Mountain Blog

We've just announced our 25th Anniversary Show for December 7th, 2008 here in Charleston, WV. We've got two very exciting acts already confirmed with some more special guests on the way. Fabulous pop-soul-country-everything else singer Joan Osborne (below) makes a return appearance backing her latest CD "Little Wild One." Also on tap is singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata, whose been omnipresent in the NPRMusic world as of late- performing concerts for WXPN in Philly last month and WFUV in NY today (10/30) at noon- but we've been fans since her debut EP back in 2003. Her latest is a etheral and exciting double disc called "Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart." It's a rewarding listen.

UPDATE: We've added one of our favorite home-town girls to our Silver Anniversary show in Cross Lanes native Kathy Mattea. After Tim O'Brien, Kathy has logged the most appearances on Mountain Stage (12 since 1986) and has continued to come back throughout her illustrious and award-winning career. She'll always be family to us so we are thrilled to make her  a part of our celebration.

On December 11, 1983 Mountain Stage went live across the state of on West Virginia Public Broadcasting with its first regularly scheduled broadcast. A lot has changed since then: the show went national in 1986, it is no longer broadcast live, the theme song has evolved from voice & dulcimer to full band, the cast and crew has changed some (but not a lot) and the show moved to the Capitol Plaza Theater from 1987-90. But in 2008 we'll celebrate our Silver Anniversary in the very place that the show began, at the Cultural Center Theater.

Tickets will be $15.50 in advance and $20 at the door, and will be on sale very soon at Music Today and at Taylor Books in Downtown, Charleston. We hope to see you there.

Our Mountain Stage production manager Paul Flaherty has a good eye in addition to his keen ear. Paul was browsing through the latest catalog from Elderly Instruments, a well-known and loved instrument retailer out of Lansing, MI, and noticed something familiar in one of their "What the Pros Say" features. This is where professional customers of Elderly say what they like about their vast array of new and used instruments. One testimonial in particular featured heartland singer-songwriter, and five time MS guest, Greg Brown raving about a slot-head Washburn guitar. But what jumped out at Paul was the photo of Mr. Brown sitting with guitar right in front of the show's Ashdown bass rig. A trained eye (i.e. mostly just those in our immediate circle) can see a vintage Mountain Stage sticker just over Mr. Brown's right shoulder. Click here to see the photo.  Greg is 7th from the top, right below another Mountain Stage alum, bowed-dulcimer player Ken Bloom. Anyone else out there have one of those stickers?

There are several past-guests on the page-Norman Blake, Ben Harper, Jeff Daniels, Bill Kirchen, Tom Paxton (who has a record of Mountain Stage performances available here) and Ernie Hawkins (who played guitar for Marie Knight recently. Click to hear it.).

Good eye, Paul! Here's a shot of Paul in action, giving the run-down to Joshua Radin, whose Mountain Stage set is available here for your streaming pleasure.

We had a fantastic show at The Town Hall in New York City this past Saturday and we owe a big thanks to everyone involved in making the show happen. There are always many aspects to putting on our live performance radio program and that number increases when we take the show on the road. Everyone at Town Hall, including the IATSE Local #1 and the staff of Virginia Giordano, our promoter for the event, were unwaveringly helpful and welcomed us like family. We also owe a big thanks to our friends at WFUV, our long-time affiliate for inviting us into their great city. It was great to see WFUV's Dennis Elsas again, who got to introduce Larry Groce to the hometown crowd for the first time in person.

And of course perhaps the biggest thanks of all to the folks who were in the audience on Saturday. The show we recorded will feed to radio stations on November 21. Keep an eye on program listings for when your station is going to carry the show.

In other news, Mountain Stage has remained in the Top 8 most viewed on NPR Music. If you haven't checked us out, what are you waiting for? Later today you'll find soul & blues diva Janiva Magness (pictured below) and this week will round out with performances by Joshua Radin, Matthew Perryman Jones and Ellis Paul. Recent sets already available include folk-icon Janis Ian, the reigning king of bluegrass Del McCoury, Carlene Carter, a member of the first-family of country music, a rare acoustic performance by country-singer Eric Church, and emerging songstress from Nashville via Australia, Butterfly Boucher.
 

