at The Grey Eagle was an especially strong performance this year the night before Thanksgiving 2025. Organized by Eric Travers and led by Kyle Travers of the Travers Brothers Band, the event saw the best musicians from the extended Asheville area come together to play songs like “Cripple Creek”, “Ophelia”, and “The Weight”, all songs from The Band's last ever concert forever immortalized in the 1978 Martin Scorsese film "The Last Waltz". This one is not to be missed if you’re near Asheville at Thanksgiving in 2027!
December 2025—Robert Earl Keen at The Tennessee Theatre
There has been a lot of good music come through the area in this final month of 2025, some great music in general, and some great Christmas-oriented shows. While it’s hard to narrow things down to just one performance, the winner here is Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen, who brought his “Greatest Christmas on Earth” tour to the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville on December 9, 2025. The show was not a Christmas show, but rather a December edition of Keen’s “Greatest Show on Earth” circus-themed show that happened to close out with his “Merry Christmas From The Family” before leading straight into a cover of “Feliz Navidad”. You really haven’t lived until you’ve sung along to “Feliz Navidad” with Robert Earl Keen, and that memory from this December was a great way to wrap up a fantastic year of concerts across the Appalachian region.
All photos in this article were taken by Casey Nicholson.
