Mountain Blog

Tickets for our September 29 Mountain Stage radio show recording featuring the Indigo Girls go on sale TOMORROW, July 1 at The Clay Center or by phone at 304.561.3570. We'll have some tickets available at Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street in downtown Charleston as well.

Showtime at The Clay Center is 8pm with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are a steal at $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

Tickets go on sale a couple of days earlier than previously reported. We'll be adding more guests as the show approaches, so keep an eye on the blog for the latest announcements.

Click HERE for our entire Live Show Schedule. We hope to see you in Charleston!  

We've added Todd Snider to our line-up at the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, KY August 2. Todd's latest CD, The Excitement Plan, has been getting rave reviews and features a guest spot by Loretta Lynn.

This marks Todd's tenth appearance on the show.

Check out Todd's Web site for more and go to the Paramount Web site for tickets or TicketMaster. You can order by phone at 606.324.3175. Also on the bill are Nanci Griffith, Holsapple & Stamey and The Greencards.

Returning to Charleston, WV for her fifth appearance on Mountain Stage is the independent-minded Jill Sobule, who released her latest album,  California Years, with financial contributions from her listeners. (How public radio is THAT?)

She joins us August 30 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV along with Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, Poco and Ben Sollee.

Dig the album on her Web site, and get your tickets online, by phone at 800.594 TIXX, or at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston.

Mountain Stage is happy to welcome three new radio stations into the fold. We're over 100 stations strong and happy to be expanding our listenership. We'd love to hear from you if you're a new listener! E-mail us your comments or register and leave a comment on the blog.

WHDD in Sharon, CT has added Mountain Stage to their schedule. Listeners can catch Mountain Stage every Monday at 1pm and Tuesday at 7pm on 91.9 FM, Robin Hood Radio. WHDD-FM has two associate stations, 1200 AM in Sharon, CT and WBSL 91.7 FM in Sheffield, MA. Visit WHDDFM.com for more info. 

Starting Tuesday, July 1, Iowa Public Radio's statewide network of stations will begin airing Mountain Stage Saturday at 3pm Central Time. IPR's network includes the following frequencies: KUNI 90.9 FM, KDMR 88.9 FM, KDUB 89.7 FM, KDWI 89.1 FM, KUNY 91.5 FM and WOI-FM 90.1 HD-2. We're statewide in Iowa!

Beginning Friday, July 10, WNCW, Spindale, NC will air Mountain Stage at 8pm on 88.7 FM. WNCW, a service of Isothermal Community College, serves the Charlotte area via translator at 100.3 FM and, by this summer, the Wilkes, NC area via a new repeater, WBSL 91.7 FM. This area is a hotbed for so many styles of music and we're thrilled to be a part of their musical fabric.

Be sure to tune in and click here for a complete list of stations that carry Mountain Stage. Please show your gratitude to your local public radio station by pledging your support, donating goods or services, or volunteering your time.

You know its a special show when we record on a Tuesday, which is exactly what we'll do on Tuesday September 29 when the Indigo Girls make their long-awaited return to Mountain Stage for a show at the Clay Center Theater, 1 Clay Square, in Charleston, WV.

Tickets will cost an outrageously low $15.50 in advance and $20 on the day of show, and will be on sale next Friday, July 3. You can buy over the phone by calling 304.561.3570, visiting their online ticketing at www.theclaycenter.org or by stopping by Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St. in downtown, Charleston.

This will mark Amy Ray and Emily Salier's sixth appearance on Mountain Stage since their first in 1991.

Hey, have you heard the news? You can now become a fan of Mountain Stage on Facebook. Search "Mountain Stage Radio Show," or click HERE to stay up to date on the latest postings, photos and radio broadcasts. We've already surpassed 1,200 fans, and we'd love to have you join the gang.

Over at NPR Music you can hear a great set by Austin, TX country-rockers The Gourds. As the text says, these guys preceded what is now widely called "Americana" music and theirs is a down-home authentic version of that exactly. Dig the tunes from their latest Haymaker! as well as some of their live favorites over at NPR Music!

Stay tuned later in the week for sets by folk-icon Tom Rush, Illinois indie-rockers Backyard Tire Fire, pop-classics melded with classical themes by Susan Werner and Nashville rock-newcomers The Deep Vibration, all captured LIVE!

Our line-ups for upcoming recordings are coming together. We've just confirmed some more guests for the summer.