After a handful of transportational difficulties, featuring seperate layovers in Flatwoods, WV and Mechanicsburg, PA, ending with a 3 1/2 hour Amtrak ride from Harrisburg, PA, and a ten minute cab ride from Penn Station to Town Hall, Mountain Stage has arrived in the Big Apple.

Somewhere in transit between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, the bad news continued when we found out that Todd Snider had fallen seriously ill and could not make the show. With last minute connections made by our esteemed host Virginia Giordano, we have found a worthy replacement in Ferron, who was on Mountain Stage some 15 years ago (at host Larry Groce's best recollection).

So as always, the SHOW MUST GO ON. As I type the Mountain Stage band is tuning up and we await the arrival of our guests Roseanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Bruce Cockburn and our very special guest.

Don't forget to run over to NPR Music to hear blues man John Hammond in live performance from Mountain Stage!

Mountain Stage is taking the show on the road this weekend. On Friday we'll pile our staff and crew on a bus to New York City, with a 35 ft box truck hauling about 2.5 tons of audio equipment following behind, for a show at The Town Hall on West 43rd St. There is always something happening in the Big Apple, so we're glad the New Yorker Magazine had this to say about our show:

TOWN HALL-123 W. 43rd St. (212-307-4100)

—"Mountain Stage with Larry Groce"—the live-music radio show produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and heard around the country on NPR—has been showcasing established and emerging country, roots, blues, and rock musicians for nearly a quarter century. (Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and the Barenaked Ladies are but a handful of artists who were given national exposure on the program early in their careers.) Though usually recorded live in Charleston, it hits the road on occasion, and will touch down here on Oct. 25. The bill features the Canadian singer-songwriter and environmental activist Bruce Cockburn, Rodney Crowell (who just released "Sex & Gasoline," a fine bookend to his 1988 breakthrough album, "Diamonds & Dirt"), Rosanne Cash, and Todd Snider. (For more information, see www.mountainstage.org.)

There is also a review (click to go to the New Yorker) of the new Todd Snider record with a tag to the show:

The folksinger and songwriter Todd Snider has gone on record as being interested in the comic possibilities of pop music. Several records, in fact. One of his earliest hits was the mordant "Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues," back in 1994, and his two most recent albums, "East Nashville Skyline" and "The Devil You Know," have included portraits of Mike Tyson and George W. Bush that are pointed but not without pathos. Snider’s shambling faux-stoner style is on full display on a new mini-album, "Peace Queer," whose leadoff track, "Mission Accomplished (Because You Gotta Have Faith)," weaves together George Michael, Will Rogers, and the war in Iraq. ("Peace Queer" is available for free download from Snider’s Web site for the rest of October.) As comically surefooted as Snider is on his recordings, even he can’t compete with his stage persona, where he digresses between songs, sometimes at great length, always with great humor. Snider appears Oct. 25 as part of a live version of NPR’s "Mountain Stage," at Town Hall.

Tell all your friends in the city that WV's Postcard to the World is coming their way this Saturday.

P.S.: You folks here in Charleston, WV can get a glimpse of Todd Snider when he joins us on November 2. Click here for more, and here for tickets.  

(Left- Mountain Stage Band Members Bob Thompson, Steve Hill and Ron Sowell -"I Dont' Think We're in Charleston Anymore"- last May in NYC)

That's piano-phenom Chuck Leavell bangin' on the 88s with the Mountain Stage Band (L to R: Ron Sowell, Ammed Solomon, Doug Payne. Not pictured are Don Dixon on bass and electric guitarist Michael Lipton). Click on the photo to go to Chuck's expanded set at NPRMusic. Sometimes good stuff ends up on the cutting room floor because of the 1:58:00 time limits on the program. Thanks to the wonders of endless internet storage and our NPR distribution agreement, the songs that weren't included in the radio broadcast (Route 66 and the Sea Level number King Grand) are seeing the light of ...um, internet. This fantastic set features producer and songwriting specialist- and great bass player- Don Dixon as well as Charleston area sax luminary and long time Bob Thompson collaborator Doug Payne (Doug really soars on the slow burning Savannah). 

Oh, and if you've never heard of Chuck Leavell you have surely heard his work. He's been the musical director for the Rolling Stones and has been touring with them for 25 years. He got his start touring with Dr. John in the late sixties and in 1972 he joined the Allman Brothers Band for three records before forming Sea Level with former Allman members Lamar Williams and Jaimoe Johanson. Personally, I'll never forget hearing Eric Clapton shout "Chuck..." during Old Love from the MTV: Unplugged sessions, right before one of the finest piano solos ever recorded (personal opinion).

