Martin Sexton, Willi Carlisle, and more on Mountain Stage
About this Event
GUEST ARTISTS: Martin Sexton, Willi Carlisle, Magnolia Boulevard, Denitia, and Aleski Campagne (click each artist name to learn more)
Tickets: $30-$35
All tickets to this show are e-tickets and will be emailed to you upon purchase. Open up the pdf and the QR code on your ticket will be scanned at the door. This event will also be offered as a livestream.
Watch the livestream!
Mountain Stage livestreams are free, however, there are some incredible folks out there who’d like to show their support through a donation-based, pay-what-you-want “ticket” for the livestream. This is a donation-based “ticket” to show some love for the program and is not a ticket to the live event.
You’ll be able to catch the show from the comfort of your home (or wherever you wish) Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026 – at 7 PM ET at mountainstage.org.
Click here to learn more about Mountain Stage and the live show experience!
- Doors to the lobby open at 5pm
- Doors to the theater open at 6:30pm
- Show begins at 7pm
Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton tours in support of the 25th anniversary of Live Wide Open - the critically-acclaimed double vinyl live album. The show will include these fan-favorites as well as some new material and surprise covers.
“The real thing, people”
—Billboard
“Soul-marinated voice”
—Rolling Stone
“Mr. Sexton as an impassioned performer can bring women and men to tears when they see him live” —Wall Street Journal
“The best live performer I’ve ever seen.” —John Mayer
“Master of dynamics, reducing a room to silence with his blustering baritone, then teasing that silence with a fluttering falsetto."
—Acoustic Guitar
Folksinger Willi Carlisle holds tight the conviction that love is bigger than hate, and no-one is expendable. Carlisle’s music has always been a dance between absurdity, spectacle, and philosophy. On his fourth studio album, Winged Victory, Carlisle returns with his signature blend of traditionally-rooted folk music and kaleidoscope of oddball characters to confer with his core tenets in more overt and provocative ways.
Carlisle delivers Victory as the next chapter in his long-running direct address to the hope that by understanding our collective suffering we might be free of it. He’s intent on creating art and a well-rounded life in a broken world. The idea began with 2022’s Peculiar, Missouri when Carlisle proclaimed “your heart’s a big tent, everybody gets in.” After gathering together all the world’s weirdos and misfits under the big tent, with 2024’s Critterland, Carlisle let them loose into the world. Now, on Winged Victory, they speak for themselves, unencumbered by social expectations.
Victory, Carlisle’s first self-produced album, will be released June 27 via Signature Sounds. It both indulges a few of his wildest dreams (including a version of Richard Thompson’s “Beeswing,” among several traditional folk song covers), and feels like the inevitable sequel to Critterland’s charismatic menagerie of chaos. Though occasionally raunchy, and routinely provocative, Victory is not afraid to make a spectacle for the sake of a point. Victory should be understood as a reflection. It revels in the beauty of tiny, monetarily-worthless moments and things, offering with them a consideration of our innate humanity.
If patience is a virtue, then the current state of Magnolia Boulevard plays right into the long-held notion that sonic grandeur evolves in its own time and place — one where the Lexington, Kentucky, rock-n-soul act is aiming to break into a national audience ready and roaring for the quintet’s soaring talents.
“Things happen when they’re supposed to happen,” lead singer/guitarist Maggie Noelle says. “And I’m so proud of this music coming out now with this group of dudes — it’s like we’re finally getting what we kind of deserve.”
“We know who we are now, and we know what we want to do,” adds keyboardist Ryan Allen. “We know what we want to sound like. Everybody involved is on the same path. We’ve got the same mission and we feel good about it. These songs have been cared for and thought about, where everything is happening with intention — there’s purpose behind the music.”
That mission of luminous tone and honest intent is no more apparent than Magnolia Boulevard’s latest self-titled album. Captured by legendary Kentucky producer Duane Lundy, the eight-song LP runs the gamut of genres, all with thick threads of the blues and soul radiating from the tracks.
“We like a lot of different things, so let’s start a band that’s blues and soul, the rest being whatever else we feel like adding,” Allen says. “These are songs and stories of the struggles of Appalachian people, these little snapshots of time of what it’s like to live around here.”
“Inspiration comes and goes,” Noelle adds. “I’ve realized, in these later years of songwriting, I tend to write about my current life and where my heart is.”
Formed in 2017 by Noelle and Allen, the band came together when other creative endeavors weren’t fulfilling the artistic desires and professional expectations of what the duo were envisioning. It was time to push down the gas pedal on the possibility and potential of what Magnolia Boulevard could be, and ultimately has become — in sonic design and in the live realm.
“The sound has been described as ‘Appalachian Soul,’ and I really like that because of our Appalachian roots,” Noelle says. “You get a taste of folk with the songwriting portion, but you also have that rock and soul foundation.”
Watching Noelle under the bright lights, her stage presence immediately conjures whispers in the audience, where her fiery vocal talents are compared to the likes of Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt, and Grace Potter. And yet, Magnolia Boulevard remains unique and steadfast in its approach.
