Mountain Blog

This week’s broadcast of Mountain Stage is a special archive edition that we’ve selected from our recording vault. Originally recorded on June 26, 2005, you’ll hear from progressive acoustic supergroup Nickel Creek, acclaimed jazz orchestra Pink Martini, Americana star Kathleen Edwards, and the phenomenal young singer-songwriter Sonya Kitchell.

Click here to view the playlist, and click here find a time and station where you can listen. And as always, you can catch a preview of the show via our Song of the Week. This time, it’s Nickel Creek, with their breakthrough song “Reasons Why.”

Nickel Creek was perhaps the best known acoustic music group of the late 90’s and early 00’s. They formed in 1989 in Carlsbad California, when the three principal members, Chris Thile, Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins were still children. They released six albums before parting ways in 2007, by which time they were widely credited with introducing a younger generation to the sounds of bluegrass and its progressive acoustic offspring.

Nickel Creek won a Grammy in 2003 for Best Contemporary Folk Recording, and visited the Mountain Stage four times, the last being this performance in June of 2005. Since the breakup each member has continued to perform and return to Mountain Stage in various configurations – Sean Watkins with WPA and Fiction Family; Chris Thile with Punch Brothers, and alongside Bela Fleck; and Sara Watkins with her own band.

Pink Martini had already been together for 11 years when they appeared on this Mountain Stage show in June of 2005. Formed in Portland, Oregon by pianist Thomas Lauderdale, they were from the very beginning a “little orchestra” with many international influences. During any given set, you’re likely to hear a wide range of musical styles from all over the world, and songs in many languages.

Their release at the time of this performance was the album Hang On Little Tomato, but they reach back to their first recording for one of their most famous tunes, “Sympathique” which was nominated for Song of the Year in France, and is often sung by striking French workers. Pink Martini continues to tour the world, and can range in size from eight to a dozen or more, including guest vocalists. This set features original vocalist China Forbes, who was Lauderdale’s classmate at Harvard University.

Now one of Americana’s most highly regarded female performers, Kathleen Edwards was born in Ottawa, Canada, and began playing violin at 5. Her family moved overseas, where removed from the influence of mainstream North American pop music, Edwards delved into her older brother's collection of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and early Tom Petty records.

After high school, she landed back in Ottawa, where she sang and played her guitar in local clubs while networking with other musicians in the scene. Her widely acclaimed debut album Failer was released in 2003, earning Edwards opening spots for Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. In 2005 she released her follow-up Back to Me, which began to introduce pop elements into her dusty Americana sound. Her most recent album Voyager was produced by Justin Vernon of indie rock sensation Bon Iver.

Released when she was 15, Sonya Kitchell’s Words Come Back to Me established the young singer-songwriter as an artist to watch. A native of Massachusetts, Kitchell first discovered her songwriting talent on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, when she returned from school so shaken that she turned her journal entries into a song. Local press attention led to a one-off date at the Iron Horse Music Hall, a prominent local folk-oriented venue, which then led to the formation of a full-time gigging band.

She was awarded “Best Jazz Vocal” and “Best Original Song” from the 2003 Down Beat Student Music Awards with her song “Romance,” and her CD The Storm was produced by Daniel Lanois cohort Malcolm Burn. Her career took yet another turn when she was tapped by jazz legend Herbie Hancock for a world tour in 2007, celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell.

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