Back to Asheville News & History Index
Music pumps up economy, enlivens nightlife
By Michael Flynn, Asheville Citizen-Times
August 22, 2003
ASHEVILLE - At last month's Bele Chere, country-pop performer and Grammy-winner Shelby Lynne told the crowd that from the moment she arrived, Asheville struck her as "a music town."
Nearly 100 acts performed during the three-day festival, drawing thousands of visitors.
And throughout the year, the music scene pumps up the local economy.
Recent Asheville area entertainment listings show about 50 live music performances take place most Fridays and Saturdays. Crowded clubs and music festivals are summertime staples.
Although the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce doesn't calculate the impact of the local music business on the area's economy, club owners, musicians and managers agree it is a significant contributor.
UNC Asheville music department chairman Wayne Kirby said the area's music scene "is one of the unheralded critical elements of our economy. The entertainment is the draw, and the beneficiaries are local businesses like restaurants and retail." Kirby, who teaches a class on the music business, noted there is little hard data on the subject, however.
Tom Tveidt, the chamber's director of research, said he is interested in exploring the economic impact of the local music scene.
"The chamber recognizes that arts and music have a significant impact on the area's economy," he said, noting a recent study that highlighted the economic contribution of nonprofit arts groups.
Lesley Groetsch, co-owner of Biltmore Avenue music hall The Orange Peel, said, "people who aren't in the music business don't see it as an industry. It's in the city of Asheville's best interest to promote and invest in the music business and to understand it as a business."
Other club operators agree.
"Live music is helping Asheville even more to become a point of destination," said Tressa Thornton, whose Tressa's Downtown Jazz and Blues features live music six days a week.
There is much going on here musically, said Westville Pub co-owner Lu Young: "The city has no idea what it means."
Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority Chairman Chris Cavanaugh said music "is not something we address in any specific way," though the group recognizes "in the aggregate, there is an awful lot of musical entertainment offered to residents and visitors." The chamber's Convention Visiors Bureau, Cavanaugh said, promotes individual events such as Shindig on the Green through visitor guides, event listings and discussions with travel writers.
Cavanaugh said the recent proliferation of live music venues has alleviated a historical complaint heard by Asheville tourism officials: "there's not enough to do at night." Hello Asheville!
A leading light of Asheville's club scene is The Orange Peel, which opened last fall after an extensive renovation sponsored by local philanthropic group, Public Interest Projects. Groetsch and husband, Jack, were attracted to Asheville from New Orleans after more than a decade managing the Howlin' Wolf in that music-rich city.
The 950-person capacity Orange Peel was full for shows this year by Wilco, Flaming Lips and Hootie The lowfish, according to a club staffer, and the Aug. 14 show by bluegrass-inspired trio Nickel Creek nearly sold out. At $20 a head, such evenings gross about $18,000 in ticket sales, alongside related beverage and merchandise sales.
"There's hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in and out of this place," Groetsch said in reference to the commerce generated by the 25-employee business. "We get a ton of people from out of town," she added. "It's the type of tourism that a place like Asheville really wants. It's a conscientious, appreciative audience."
Patrick Huss, general manager of Barley's Taproom Pizzria, a few blocks from The Orange Peel, estimated Barley's does 15 to 20 percent more business during that club's packed shows.
"When their calendar comes out, we try to schedule accordingly," he said, by booking complementary musical acts and bringing in veteran staff.
Thibodaux Jones Creole Kitchen, which has been open for two months next door to Barley's, also picks up its pace during big nights at The Orange Peel.
Co-owner Ashley Thibodaux said the restaurant, which features New Orleans music, served about 225 people the evening of the Aug. 9 Iguanas show, which is 50 or so more than the customary Saturday night crowd, and 85 people grabbed dinner in 90 minutes before the Nickel Creek performance.
On the smaller side of the club scene, Young's Westville Pub in West Asheville and Lexington Avenue's Tressa's pack in more than 100 people for their most popular shows.
Young said about 130 people paid a $5 cover to hear Chapel Hill country rockers Two Dollar Pistols last month, and Cigar Store Indians drew a similar crowd.
"For Cigar Store Indians, a couple of groups came and got hotel rooms," she said, noting the wider impact of even a relatively small show.
Open since spring 2002, Westville Pub has also contributed to the revitalization of West Asheville.
"This area was ready," she said. "There was no where to go at night."
Thornton said, "we've had live music six nights a week for six years" at Tressa's. "Everything from salsa, soul, funk, blues and jazz. If we didn't have such a strong local music community, the club couldn't make it."
