On the record: it's where good vibrations from an Asheville studio's special environment and unique equipment wind up.

• Author: Lawrence, Jordan
• Position: FEATURE

The Avett Brothers love North Carolina. That much is evident in the band's song and album titles, which are sprinkled with markers such as Robbinsvi.11e, Matthews and Greenville. But the state turns up in their music in less obvious ways too. Siblings Scott and Seth Avett, the heart of the group, were reared on a Cabarrus County farm, and their folk-rock melodies are reminiscent of such legendary Tar Heel pickers as Doc Watson, while their breakneck energy calls to mind the indie rock that came out of Merge Records in the Triangle during the 1990s.

The pastoral harmonies and acoustic strings on the band's latest record, The Carpenter, are homages to the Avetts' home state. So it makes sense that the album, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart in September and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album, was recorded at a studio in western North Carolina's mountains. "Echo Mountain, it just feels very real," says Seth, the younger brother. "Everything just feels so substantial with the doors and all that dark wood. The gear is sort of tried and true, and it has this perfect balance between tradition and a modern take on recording methods. And the engineers that work there seem to have a masterful hold on both."

Echo Mountain Recording LLC in Asheville has played host to a range of popular outfits that include the Zac Brown Band, Flogging Molly and Band of Horses. Comedian Steve Martin cut his 2011 bluegrass collaboration with Steep Canyon Rangers, a North Carolina band, there. Parts of The Avetts' I and Love and You, the group's major-label debut, were cut in the studio in 2008. Only three hours from the band's home base in Concord, the studio also had personal benefits. Scott's wife delivered their daughter while the band was recording the album. They welcomed a son while making The Carpenter in 2011. "With both of those, I ended up missing a couple sessions," he says. "That is certainly much more comfortable to know that in just a couple hours I can be home in the car. It's a very comfortable place for us. It's much like home."

Opened in summer 2006, Echo Mountain's existence is a happy coincidence. Once a Methodist sanctuary in downtown Asheville, the main studio is known as The Church. Owner Steve Wilmans, a Los Angeles native, discovered the city in spring 2003 when a friend asked him to assist with a cross-country move there. "It's just a great town," Wilmans says. "It's a very unique, artsy kind of town in the...