The Grey Eagle

The Grey Eagle was opened in 1994 by Edd Konopka in Black Mountain, focused on local, regional and occasional touring artists. [Musoscribe] Tyler Richardson moved from Georgia to Black Mountain in 1997 and bought the venue with Dan O'Brien. Musoscribe says the owners soon lost their lease, after which Richardson and a new partner, Bert Ivey, moved it to the corner of Clingman Avenue and Haywood Road — then a part of Asheville not yet known as the River Arts District. [Musoscribe] Jeff Whitworth first came in 1999 for a Vic Chesnutt and Kristin Hersh show, moved near Asheville three months later without a job, and would not stop asking to be hired. [Musoscribe] He contrasted the room with the Charleston venues he knew. [Musoscribe] In those years the staff came to four or five people and the club opened three nights a week, sometimes four, booking mostly singer-songwriters with the occasional rock or reggae show. Martin Kasun replaced Bert Ivey as co-owner; on most nights Kasun or Whitworth took tickets, Richardson ran sound and Richardson's ex-wife tended bar. [Musoscribe] Richardson put Whitworth on sound for an open mic about two months in, though he had never mixed before. [Musoscribe] In 2004 Richardson offered the club to Whitworth and Brian Landrum of the alt-country band Black Eyed Dog; papers were signed and the lease transferred about a month later. [Musoscribe] Before that handover a typical night meant, in Whitworth's words, 150 people and maybe $500 at the bar. Under the new pair Landrum booked and they deliberately widened the range; an expensive but well-attended John Doe show is described as the turning point. [Musoscribe] A Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham show sold about twenty tickets and lost money, and Whitworth counted it worth doing. [Musoscribe] The club made a practice of rebooking artists who played well regardless of ticket sales. The Brooklyn group Barbez, with a Theremin player and a Russian opera singer, was booked five or six times to steadily larger audiences, and Bob Moog would sit front and centre for their soundcheck. [Musoscribe] Its first capital improvement under the new owners was an HVAC system, put in although they did not own the building. Capacity is about 550. [Musoscribe] For the 25th anniversary in 2019 it staged an outdoor festival, Grey Eagle 25, at Lake Eden — too big for the room itself — drawing on artists central to its history including Unknown Hinson, James McMurtry, Of Montreal and the Budos Band. [Musoscribe] The name comes from the old Cherokee name for the Black Mountain region, which was also the town's original name. In its Black Mountain years the venue occupied a former garage and paint room of a Chevrolet dealership, housed there in 1994. [The Grey Eagle (venue)] The venue's own account gives no reason for the move, dating the departure to autumn 1998 and the reopening to the following June. [The Grey Eagle (venue)] Musoscribe attributes the move to a lost lease; the venue's own page gives no reason at all, and neither explains the gap between autumn 1998 and June 1999. [The Grey Eagle (venue)] It describes itself as Asheville's longest-running all-ages venue and claims more than 10,000 different bands and artists, naming Ralph Stanley, the Avett Brothers, Band of Horses, Richie Havens, Frank Black, Lake Street Dive, Slick Rick, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, the Budos Band and Darrell Scott among them. [The Grey Eagle (venue)] In March 2016 David Dye hosted NPR's World Cafe "Sense of Place" from the room; touring musicians have voted it one of the nation's top 25 live music venues, and Garden and Gun named it one of ten must-see music venues in the Southeast that year. [The Grey Eagle (venue)] The About page states the venue is under new ownership and management. It names no owner and gives no date. [The Grey Eagle (venue)] The Grey Eagle celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019 with a music festival at Lake Eden featuring Mandolin Orange, Hayes Carll, The Suffers, Kurtis Blow and Sierra Hull, among others. [mountainx.com] Then-owner Tyler Richardson moved the venue in 1999 from its original Black Mountain location to Asheville's River Arts District. [mountainx.com] Jeff Whitworth began working the door at The Grey Eagle in early 2000, later became talent booker, and in 2004 bought the club along with his bandmate Brian Landrum; he later sold it to Russ and Sarah Keith. [mountainx.com] Under Russ Keith's ownership, the venue obtained a liquor license and grew its staff from about five to nearly 20 employees, adding nightly music and outdoor patio shows. [mountainx.com] Sarah Keith credited the venue's enduring appeal to its intimacy. [mountainx.com] The Grey Eagle, which opened in 1994, marked its 30th anniversary in 2024 with a show at its outdoor Outpost venue featuring The Budos Band, Amy Ray Band, Greenliners and Electro Lust. [ashevillestages.com] The venue closed at its original Black Mountain location in 1998 and reopened the next year at its current River Arts District space. [ashevillestages.com] General manager John Zara recalled watching artists such as Tyler Childers play the 550-capacity room before breaking out nationally. [ashevillestages.com] Zara described the venue's role for developing artists. [ashevillestages.com] The Grey Eagle added The Outpost, an outdoor stage, after experimenting with drive-in shows in Maggie Valley during COVID-19; The Outpost has since hosted acts too large for the main room, including Jason Isbell and moe. [ashevillestages.com] Zara described the venue's deliberately unpolished, unchanged character. [ashevillestages.com]

“I was beating down the door of the Grey Eagle every day for them to hire me. I came in three or four days in a row, just letting them know I wasn't going away.” [Musoscribe]

“I was used to seeing shows in Charleston: crowds going for the bar, and there happens to be a show happening. Whereas in Asheville, that script was totally flipped: people were here for the music.” [Musoscribe]

“It was small-time.” [Musoscribe]

“There's no better way to learn than on open mic nights. On-the-fly changeovers, no sound checks.” [Musoscribe]

“Tyler came over and asked us, 'Y'all wanna buy a club?' Brian and I were like, 'Yeah, sure,' jokingly.” [Musoscribe]

“People would say, 'That guy was just at the Grey Eagle. It's not just folk shows any more.'” [Musoscribe]

“Just the two of them on stage … that was a really, really powerful night.” [Musoscribe]

“In the fall of 1998, The Grey Eagle bid farewell to Black Mountain with a momentous Halloween show and moved a scant 12 miles away with a beautiful new venue by the French Board River in historic Asheville. On June 11, 1999, the space opened with a show from an old friend, David LaMotte.” [The Grey Eagle (venue)]

“It's such an intimate listening room, and everybody involved is like family.” [mountainx.com]

“I got to see Tyler Childers two or three times before he took off like a rocket.” [ashevillestages.com]

“we're kind of a stepping stone towards bigger and better things for a lot of artists. And we take a lot of pride in being in that role.” [ashevillestages.com]

“it's 'just enough dive.' You know? It's not too fancy, and it's not a complete disaster area. But it's the kind of bar that people feel comfortable in.” [ashevillestages.com]