Hayley Benton

hbenton@citizen-times.com

In Asheville, music, like art, seeps from the city's nooks and crannies, from rooftops and open windows — and from underground bunker bars that bump hip-hop into the night.

While the city's music scene is vibrant, and growing with each new note, its musicians are anything but unified over a single sound. Each draws inspiration from different scenes around town — from the region's Appalachian bluegrass roots to the city's new label as a hippie haven and to its gritty, heavier rock scene, centered on the west side of town.

Mirroring the melting pot of today's world, Asheville's music scene borrows from other countries and other cultures — and these different sounds spill out onto the streets of downtown, out of West Asheville dive bars, mixing together and becoming the sound of the city.

"I don't believe there is one prominent genre (in Asheville), and that is one of the most beautiful aspects of the scene," said rocker Andrew Scotchie, born and raised in Asheville and frontman of The River Rats band. "Genres help give a sense of identity in Asheville, but all the musicians I know and work with are inspired by all types of music. It's not at all uncommon to see a (musician) in town play with a reggae band and then, in the same week, play with a jazz or bluegrass project.

"Really, all these collaborations and the cross-pollination of genres are leading many artists to create a genre or a 'sound' that is entirely their own," he said. "Asheville has so many bands that just sound like themselves, and although you can trace influences, what the artists are doing in Asheville with those influences are very new and exciting."

With more than 80 entertainment establishments in town in 2017 — plenty of them popping up within the last few years, from The Mothlight in 2013 to the Salvage Station last summer — it certainly seems that Asheville can't get enough of its music scene, packing bodies into bars faster than the city can open up new venues.

In the era of Asheville artistry, music has taken somewhat of a backseat to visual arts, overshadowed by the potters and painters of the River Arts District and beyond. But as more attention is drawn to the Asheville music scene — even mentioned at the 2017 Grammy Awards by local musician 23 Skidoo as "endlessly unique" — the more prominent the city has become as a music destination.

"I remember when there was only one venue in town, and now there are so many choices it's crazy,” said Laura Boosinger, traditional Appalachian folk musician and music consultant for Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina. In the 1980s, "the only venue to hear traditional Americana was in Black Mountain, called McDibbs. In the late '80s, we got Asheville Music Hall, and sometime in the early '90s, we got Be Here Now on Biltmore, across from Pack Place. When Diana Wortham (Theatre) opened up, lots more big acts started coming to town."

Now, there's Asheville Music Hall, One Stop and New Mountain, specializing in jam bands, electronica and psychedelic rock. There's Isis Music Hall and Jack of the Wood, bringing in, among other acts, Americana and alt-country. The Odditorium is known for its punk, metal and hard rock scene, and, down the road, The Mothlight often showcases indie, garage-rock.

Larger sized venues like the U.S. Cellular Center and the Orange Peel are on "a whole other level," according to Auburn Petty, marketing director of New Mountain on the west end of downtown, because they bring in national and international acts of all genres, from comedians like Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. to musicians like Bob Dylan and Animal Collective.

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On a more local level, though, "people in this town are making really good music of every genre," Petty said. "The venues here have really kind of taken their own identities. But I think outsiders, especially, see the bluegrass aspect because that goes far back into the history of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's really deep-rooted in Appalachian traditions. But you never know. Asheville is still coming into its own identity."

The imagery that comes to mind for the Asheville music scene might depend entirely on which scene you're plugged into — or how familiar you are with the town and its many generations of musicians.

"People know Asheville's got some great music, but, I think, when a lot of people think of Asheville, it’s just like a bunch of Mumford and Sons" — modernized bluegrass music — that comes to mind, said Matt Evans, who books bands for The Odditorium in West Asheville. "I'm not really plugged into the bluegrass scene, ... but I'm sure if you asked every booking person at every venue in town, they'd give you a completely different answer."

Jeff Santiago, who books talent at the Orange Peel and plays in his own band in town, was perplexed by the idea of a single Asheville "sound."

"I'm not sure there is one," he said. "When I first moved to Asheville 10 years ago, it seemed jam bands were the big scene here — but that's not the case anymore."

When looking at bigger cities and the genres for which they're known — Nashville and its reputation as a country music hub, Chicago and its blues scene, Seattle ushering in the era of grunge — "it says a lot about those genres when they were able to take hold of cities the way they did," Santiago said. "And we have to take into account when they did as well. Those sounds came from a hunger and a social expression pertaining to that time and place."

In a different time, Asheville and the rest of Appalachia were deeply rooted in old-timey mountain music traditions, leaning heavily on influences from Celtic ancestry and the African-American invention of the modern banjo.

By the 1990s, hippies and neo-hippies took notice of the city’s allure, urban enough for comfort but still wild on its outskirts, and the Asheville counterculture began to take hold — as did a Grateful Dead-loving music scene. With electronic music pioneer Bob Moog living in the city, the jam crowd eventually added synthesizers to their sound.

In the last 10 years, as Asheville continues to attract more outsiders and top various ‘best of’ lists around the nation, its music scene has shifted once again — but this time, there’s not a single genre or culture that defines it.

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Though newcomers bring with them remnants and soundscapes from other places, near and far, Asheville and its varying music scenes — and its awe-inspiring landscape — play a huge role in the music the flows through its streets.

"I think everyone kind of takes inspiration and puts it in their own context," said Silas Durocher, whose band The Get Right Band plays a funky mix of rock and blues. "I don’t find myself inspired to write bluegrass because I’m hiking, just because that’s not what I’m into. When I feel inspired or peaceful or excited, that puts me in a more fertile place for writing music."

Boosinger added that she believes “our (traditional) music got saved here in a very pure form. … I really do believe that, because we honored and celebrated our traditions — and that made it important to see that that was a valuable thing — folks came here looking for it and it never died out. (Traditional folk music) stayed in the forefront of the culture.

“Young people came here didn’t start over,” she said. Asheville’s music scene already “had great roots and a great community. … It’s organic it’s ever-expanding, and it's been a thing that has brought people to Asheville” decade after decade. “We have that creative vibe here, and all the creative vibes influence the other creative vibes. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s impacted by all the other things going on.”