The Black Mountain Blues festival is held in several venues spread across about five blocks of the town of Black Mountain’s downtown tourist center. The numerous shops, galleries and restaurants make downtown Black Mountain a nice place to stop on the way up the mountain to the Asheville area, and being in Black Mountain for three days of shows from 45-plus blues artists makes for a nice, relaxed summer weekend.
Below, the Monte Vista Hotel hosted porch jams and dinner and brunch shows as part of the blues festival.
Black Mountain Blues is organized and presented by the nonprofit White Horse Black Mountain listening room and LEAF Global Arts, a nonprofit that presents its own music festivals in spring and fall at nearby Lake Eden.
We enjoyed the inaugural Black Mountain Blues festival in 2024, which was held after two previous attempts to launch the festival were thwarted by the Covid 19 virus.
We saw shows at five of the festival’s seven venues and found the entire footprint of the festival easily walkable. The longest distance between venues was about a half mile from the Monte Vista Hotel on U.S. 70 west just outside of downtown to the Bush Farmhouse at the end of vendors’ row on Sutton Avenue at Ridgeway Avenue.
The streets slope downward between U.S. 70, where three venues were located, toward Sutton Avenue and the railroad. Cherry Street between U.S. 70 and Sutton and parts of Ridgeway in front of the Bush Farmhouse and Richardson Avenue in front of The Railyard, the festival’s largest venue, were closed to traffic.
Here’s the interior of the White Horse between shows.
Below, Mac Arnold and Plate Full O' Blues played to a packed house at the White Horse Saturday night.
Below, Bob Margolin is joined onstage at the White Horse Black Mountain Sunday by 16-year-old Nashville blues guitarist Danny Garwood, who led his own sets at Foothills Grange Friday and Saturday.
We spent a lot of the weekend at the Railyard, a barbecue restaurant and beer hall with a large outdoor event space.
Below, the audience at The Railyard enjoys 2024 headliner Sugaray Raiford.
The Bush Farmhouse, which is a block down the festival’s vendors’ row from the Railyard, offers South African-inspired food made with locally prepared ingredients, including organic produce from its on-site garden. Seating around a firepit and a small stage accommodated daily slates of shows during the blues festival.
Here's a quick pan of the Bush Farmhouse audience as Joshua Singleton and Patrick Dodd knock out a tune.
Patrick Dodd and Joshua Singleton ...
The 2024 festival presented three blocks worth of vendors along Sutton Avenue. The green roof in the distance is on the Bush Farmhouse.
The Foothills Grange stage was on a lot behind the restaurant and bar of the same name. In addition to setting out lawn chairs for concerts, the restaurant took orders for burgers, hot dogs and other food and waitresses gamely made their way through the crowd to serve it.
Here's the Foothills Grange stage area seen from Cherry Street. An alley and a staircase connect Cherry Street to the lot where the stage was.
We found a spot at the packed Town Pump Tavern Friday night to catch the last half hour or so of bluesman Jody Carroll’s show.
In addition these venues, the festival presented panel discussions with music at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
Black Mountain is just inside Buncombe County as you head up the mountain on Interstate 40 west. Blues festival shows didn’t start until mid-afternoon on Friday, so we spent the morning just down the mountain in Old Fort hiking the beautiful Catawba Falls recreation area.
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