Check out the entire LIVE SCHEDULE for links to each artist and read on for ticket info on each show.

July 26 - Culture Center Theater

We've just added Cyril Neville, from the first family of New Orleans Funk, and his group to the line-up alongside Ben Kweller, Dave Alvin & Guilty Women and newcomer Samantha Crain & Midnight Shivers. This show is going to span the sonic spectrum.

Dig some of Cyril's latest solo effort, Brand New Blues, on his MySpace page.

Click HERE to order your tickets, call 1800.594.TIXX to charge by phone or swing by Taylor Books in downtown Charleston to get your tickets.

August 9 - Clay Center for the Arts \

Just added to the August 9 show at the Clay Center is a new band featuring members of North Mississippi All-stars, Hill Country Revue. These guys do a gritty, bombastic version of deep south blues that was born in the hill country blues of RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, played with a southern rock attack.

Featuring guitarist Cody Dickinson, bassist Chris Chew, harmonica and vocals by Daniel Robert Coburn, electric slide by Kirk Smithhart and drums by Edward "Hot" Cleveland, their latest album "Make A Move" rocks hard. 'nuff said.

Get your tickets at The Clay Center or charge by phone by calling 304 -561-3570.

August 16 - Bristol TN/VA

Tickets aren't on sale yet for our trip to Bristol (we'll announce it just as soon as they are here on the blog) but we have expanded the line-up to include folk-singer and old-time enthusiast Mike Seeger and R&B Soul-bluesman Robert Cray and his band.

Seeger, who many know as a member of the hugely influential New Lost City Ramblers, has a CD out on Smithsonian Folkways called Early Southern Guitar Sounds. Heck, he's even mentioned in Chronicles, Vol. I by Bob Dylan:

"He played on all the various planes, the full index of the old-time styles, played in all the genres and had the idioms mastered - Delta Blues, ragtime, minstrel songs, buck-and wing, dance reels, play party, hymns and gospel. It's not as if he just played everything well, he played these songs as good as it was possible to play them."

Robert Cray, long-championed soul and blues guitarist, is ready to release a new album to follow up his 2006 live release, Live from Across the Pond .

Be sure to swing by the Mountain Stage home at NPR Music to check out a new feature, just added today, with video highlights of an interview with Fountains of Wayne conducted by Mountain Stage host and artistic director, Larry Groce. The members wax on their successes and their upcoming acoustic tour.

Then you can click through to hear their entire set, including songs from their latest Traffic & Weather plus some exclusive songs that have yet to be released. FoW will embark on an all-acoustic show this summer, so you can preview their upcoming trek through their Mountain Stage performance.

Tickets are still available, while they last, for this Sunday's live performance at the Chuck Mathena Center in Princeton, WV.

Folks will be traveling from all around to see Steve Earle perform songs from Townes, bluegrass living legend Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, former Nickel Creek member Sara Watkins, the chamber-grass ensemble King Wilkie and new-comers The Lovell Sisters. Call 877.425.5128 to charge by phone or order online at www.chuckmathenacenter.org.

You can read the Charleston Gazette's feature on Earle on The Gazz.

He was on Letterman Wednesday night and just enjoyed his highest Billbaord chart position for Townes, which debuted at #19 last week.

Koko Taylor - 1928-2009

The Mountain Stage family is saddened to learn of Koko Taylor's passing on June 3. Her status as Queen of the Blues was undisputed, especially to anyone who watched her sing.

She last visited Mountain Stage in 2001 and she continued performing up until last month when she sang at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis (shortly after winning her 29th Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year). Taylor is a legend of the blues and will surely be missed. Upcoming Mountain Stage guests Shemekia Copeland and Buddy Guy are both quoted in this AP obituary. Shemekia says, "You can't ask a  woman who sings blues right now who influenced them and not say 'Koko Taylor.' If she didn't pave the way for us we couldn't do this."

You can read more at the Alligator Records website and hear NPR Music's feature from Morning Edition.

The Chicago Tribune's blog post goes deeper into her recording history with Chess and Alligator Records.

Here is a set Koko did for Mountain Stage, recorded July 13, 2001 in Snowshoe, WV. May her voice continue inspire singers for generations to come.

Set List:
Can't Let Go
Ernestine
Jump For Joy
Somebody Bring Me Some Water (Melissa Etheridge)
Wang Dang Doodle