Have you  been to NPR Music lately? If you're a fan of Mountain Stage then you're doing yourself a great injustice if you haven't ventured to our new home for web content, npr.org/mountainstage. It's a great way to hear what you missed or listen to your favorite portions over and over again right on your computer. Don't see an artist from recent memory? Scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on "MORE" for another platter of great live performance radio including Jakob Dylan, Regina Spektor and They Might Be Giants. We've even got the African beats of Vieux Farka Toure, the New Orleans funk and hip-hop of Galactic featuring Mr. Lif and some Irish pop-rock in the form of Bell X1. We suggest creating an account so you can comment on the music and "recommend" a set- It's kind of like voting for your favorite.

Speaking of recommendations- Amos Lee, Crooked Still and Vienna Teng are all leading in listener recommendations with former (and soon to be again) Phish bassist Mike Gordon close behind. But just up this week are Carlene Carter, the Del McCoury Band and Ed Snodderly. Still to come this week are outlaw country singer Eric Church on Thursday and Americana Music's Emerging Artist of the Year Mike Farris (who Eric Church mentions during his set) will go up on Friday. So keep checking back! In recent weeks we've also had the harmony-drenched songs of The Rescues, Ohio chamber folk with Over the Rhine, and some stripped-down soul by Sharon Little.

If you like what you hear we hope you'll tell all of your like-minded music loving friends about us. Our audience is what makes Mountain Stage unique and we appreciate everyone who comes out to be a part of the internationally syndicated radio show from right here in the Mountain State.







Left to Right are Mountain Stage Guests Jakob Dylan, Del McCoury, Mike Gordon, Regina Spektor and Vieux Farka Toure.

Todd Snider has put up his latest record, the politically bent "Peace Queer," on his website for FREE download. The set features some of Todd's most cleverly rendered songs, riddled with political metaphor but only slightly preachy,  including a solemn but searing version of Creedance Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." 
Here's a bit from Todd's website.

From October 11 (Todd's Birthday) until Halloween download Peace Queer absolutely free! The CDs and LPs are also up for pre-sale.
CD release date is October 14, 2008. Vinyl LP release date is November 25. Go ahead and order Peace Queer now and we will ship your order as soon as the CDs and vinyl LPs are available. Thanks! 

Click on the banner below to get your free download. Click here to read all about it.

Todd Snider will appear on Mountain Stage on October 25 in New York City and he's been added to our November 2 date in Charleston, WV. For more on upcoming live shows, including where to buy tickets, click here.


 

All across the country, public radio stations are in the midst of their Fall Fund Drives. Any regular listener knows that a few times a year their public radio station will ask their listeners to pledge their financial support to the station. Public radio is there every time you turn on your radio. Every once in a while, public radio asks you to be there for them when they ask for support.

Here at Mountain Stage we encourage you to give what you can to your favorite station or, if you feel so compelled, you can donate to the mother-station of Mountain Stage, WV Public Broadcasting. You can contribute on-line here or call 1-800-RADIO-87.  

Why Do Stations Hold Pledge Drives?- The federal government supplies funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to many public broadcastingstations but this never covers their operating costs. Additional money may come from other institutional support- universities, state government, boards of education. Mostly, it comes from the station's community through underwriting and listener support. That money helps pay programming fees for the shows you enjoy as well as equipment maintenance, transmitter costs and on-line streaming. A single hour of programming could cost over a hundred dollars alone.

Basically everything we do to bring the radio to you is funded, in part, by the support of "listeners like you." Here at WV PBS our listener contributions make up 22% of our operating budget.  The station in your community could rely on even more support from listeners.

Why Should You Pledge?- The truth is that your public radio station will still be there whether you pledge your support or not. However those who choose to contribute believe in the ideals of public broadcasting, they care about the programming and appreciate an alternative to the main-stream, commercial fueled media. Pubic Broadcasting is free from commercial influence allowing for more in-depth news analysis and informative, expansive and independent reporting. It's certainly something you won't find elsewhere.

