Ain't No Grave

(Toggle Switch photos of Sarah Carter, top, and Red Clay River)

It's odd to have an authentic, folky musical experience in a strip shopping center near a big suburban mall, but such is life in "America's First Region" Hampton Roads.

Tonight, I spent a few hours in Volume, a fine record store near Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach. The music I heard was wonderful -- way beyond what anyone should expect from a free in-store performance.

Take that, Virginia Beach Amphitheater!

Sarah Carter -- a solo singer I'd been hearing about for some time -- did not disappoint. She's blessed with a powerful voice that she uses to put a new spin on old-time classics from Dock Boggs, the Carter Family and the like. But she also writes some lovely tunes her damn self and accompanies herself on autoharp and ... high-hat! Oh, and add to all that a loopy, sometimes hilarious stage presence. I'm ready to go hear her again tomorrow.

Red Clay River is a gritty, folk-rock ensemble from Roanoke more than lived up to the recordings I'd heard online. Singer Daniel Bivins writes dark, stark tunes about struggling mountain people and sings them in voice somewhere between Steve Earle and a death rattle. His band -- a banjo player, an electric guitarist and violinist Camellia Delk (who also plays with The Bastards of Fate) -- back him with sympathetic restraint. Delk's violin and viola add drama to an already rich landscape.

I only had time to hear one song by the night's closer, Mason Dixon Disaster, but I heard enough to know they mean business. The band's high-volume Southern punk snarled sweetly.