Isaac Hadden

There's something in the water in southwestern Virginia — or maybe in the hills themselves, in the way sound moves through hollows and tree lines and finds a child who can't yet reach the guitar's highest fret but already understands that music is about listening. Isaac Hadden grew up there, started playing at five, and has spent the years since learning what he already knew instinctively: that the most alive music happens in the space between musicians, in the collective current that runs between the bandstand and the room.

Now based in Asheville and rising fast through the national circuit, Hadden plays guitar the way certain people hold a conversation, with wit and weight and a willingness to go somewhere unexpected if that's where the room is pulling. His playing draws from funk, jazz, rock, and R&B without pledging allegiance to any of them. He calls group improvisation his favorite thing in music, the energy exchange, the collective consciousness that builds when musicians and audience lock into something together. If you've been in the room when it happens, you know exactly what he means.