When Should You Pledge?- You can show support for your favorite programs by calling in during their time-slots. Often times pledge coordinators base hourly goals on what programs have historically brought in the most dollars. If you have more than one favorite, as many of us do, be sure to leave your comments along with your pledge amount in order to cast your vote for that particular program. This helps the programmers stay in touch with their audience and make decisions based on listener support. If you listen every day, tell them so. If you always turn off a certain program, tell them so. If you've never pledged, or you've been giving your entire adult life, tell them so.

How Much Should I Pledge?- The amount is entirely up to you because every single pledge counts. We are not naive to what is happening in the financial world but we look at a contribution as an investment into something tangible. If you pledge $60 a year, that equals $5 a month. Now, compare that to the amount you pay for cable TV, Satellite, newspaper or internet service. Would they allow you to "pick your price"?

So think about the local and global news you receive from your public radio station. Consider the entertainment, music and events you enjoy. Think about how much you listen and place a dollar amount on how much you value your favorite public radio programs. Then make the call and become a part of the Public Broadcasting family.

If you've already contributed to Public Radio, THANK YOU. If you're yet to do so, click HERE to contribute to WV Public Broadcasting.

Due to unforeseen and unpredictable circumstances, the Harrisburg and Philadelphia performances of MOUNTAIN STAGE have been cancelled. We deeply regret any inconvenience. Refunds are available at point of purchase.

Some friends of Mountain Stage came up big at this past Thursday's International Bluegrass Music Association's awards ceremony at the Ryman in Nashville. Recent guests taking home awards include Dale Ann Bradley who took home female vocalist of the year. Dale Ann and her stellar group were on our show in Morgantown, WV last year and you can hear that show by clicking here and scrolling to the show dated May 18, 2007.

Jamie Dailey, formerly of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, has a new duo with Darrin Vincent and they were big winners at the ceremony. Their record "Dailey & Vincent" brought home Album of the Year and the duo was awarded Emerging Artist, Vocal Group and Entertainer of the Year. What a night for this new duo!

Recent guests Blue Highway were recognized for song of the year with their single "Through the Window of a Train," written by Tim Stafford and Tim Gulley. Blue Highways' dobro specialist Rob Ickes brought home Instrumental Performer of the Year in the dobro category. Click here to see the video for the award winning song and here to catch their performance on Mountain Stage.

In the mandolin category was bluegrass vet Adam Steffey, who will join the Dan Tyminski Band for their upcoming appearance on Mountain Stage October 12. Steffey has appeared on Mountain Stage with Alison Krauss & Union Station, Mountain Heart and now with the Tyminski group. We're looking forward to seeing Adam again, so grab your tickets while you can.

And especially close to our hearts is an award given to one of West Virginia's proudest sons, Everett Lilly. A long-heralded bluegrass hero and pioneer, Everett was awarded Recorded Event of the Year for "Everett Lilly & Everybody and Their Brother," featuring Everett Lilly, Bea Lilly, Charles Lilly, Daniel Lilly, Mark Lilly, Marty Stuart, Rhonda Vincent, Billy Walker, Ronnie McCoury, Rob McCoury, David Ball, Charlie Cushman, Larry Stephenson, Joe Spivey, Eddie Stubbs, Jason Carter, Dickey Lee, Freddy Weller, Mike Bub, Rad Lewis, Andy May, Darrin Vincent, Marcia Campbell, Clay Rigdon, Eric Blankenship & Bill Wolfenbarger. Charles Lilly & Bill Wolfenbarger were the producers.

For more on Everett Lilly and the Lilly Brothers, might I suggest checking out the The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover as part of the 2008 Class of inductees to the WV Music Hall of Fame. Everett will be on hand November 6 to accept his induction in Charleston, WV. More info is available at the WV Music Hall of Fame homepage.

The Mountain Stage NewSong Contest presented by Folk Alliance will host the finals to the 2008 international performing songwriter competition this Saturday, October 12, at the Cultural Center Theater in Charleston, WV.

Having competed and advanced on from regional rounds in the US and Canada, 12 finalists will get their final chance to wow the judges and win a slot on Mountain Stage radio show the very next night. The winner will be in good company too- performing on Mountain Stage will be Solas, Chris Knight, Dan Tyminski Band, and Patty Loveless. Here is an overview of the finalists as well as some info on potential winnings.

There are two-day passes available here so you can get in to the NewSong finals and Mountain Stage the following evening for around $15! What a bargain!