The powerhouse group is rounded out by Roddy Puckett (bass), Austin Lewis (guitar) and Brandon Johnson (drums). With this bountiful lineup, Magnolia Boulevard has been making the rounds around Southern Appalachia and beyond, each show an opportunity to once again justify its reputation as one of the rising, “must see” rock shows anywhere in the country.
“It feels a lot better when it is the sum of all the parts, when you have five people all going after the same thing,” Allen says. “We’re not sacrificing or compromising anything, and in a way that we maybe had before. It feels like we’re got something substantial here that we’re really proud of.”
“Everybody in the band is also interpreting the lyrics and showing emotion, because they’re into it, too,” Noelle adds. “They feel the same emotions, and there’s something magic about it [when we’re playing].”
And as Magnolia Boulevard grows and evolves into a national act, the core essence and melodic attitude of the unit will proudly reside in the rich, vibrant music scene of its native Lexington and greater Kentucky.
“In Kentucky, we’ve got a little bit of everything, and we just have this real sense of community,” Noelle says. “Everybody has always been supportive of each other’s projects, no matter the genre, and I think that’s important.”
“There’s also this feeling of gratitude,” Allen adds. “More and more, I’ll just catch myself feeling really thankful for where we are. It comes from what we’ve gone through, and being able to persevere through it — it makes it even better when you wind up on the other side.”
With the new record appearing on the horizon and an upcoming tour running up and down the East Coast, what remains for Magnolia Boulevard is this deep, renewed sense of purpose — one held and shared with any and all who happen to happily wander into their musical landscape.
“Playing live is what we crave,” Noelle says. “[Onstage], we escape to a place where we can all be free, leaving fears and anxieties at the door, forgetting yesterday’s troubles — it’s a form of therapy at this point to just lay it all out.”
“The first time I saw Maggie sing, I knew we had a chance to reach a lot of people,” Allen adds. “We’ve come a long way since that first rehearsal. Different band members. Broken down vans. Empty dive bars. We’re both happier now with this band than we’ve ever been.”
On her new album, Sunset Drive, Denitia shares her story of going after something new — a life back in Nashville, where she attended college, immersed in both the city’s roots music scene and the community of the artist collective Black Opry — while experiencing the menagerie of emotions that come with leaving behind what you knew and starting over. Across the album, she draws from the country and alternative rock music she listened to growing up outside of Houston; the songs of artists such as the Eagles, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, and Neil Young, ever present in her life; and the decade she spent entrenched in Brooklyn’s indie music scene.
Denitia’s music has been featured in the films Nanny and The Invitation, as well as in the series Better Things (FX), Broad City (Comedy Central), Dear White People (Netflix), Shrinking (Apple TV+), and The Terminal List (Amazon). She has toured extensively with the Black Opry Revue; been invited to perform at the National Museum of African American Music and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville; and shared stages with Jason Isbell, Amythyst Kiah, Joy Oladokun, and Allison Russell, among other artists.
In 2023, Denitia earned one of five spots in a residency hosted by the Black Opry and WXPN, was named to Rissi Palmer’s Color Me Country class, and was one of three artists selected for CMT and mtheory’s Equal Access cohort. And the momentum continued in 2024: Denitia was one of CMT’s 2024 Next Women of Country; was named an artist to watch by the Nashville Scene; made her Grand Ole Opry debut and opened shows for Mickey Guyton in 2024. Denitia was a featured vocalist in Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony, and she has toured throughout 2025.
Aleksi Campagne
Aleksi Campagne is uniquely qualified to offer a contemporary, indie-folk take on the time-honoured fiddle-singing tradition.
Aleksi grew up on stage. At five years old, he began performing alongside his mother, Canadian folk icon, Connie Kaldor. At nineteen, Aleksi moved to Paris to study under Jazz-violin legend Didier Lockwood. At twenty-one, Aleksi became the only student to have ever been accepted into the classical violin, the jazz violin and the jazz voice performance programs at McGill University. And, by twenty-five, with only a six-song EP, Aleksi graced the lineups of some of the most competitive folk festivals across Canada for three consecutive years - including the Regina, Canmore, and Bear Creek Folk Festivals.
Most recently, Aleksi received both a Canada Council Grant and a FACTOR Grant to fully fund the recording and production of his highly-anticipated 10-song debut album For the Giving, launching fall 2023. Still based out of his hometown of Montreal, Aleksi floors audiences by singing while bowing his violin and seamlessly navigating songs in English and in French. His original music blends folk songwriting with an edgy, multi-layered sound resulting from his unique combination of voice, violin, and looping effect pedals.
“The dreamy orchestration and floaty vocals of ‘Another Day’ provide a silken sensory camouflage to Aleksi’s profound mastery of story-telling, letting the listener inside the heart of the singer with wordplay, imagery, pensive pauses and a thrillingly casual whistle solo.” -Paul Corby, Roots Music Canad
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 39.14
