It’s Friday night at the Crow & Quill in downtown Asheville, and an enthusiastic crowd is gathered to hear Nick Garrison’s jazz ensemble. Garrison is a trombonist from New Orleans, who has been touring internationally since 2016. He moved to Asheville in January of 2020.
"I was still touring, too, so I was in Alaska, San Diego, and New Orleans. And I hadn't spent more than two weeks in Asheville before COVID happened," he said.
He started gardening and making pottery. Then, he "panicked and got a job."
Because he had no one to play music with, he didn’t touch his instrument for three months.
"It was a very quiet, introspective, fairly dark time for me," he said. "But, you know, you come out, you come out shining in a way, like with renewed clarity, or focus, or grit."
It’s a grit he learned from the city of New Orleans itself.
"Any given month, I could be playing with somewhere close to like 20 different bands. You just never know who’s gonna call you, what kinds of things you’re gonna be doing," he said. "You just had to be available and show up, show your face and shake hands and bring your horn—that’s kind of the way of that city."
Garrison is just one of several musicians who has moved from New Orleans to Asheville in the last decade.
Meschiya Lake is a jazz and country singer who moved from the Crescent City to West Asheville last summer. Every other Friday night, Lake sings at Asheville’s 5 Walnut—sometimes with her longtime friend and music partner, Erika Lewis, who left New Orleans nearly eight years ago.
Lake said the music scene in Asheville has been welcoming.
"For only being here for five months, I think I'm doing really well." she said. "Just in the fact that the people that I'm playing with are incredible musicians and I've got a call list for jazz bands, and I've got a call list for country bands and sometimes they intersect. So I couldn't be happier with the music."
As singers like Lake and Lewis search the Asheville rosters for musicians to accompany them at shows, they sometimes find themselves reunited with musicians they played with back in the Big Easy. At other times, they get the chance to play with NOLA musicians they only knew in passing.
Quinn Sternberg spent seven years playing music in New Orleans before moving to Asheville last year.
On a Sunday afternoon at Whistle Hop Brewing in Fairview, he played bass with the Hot Club of Asheville.
"It's a lot of people who I played with very occasionally and had friendly relationships with, but didn't know super well. And Meschiya," he said. "I heard a bunch about in New Orleans, but hadn't actually met her down there, so it's a cool, funny coincidence who ends up in the same place. It’s a nice little community of ex-pats we've assembled here."
Sternberg was involved in a variety of music scenes in New Orleans—from jazz to funk to rock. But Asheville has given him even more opportunity to branch out.
"It's also really been fun for me to tap into the bluegrass thing a little bit. I always want to be involved in whatever the music is of the region, to kind of honor what the history is," he said. "I wasn't really familiar with old time at all before moving here, too, and it's kind of special seeing those jam sessions that happen. It's 20 people in a circle jamming to a tune."
Asheville isn’t just attracting musicians who play traditional New Orleans music. Songwriters like Julie Odell have also made the move.
Odell moved to Asheville in 2021. After her show in February at Static Age Loft, she said that the mountains have provided a refreshing contrast to the swampy environment of her upbringing. But even with new inspiration at higher altitudes, her sound is still rooted in Louisiana.
"My favorite part about New Orleans is you can be driving to work and have your windows down, and the air is so thick and it's hugging you. And then you pass by three or four bands. and you collect all these pieces from them, and you can connect them and make a song," she said. "That has happened countless times, and I definitely miss having that."
Music isn’t always the initial draw for people moving here. Julia Sanders is a songwriter who moved to Asheville in 2017 for a nursing program. She decided to stay after she met her husband and they had their first child.
"Even though I miss New Orleans so much, the more time I am away from it—like I appreciate everything that it gave me but it doesn't feel like home in the same way as it did before, you know?" she said.
Music featured
Nick Garrison Jazz Ensemble - “Grazing in the Grass,” recorded at Crow & Quill
Meschiya Lake & Erika Lewis - “If I Was Only On Your Mind,” recorded at 5 Walnut
Hot Club of Asheville, recorded at Whistle Hop Brewing
Julie Odell - “Moments Later,” from the album Autumn Eve, Frenchkiss Records
Julia Sanders - “By the Glassful,” from the album On the Line, self-released