Asheville, NC Celebrates 100 Years of Appalachian Music
Celebrate 100 years of Asheville’s musical legacy! "The Asheville Sessions" centennial weekend offers concerts, panels, and the remastering of a historic album honoring the 1925 recordings that helped shape Americana and country music. Image: Facebook / Visit Asheville
A century ago, Asheville made history by releasing the first commercial recordings of Appalachian music. In 1925, a mobile recording studio set up at the George Vanderbilt Hotel captured the iconic sounds of fiddlers, banjo players, and ballad singers. These sessions, later known as The Asheville Sessions, preserved the region’s musical traditions and helped shape what we know now as Americana and country music.
This fall, Asheville honors that legacy with The Asheville Sessions: Celebrating 100 Years of Americana & Appalachia, a weekend of concerts, panels, and the release of a historic album.
A Weekend Full of Music & History
The centennial celebration takes place November 6 through 9, 2025, highlighting Asheville’s role in shaping American roots music. Tickets go on presale at 10 a.m. on August 21, and public sales begin the following morning. The four-day celebration hosts a concert lineup featuring nationally recognized and local artists. However, the following two shows are the anchors of the weekend:
- Friday, November 7, at The Grey Eagle: Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show joins Nest of Singing Birds and Jesse Smathers for an evening inspired by the 1925 recordings.
- Saturday, November 8, at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium: River Whyless, Tyler Ramsey, Toubab Krewe, and Floating Action perform in a hometown showcase of contemporary Asheville talent.
Panels & Stories That Matter
In addition to concerts, free panels and symposiums explore Asheville’s musical past and its ongoing influence. Highlights include sessions on using music as a tool for disaster recovery and the process of remastering the original 1925 recordings. Descendants of original session artists will also share family stories, offering a personal glimpse into Asheville’s musical history.
- Thursday, November 6, at Wicked Weed Funkatorium: Kick off the event with a historic panel on The Asheville Sessions featuring music historians Ted Olson and Tony Russell, introduced by Brody Hunt, and a performance by the Russ Wilson Jazz Orchestra.
- Friday, November 7, at Pack Library: A full day of free sessions with Katherine Cutshall on Asheville in 1925, Bryan Wright on remastering acoustic recordings, Ted Olson and Tony Russell on the sessions’ significance, and a Gathering of Descendants sharing family legacies.
- Saturday, November 8, at Pack Library: Symposiums continue with panels on music as a tool for disaster recovery, the continuing legacy of live performance in Asheville, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee’s influence on traditional music in Western Carolina.
The Historic Album
Of course, at the heart of the celebration is Music from the Land of the Sky: The 1925 Asheville Sessions, a remastered collection of 28 tracks by pioneering artists like Kelly Harrell, Henry Whitter, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and the Foor-Robinson Carolina Club Orchestra. GRAMMY-nominated engineer Bryan Wright restored the recordings from the original discs, revealing details that went unheard for nearly a century. The album is available on CD and vinyl, pressed just steps from where the original sessions were recorded.
Asheville’s music story continues today with artists like Luke Combs and Warren Haynes, alongside a new generation redefining Americana. The centennial weekend is a rare chance to experience Asheville’s past, present, and future in one unforgettable celebration.
For tickets, album preorders, and complete details, visit ashevillesessions.com.
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Brianna Goebel
Brianna is StyleBlueprint’s Associate Editor and Sponsored Content Manager. She is an avid fan of iced coffee and spends her free time reading romance novels.