Virginia - North Carolina: Saturday, November 19, 2022 | |
Asheville just might be the New Orleans, the Nashville, the Beale Street of North Carolina. | |
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We are only 10 miles from Asheville. We have heard so much about artistic Asheville, musical Asheville, beautiful Asheville…. I guess, it is time to check out Asheville.
With a population of 100,000, Asheville is big enough to attract a cosmopolitan crowd, and small enough to be quaint. Spread out in the mountains, Asheville gives walkers a decent workout. Our parking spot was just two blocks horizontally from downtown, but it seemed like four blocks vertically.
It was freezing cold when we arrived at 10 am. We stopped in at the library to warm up and discovered the most lightening-fast Wifi we have ever experienced. With that, I worked on the part of my journaling that requires Wifi for an hour or so. By 11’ish, the sun had thawed things out enough to enjoy the outdoors.
Downtown Asheville is vibrant, thriving, and attractive. The buildings are interesting and the economy is booming. The two side-by-side government buildings, the county courthouse and the city hall, had one interesting brush with history. Colonel Robert Morgan and his B-17 bomber crew of the famous “Memphis Belle” was the first WWII crew to complete 25 missions. They were done with their contribution to the war effort. To celebrate, on August 14, 1943, Asheville native, Colonel Morgan, flew the Memphis Belle between the two buildings. To fit, he had to fly the B-17 vertically. Pretty cool, I thought. I wonder if he got into hot water for that neat trick?
We discovered that the downtown boasts several large art gallery halls. Inside the large rooms are dozens of individual booths, each displaying a different artist’s work. The art varied from paintings, to photos, to pottery, to jewelry, etc. The quality of the art was phenomenal, as were the prices. You could easily drop $3,000 and walk out with something that fit in your shirt pocket.
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Downtown Asheville is a beautiful and vibrant place. | Asheville had its share of craft breweries. | Colonel Morgan’s 26th mission was to fly between these two government buildings in Asheville. Below are the two buildings he flew between. | Above and below: I do not know what these people were dressed up for. I didn’t ask because I thought it would be more fun to just speculate. I took these two photos in different parts of the city. I doubt if they knew one another. I guess people in Asheville are just spontaneous and do whatever zany thing that comes to mind. | Below: The Basilica is a distinctive building with its twin towers. | This indoor mall with its glass roof retains a distinctive classy feel. | This tavern is named after George Willis Pack (see info plaques below), an early Asheville entrepreneur and benefactor. | The art gallery halls display scores of booths that feature different artist’s work. The variety of art is half the fun. | This particular gallery featured a re-created Woolworth cafeteria along with many booths with various art works. | More art works in the gallery booths. | Below is an info plaque with a brief history of Asheville. It identifies George Willis Pack as one of Asheville’s important leaders. | After we cruised through a bunch of these galleries, we noticed some commotion outside. We heard some heavy drum beats and headed in that direction. We came upon a parade winding its way through the downtown. The parade didn’t seem to have a theme. There were a bunch of Native Americans dancing up a colorful storm in some great costumes; a ‘save-the-planet’ group; a float with two dueling piano players tickling the ivories; a couple of tuk-tuks, one with frosty the snowman in it; a Santa Claus float, etc. It was the most eclectic parade I have ever seen. | The eclectic parade we happened upon. It wasn’t a Thanksgiving parade, nor a Christmas parade. It was just a mix of stuff. | A ‘Save-the-World’ theme. | The dueling piano players - OK, that’s kind of weird. | Sort of a Christmas theme, however, more of a winter theme. | This is one of those mobile bicycle drinking bars. We’ve seen a few of these. It is drinking and driving made legal. | |
The street musicians were as good as I had expected. Finally, I heard some top-notch bluegrass. We spent nearly a month in North Carolina and never heard one note of bluegrass. I watched David Holt’s State of Music documentary series on PBS a couple of years ago. Much of it was shot in North Carolina with the most awesome bluegrass players in the world. I am not a huge bluegrass fan. I find much of it to be generic and plagued with a case of the ‘you-hear-one-you-heard-them-all-sameness’. (That came out much harsher than I meant it to be.)
But the players in David Holt’s documentary were in a totally different league, if not galaxy. These people were ‘hot’. Their styles were unique, moving, emotional, simple yet layered with subtle complexity, and pure. A couple of the street guys I heard in Asheville fit that bill.
I have always been a big fan of Vassar Clement’s jazz-style of bluegrass. Mixing jazz and/or blues with anything improves it. I have even heard some jazz-infused polka that blew me away.
We also saw some nice music venues. One concert hall, The Orange Peel, reminded me of the great Tipitina’s in New Orleans.
Of course, there were some fine-arts theaters. When it came to the arts, Asheville did not disappoint.
|  | This guy was really good. He played a unique style of Appalachian mountain music. | These two percussionists laid down some soulful African rhythms. | The Orange Peel reminded me of the vintage Tipitina’s in New Orleans. Tipitina, a 1930s throwback, is only the greatest roadhouse music venue in the entire Universe. The Orange Peel looks pretty vintage too. | The Asheville Music Hall is another downtown music venue. |  |  | |
When we finished up with downtown, we drove out to the River Arts District. I never saw a river anywhere near the district, but we did see a lot more high-quality art.
This dedicated art district was different from any gallery district I have ever seen before. It consists of four or five seedy streets lined with funky old warehouses. Each warehouse is home to a number of art studios. The artists let you come in and watch them create, talk about their styles and their history, and basically show you around. It is all upfront and personal. I was thoroughly impressed. The neighborhood was junky and seedy but the art was spectacular and exciting.
There are many art communities in the US. New Orleans’ Royal Street in the French Quarters for one. NYC is amazing as one would expect. Until now, I think Sante Fe, New Mexico, had surprised me the most with its thriving art community hiding in such a small-town out-of-the-way place. But, I would have to say that off-the-beaten-track Asheville, in shear volume and talent, and even though I had heard so much about it, has surprised me the most. And it is such a wonderful surprise.
|  | These derelict warehouses don’t look like much on the outside, but inside they house some of the finest art, art studios, and artists in the country. I saw a brochure for this art district and it listed over 300 art studios in the River Art District alone. Asheville, as a whole, has well over 1000 visual artists, not to mention a zillion musicians and actors. | The working studios were fun to check out. Some of the messiest studios matched the abstract art being produced. We talked to a couple of the artists. Most seem to be transplants from all over the US. | Monkeys seem to make a good art subject. | Here is a good example of an artist explaining his work to a fan. | Weaving is another art form. | |
I was keen on touring the old Vanderbilt family’s opulent Biltmore Estate. It looked to be an amazing mansion and gardens. When I discovered that the entrance fee was $94 a person, it cooled my enthusiasm.
We drove through the Biltmore Village instead. It looked to be patterned after a Swiss Village. It was already getting dark and rapidly cooling off so we didn’t stop.
We have one more full day left at Lake Powhatan National Campground. Maybe we’ll open up the wallet tomorrow and tour Biltmore. But, there still is Chimney Rock State Park, the whole Linville Falls area with caverns, trails, water falls, gorges, and the tallest mountain swing bridge, and more Blue Ridge Parkway to drive. We are just going to have to return someday soon.
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Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
