To mark the 100th anniversary of the historic Asheville Sessions, AVLFest, Blue Ridge Music Center, and Explore Asheville are throwing a proper centennial celebration: “The Asheville Sessions: Celebrating 100 Years of Americana & Appalachia.”
From Thursday, Nov. 6 through Sunday, Nov. 9, the community will commemorate the first commercial recordings of traditional Appalachian music with panels and performances from artists including River Whyless, Tyler Ramsey, and Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show.
Where the magic began
The 1927 Bristol Sessions are lauded as the “Big Bang” of modern country, catapulting artists like the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers to fame. But without the Asheville Sessions in 1925, it’s safe to say that those Bristol sessions wouldn’t have been so influential.
During a 10-day session in August 1925, OKeh Records A&R Director Ralph Peer brought musicians from across Appalachia to his portable recording studio in the then brand new George Vanderbilt Hotel on Haywood Street. The result was 60 wax masters that combined the influences of West African percussion, Cherokee storytelling, and hymns of the British Isles — all shaped by the landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains — to create the foundation of Americana music as we know it today.
Honoring the magic captured in the original Asheville Sessions, Rivermont Records is releasing “Music From the Land of the Sky: The 1925 Asheville Sessions” — the first remastered edition of the album. Many of the 28 tracks were sourced from the original 78-rpm discs, which have been privately owned for decades. You can preorder the album on CD and vinyl (pressed at Asheville’s Citizen Vinyl), featuring songs from Kelly Harrell, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Emmett Miller, and many more pioneers of country music.
“These restored recordings give us an irreplaceable record of the variety of voices and styles from Asheville, Western Carolina, and the broader Blue Ridge at a time before making music as a vocation was even possible,” said Richard Emmett of the Blue Ridge Music Center.
A packed four-day weekend
Here’s what’s in store for the fall celebration:
Thursday, Nov. 6
- Music historians Ted Olson and Tony Russell will lead a panel about the Asheville Sessions at Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium — plus, a performance from the Russ Wilson Jazz Orchestra.
Friday, Nov. 7
- Free panels all day at Pack Memorial Library, covering Asheville in 1925, remastering the Asheville Sessions recordings, the sessions’ significance, and a gathering of the descendants of the artists to share their legacies.
- An evening performance from Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Nest of Singing Birds, and Jessie Smathers at The Grey Eagle.
Saturday, Nov. 8
- Free panels at Pack Memorial Library about music’s role in disaster recovery, the legacy of live performance in Asheville, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee’s influence on traditional music in WNC.
- River Whyless, Tyler Ramsey, Toubab Krewe, and Floating Action will pay homage to Asheville’s musical legacy with a show at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
Sunday, Nov. 9
- Local bands will perform roots music during a free daytime concert — location is TBA.
Presale tickets for the Friday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 8 concerts will be available Thursday, Aug. 21 at 10 a.m., with general sale tickets following on Friday, Aug. 22 at 10 a.m.
