How Asheville’s 100-year anniversary of the ‘Asheville Sessions’ Makes it the Country Music Destination of Appalachia

There are cities and towns across the United States that specifically call to music lovers. Among them is Asheville, North Carolina, the ultimate destination for artists and travelers looking to explore the vastness of the American musical taxonomy and dig deep into its Appalachian roots. It’s safe to argue that, while impossible to pinpoint the birthplace of Americana music, Asheville is where it was nurtured and made to flourish through generations of musicians from Nina Simone to Luke Combs. At its core, Asheville remains a city devoted to its artists—where fostering vibrant, grassroots experiences has long been a way of life. 

This November, music aficionados from around the world will gather in Asheville to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the “Asheville Sessions,” the first known, history-defining effort to create an audio catalogue of Appalachian music, which includes contributions from roots pioneers, including Emmett Miller, J.D. Harris, Kelly Harrell, Henry Whitter, and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Without this 1925 recording, produced by Ralph Peer (who’d go on to land in the Country Music Hall of Fame), much of the Appalachian and Carolina music tradition—itself an amalgam of sounds that blends storytelling traditions of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, West Africa, Ireland, and Great Britain—would be lost to time. Moreover, the songs and musicians recorded on the “Asheville Sessions” paved the way for today’s dominating genres. 

By this measure, Asheville is not only the cradle of Americana music, but of all it inspired. It’s proved itself as an incubator of talent that, in addition to artists like Simone and Combs, includes Roberta Flack, MJ Lendermann, Jermaine Dupri, Angel Olsen, Warren Haynes, and many more. Its recording legacy is far from limited to country music. It also lives on through places like: Rabbit’s Motel, which first opened in 1948 as a respite for Black travelling musicians on the Chitlin’ Circuit in the segregated south. It recently underwent an extensive restoration under new owners, Claude Coleman Jr. and Brett Spivey, and was converted into rehearsal and recording spaces for musicians. 

For those looking to be surrounded by music’s past, present, and future, Asheville offers an abundance at its year-round festivals and beyond: Every summer AVL Fest—which will resume in 2026—packs its stages with nearly 200 musical acts while local breweries, like Wicked Weed Brewing, keep drinks flowing. (Side note: Asheville is also known for its incredible local beer scene, which—thankfully—is all-seasons.) Beloved venues like the Grey Eagle, Asheville Yards,

the Orange Peel, and the Fleetwood keep live music going throughout the year, while the city’s many talented buskers turn every trip outside into an adventure of soundscapes. Those looking for an organic, participatory experience can drop into one of the Jack of the Wood weekly old-time jams or the Friday night drum circles, the latter of which has been running for the past 20 years. 

Music is one of many elements that make Asheville a bucket-list destination. Opportunities for nature-lovers to explore the breath-taking wilderness of the Blue Ridge Mountains are limitless, while the more culinarily-minded can easily lose themselves in Foodtopia, Asheville’s simmering food scene. Infused in every Asheville experience are the threads of Appalachian music, and all that it inspired, woven together to form a tapestry of community and culture that’s irreplicable anywhere else. It’s of little wonder that creatives continue to be drawn there, and that it fostered alternative sounds of folk and country music that continue to be interpreted by the most innovative artists of today.

Celebrating this deep-rooted legacy, the Asheville Sessions: Celebrating 100 Years of Americana & Appalachia will run from November 6-9, 2025. Kicking things off will be a panel discussion with music historians Ted Olson and Tony Russell on November 6 at the Wicked Weed Funkatorium. Performances throughout the weekend include Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show along with Nest of Singing Birds and Jessie Smathers, at the Grey Eagle on Friday November 7. On November 8, River Whyless, Tyler Ramsey, Toubab Krewe, and Floating Action will perform at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at Harrah’s Cherokee Center. Contemporary musicians will also be performing renditions of songs from the “Asheville Sessions” at venues across the city throughout the weekend. 

The festival coincides with the new release of “Music From the Land of the Sky: The 1925 Asheville Sessions,” which features 28 carefully remastered and restored tracks from the original, privately-owned 78-rpm discs first recorded by Peer. “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,” says Richard Emmett, Program Director of the Blue Ridge Mountain Center, a museum and venue dedicated to the preservation of Blue Ridge Mountains’ musical traditions.
A full schedule and tickets for the Asheville Sessions: Celebrating 100 Years of Americana & Appalachia can be found here, though some events—including learning sessions Bryan Wright, who remastered the recordings for the centennial celebration, public historian Katherine Cutshall, Olson and Russell, and a Gathering of Descendants of the original “Asheville Sessions” musicians—are free, as is the closing concert on Sunday. More details can be found at Explore Asheville.