Indivisible AVL Partners with Rural Progress for Backroads Tour Stop in Asheville
Backroads Tour Rolls Into WNC: Rural Progress Brings a Coast-to-Coast Cultural Movement to Asheville Music Hall
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, the Backroads Tour stops in Western North Carolina on May 24 with Raury headlining a night of Appalachian-rooted music, storytelling, and community.
ASHEVILLE, NC (May 19, 2026) — There’s a certain kind of electricity that only happens when music, movement and community collide — the kind that turns front porches into organizing hubs, tiny clubs into cultural flashpoints, and strangers into lifelong collaborators. On May 24, that energy is heading to Asheville Music Hall.
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Rural Progress is bringing the Backroads Tour to Asheville — part of a coast-to-coast live music run designed to celebrate the rebellious joy, cultural grit, and community power that have always pulsed through rural America.
WHAT: Backroads Tour
WHEN: Sunday, May 24, 7 p.m. (doors open 6:30 p.m.)
WHERE: Asheville Music Hall
WHO: Raury, Joseph Terrell, Dori Freeman, Sparrow Smith, The Wildmans
TICKETS: https://bit.ly/backroads-avl
Running from May through July, the Backroads Tour isn’t positioning itself as another packaged nostalgia trip or corporate-sponsored “heartland” campaign. Instead, Backroads is aiming for something bigger: a traveling cultural movement rooted in the idea that rural communities have always been at the center of America’s most transformative moments — and still are.
For years, conversations around rural America have flattened rural communities into stereotypes or political talking points. The Backroads Tour aims to flip that narrative on its head, putting creativity, mutual aid, community organizing, and cultural expression front and center. The tour’s ethos pulls from the same lineage that powered gatherings like Woodstock and Farm Aid — moments where music became the infrastructure for something larger than entertainment.
“This is a really exciting moment for everyone who believes in the power of us together,” said Dom Holmes, Director of Culture & Community at Rural Progress. “From Woodstock to Farm Aid, we have a history of coming together as a ragtag group of underdogs to make our bold dreams become reality.”
That sense of collective possibility sits at the heart of the tour. Beyond the concerts themselves, Backroads is designed to spark community engagement, celebrate the long history of rural innovation and resistance, and create spaces where people can gather not just to listen but to reconnect.
“In these fractured times, connection matters more than ever,” said Robin Lively Summers, president of local community partner Indivisible Asheville/WNC. “Coming together to share our stories, to reconnect, and to recharge through music is a powerful way of building community.”
The Asheville event includes nationally known musicians with Appalachian rural roots: genre-defying Raury, Pittsboro’s defiant singer-songwriter Joseph Terrell, WNC’s own Sparrow Smith of the Resonant Rogues, straight-to-the heart Dori Freeman, and brother-and-sister fiddlers Elisha and Aila Wildman.
The event also features the Backroads Tour story booth, where folks are invited to share stories about community — the moments that made you who you are, the people who carried you, and the future you envision — stories that will be collected with others across the country and published in book form later this year.
The nonpartisan voter outreach coalition WNC Votes! will also be on hand to help people check or update their registration and get updated information on voting in 2026.
The idea that the future of American culture may once again be emerging from overlooked places is what gives the Backroads Tour its momentum. At a time when many people are searching for genuine connection and tangible community, the WNC stop is an invitation for local groups, community workers, organizers, and music fans to connect and recharge.
The Backroads Tour is not just a concert. It’s a reminder that movements still start in small rooms, with loud music, big ideas, and people willing to show up.
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About Rural Progress
Rural Progress is a national rural civic organization working to lift up the voices, culture, and political power of rural America. Learn more at RuralProgress.org. For more information on the Rural Progress Backroads Tours, including upcoming stops and dates, visit Backroads.us.