Echo Mountain Recording reopens, preserving Asheville music landmark

Echo Mountain Recording’s reopening was more than a ribbon-cutting. It tested whether Asheville can still support the studios, producers and working musicians that helped define the city’s music identity.

The studio welcomed artists and supporters back on Sunday at 14 N French Broad Ave. in Asheville, where Echo Mountain relaunched under new owner Jessica Tomasin and said it would restart its subscription membership model and begin booking 2026 projects immediately. The gathering carried real stakes for people who feared losing one of the city’s best-known recording rooms, a place that has produced dozens of award-winning and critically acclaimed albums and has long served both local musicians and national acts.

That tension was part of what made the day feel significant in Buncombe County’s creative economy. Asheville music photographer Sandlin Gaither said the prospect of losing Echo Mountain was scary because it would mean losing something that matters to the community. Jeff Santiago said the studio should remain a place where major artists can work while still staying accessible to local musicians, a balance that has helped the building function as both a business and a cultural landmark.

Echo Mountain’s return reversed a closure plan announced April 2, 2025, when the studio said it would shut down at the end of that year and end recording sessions on Oct. 1, 2025. At the time, the studio said the decision came after more than a year of transition and that owner Steve Wilmans wanted to step away to focus on family. Echo Mountain also said Hurricane Helene disrupted plans to move operations to a new site in Marshall.

The studio’s setting adds to its weight. Echo Mountain says it was founded in 2003 and opened as a studio in 2006 inside a former church at 14 N French Broad Ave., the French Broad Avenue Methodist Church. GBX Group acquired the property in 2023 and placed a historic preservation easement on the building, which Echo Mountain says sits within the 2011 extension of Asheville’s Downtown Historic District.

Tomasin brings deep local roots to the relaunch. Echo Mountain says she became studio manager in 2006 and later became the new owner. She also co-founded Asheville Music Professionals, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in 2015 to support education, advocacy and collaboration for Western North Carolina’s music workers.

For Asheville, the reopening showed that the city’s arts infrastructure is still rebuilding one institution at a time. Echo Mountain’s survival preserved a landmark on French Broad Avenue, but it also kept a working engine in place for the region’s musicians, engineers and creative businesses.