Area observers repeatedly praised the depth and talent of local musicians.
"Asheville is mind-boggling; there is so much talent here," Groetsch said.
Kirby, who has recorded with performers from Jimi Hendrix to Barry Manilow, said, "it's pretty amazing that we have this many talented artists in residence. There are incredible local musicians in every imaginable style."
Local listeners seem to like what they hear.
"Asheville is really coming along," said Tom Payne outside The Orange Peel. Payne grew up in Pensacola, Fla., and lived in New Orleans before coming to Asheville.
"It's getting to be a little New Orleans," he said as the Tex-Mex sounds of the "Big Easy"-based Iguanas filtered out of the music hall. "You can't walk into a pub around here that doesn't have good music." Down from the mountain
Aside from a diverse array of live shows, the Asheville area has something else in common with New Orleans: a long and vibrant musical legacy.
"I am not from here," said Texas native David Holt, "but I came here because of the music." He said he moved to Western North Carolina in 1969, drawn by the region's rich heritage of traditional music. Host of public television's "Folkways" program, Holt won his second Grammy in 2003 for a recording with North Carolina guitar legend Doc Watson.
"All over these hills, it's part of a way of life," said WNC native and singer-songwriter-guitarist Malcolm Holcombe about making music, "like eating taters and growing tobacco. From an economic point of view, it brings people from all over the world to these hills to see people perform."
Several observers noted this tradition elevates Asheville's music scene above those in neophyte hot spots like Seattle, Athens, Ga., and Austin, Texas.
"The Asheville area has indigenous music Austin and Seattle can't claim," Groetsch said.
Phil Jamison, coordinator of the Warren Wilson College Appalachian Music Program which Holt founded, said fiddles and banjos were once played across the country, but the reason acoustic instruments still flourish in Asheville is the longstanding relationship between old-time music and tourism.
"The two have supported each other historically," he said, "and that's why traditional music is so strong here."
Jamison noted in 1928, the Asheville chamber promoted the Rhododendron Festival's program of music and dance, which has evolved into the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the 76th version of which took place in Asheville earlier this month.
Support for local music among the political establishment was not uniform, however, Holt said.
"Asheville could have been Nashville" in terms of a commercial music capital, he noted, but political leaders in the 1920s didn't want to see the town associated with "hillbilly music."
Holt, who said he performs about 220 days a year, was in town last week for the filming "Mountain Treasures" to be aired on PBS in March. One treasure, of course, is traditional music.
Several residents also credit WNCW-FM's eclectic playlist of American roots music for enhancing Asheville's music scene, and the member-supported station sponsored this month's Iguanas and Nickel Creek shows at The Orange Peel.
"Music is part of a way of life in Asheville," said recent UNCA graduate and music fan Holly Bowen. "People come to Asheville expecting mandolins, guitars and acoustic music, and they get it here."
Bowen and others said there is more to the local scene than acoustic music, however, making it impossible to define a single "Asheville sound."
Jeremy Bauer, staff member at downtown record retailer Green Eggs Jam,said local music "is pretty avant-punk focused, as least as far as Lexington Avenue goes. The Asheville sound is kind of like a conglomerate of anything from bluegrass to crazy death metal. It's diverse."
Jamison said the proliferation of clubs showcasing all of this music is a recent development for Asheville. "Now everyone comes through and plays, but it didn't used to be like that," Jamison said. He credited a confluence of factors, including the region's musical tradition, for spurring this growth.
Joe Salvatore, sole proprietor of Mountain Rain Productions, which handles bookings for artists and venues, said Asheville is becoming "more a venue market now than an artist's market," where clubs can pick and chose among acts.
Groetsch noted the music business means more than nightclubs, as it spawns recording studios, rehearsal space, and music management, all of which can be found in the area.
"Music is a great industry," she said. "Nobody's polluting, and it's relatively stable." Compared to the climate in New Orleans, she added, "Asheville is a pleasure to do business in."
All of the live music, Westville Pub's Young said, enriches a community. "It adds to the vibrancy of the city. A city with lots of live music has soul." Thornton said, "a lot of great, future musicians are passing through this area right now. We'll look back and say it was an incredible time."
Holt said the Asheville area music scene will continue to grow, regardless of how it's promoted.
"Musicians love to be around other musicians," he said. "Music comes from the heart. It has a power of its own that business doesn't have. It will take care of itself."
|
