Josh Blake

My name is Josh Blake, I am a musician, producer and engineer, now working out of Echo Mountain Recording Studios. I moved here in 1997, to be in a band (GFE). There wasn't much going on here then.....but we had tons of fun and toured the country for a decade or more, always happy to come home to Asheville. I had a home studio, and always was on the recording side of what we did. When the band stopped touring it was right around when Echo Mountain opened, so I began recording people there instead of my house. I've got a sweet little production room over there I share with master film composer Ben Lovett, and produce or record out of any of the spaces at Echo. I still gig as much as I can, usually playing 2-4 times a week around town.  An organ trio of mine called JBOT (Josh Blake's Organ Trio) is the live band I'm pushing mostly right now, but I'm up for anything really.  I take gigs in all shapes and sizes.   Due to my long standing relationship with the music community here, I am often called upon to curate and MD large bands of local musicians for big outdoor events here.  Some examples of this are being the MD for The Asheville All Stars show at Downtown After Five since it's inception 6 years ago, and the "LEAF Funk Mixtape Band" at LEAF Downtown for the past 4 years.   I also started an annual musical event called Harmonies for Homes that helps raise money to elevate the homeless crisis on our area.  My most steady gig, however, is as the house guitar player at The Tuesday Night Funk Jam at The Asheville Music Hall, a weekly throw down that is as of 2018 11 years in the running.  I also started a web channel focused on preserving and promoting the music scene here. That is called iamavl.com.  Check it out if you haven't yet, we have live stream installations in venues in town so we are streaming local concerts about 5 nights a week. We also stream LEAF, Downtown After 5, and much more.  All shows go to the archives for you to enjoy.  Our original series, Echo Sessions, an in studio concert streamed/filmed at Echo Mountain, and is syndicated for rebroadcast on North Carolina's PBS station UNC-TV.  We also have built quite a video production company, if you ever need some concert footage, we got your back. We do everything as small as a street corner concerts, to having done the video production of for events like The Warren Haynes Christmas Jam the last couple years. Holler!  IamAVL is here for you.  I also helped start AMP aka Asheville Music Professionals, which is a non-profit that seeks to be a resource for all the music makers in this town, and also the organization that envisioned this awesome website!  We hold events, socials, and so other work, holler at me if you want to get involved!  Another thing of note....I am a partnered in a local music publishing and licensing company called ACME (Asheville Commercial Music Enterprise).  If you have any need for local music for your film/commercial or a playlist for your event or venue, holler at us!  I also have 3 boys and an amazing wife, who fuel my passions and fill my heart. Thanks for checking me out!