MY LOST ASHEVILLE

Finding Peace and Community at PopAsheville, 2008, 2009

I first became aware of Asheville, N.C. in 2007 when Billboard's associate publisher, Brian Kennedy, asked me if I had heard the Western North Carolina singer-songwriter, the musician Malcolm Holcombe.

I was working at Billboard magazine and its radio publishing division (first Billboard Radio Monitor, then Radio & Records) as the third-string copy editor from 2004-2009. Kennedy was one of the few people in upper management who really loved music, and knew that I did.

Kennedy invited me to his office and played me some advance tracks from Holcombe's album, Gamblin' House, and I was hooked on his gruff, hard-life country-folk songs, a little like Steve Earle pulling a gospel plow, rough at the core. I saw that the Holcombe album was recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, and released on Echo Mountain Records. I called Echo Mountain's majordomo Jessica Tomasin, a Detroit Red Wings superfan who had migrated to Asheville.

The longer I spoke to Jessica, the more curious I got about A…