Mountain Blog

Although there aren’t any live productions for the month of September, we have a great string of Live Shows for October and November already lined up.

We’ve finalized the line-up for October 3 at the Creative Arts Center on the campus of WVU with the addition of jazz chanteuse Lizz Wright. Wright has been with us once and is gearing up to release her “Fellowship” on September 28. You can pre-order the album at Amazon and get your tickets to see her October 3 by calling 304.293.SHOW or purchase online via Ticketmaster.

We’ve just added another date to the schedule: Sunday, October 17 at the Culture Center Theater. We’ll welcome The Felice Brothers and former Two Gallants member Adam Haworth Stephens for the first time, along with the second appearance by Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys.

The Felice Brothers are a touring machine, still pounding the highways with songs from their acclaimed CD “Yonder Is the Clock.” Alejandro Escovedo is riding a wave of creativity and critical acceptance with his latest, “Street Songs of Love.” Check out a performance of “Anchor” on his website. Adam Haworth Stephens is prepping the release of “We Live on Cliffs” with a free download of “The Cities That You’ve Burned.”

In November news, the latest CD by The Weepies, “Be My Thrill” came out Tuesday and is available online. If you purchase through this link, a portion of your proceeds go to WV Public Broadcasting at no extra charge (Learn More).

The Weepies will join us November 14, along with the Punch Brothers, Infamous Stringdusters and Trampled by Turtles. Tickets are available online, by phone at 800-594-TIXX, or locally at Taylor Books.  See the Live Show Schedule for more information.

We’re putting the last minute preparations together for this Sunday’s show at the Culture Center here in Charleston. We’re looking forward to hearing a lot of great new music from The SteelDrivers, Abigail Washburn, Gene Watson, Scott Miller and Whitey Morgan & the 78s. 

Tickets are still available online, at Taylor Books locally and by phone at 800.594.TIXX. Read up on each guest in our Setting the Stage Newsletter where you’ll find links to each artist’s website plus some news on upcoming shows in the area.

Country music living-legend Gene Watson was featured in today’s issue of the Charleston Daily Mail and Abigail Washburn had a chat with The Charleston Gazette. Gene talks about being traditional country-to-the-core while Abigail Washburn talks about her upcoming project and her summer so far.

This week on the radio you’ll hear an encore presentation featuring The Squirrel Nut Zippers with songs from their 2009 Live Release “Lost In Sea.” For a couple of previews you can see an interview with Jimbo Mathus from our YouTube Channel “Backstage at Mountain Stage” below and hear the band performing “Put A Lid On It” as our Song of the Week.

In addition you’ll hear white-trash rockabilly heroes Southern Culture on the Skids, indie-rockers These United States, Nashville’s guitar-driven trio The Coal Men and 2009 Mountain Stage NewSong co-winner Grace Pettis. Click here to find a station in your area and tell some friends to tune in!

As you already know, tickets went on sale this morning for our upcoming Live Show Schedule. We’ve just made another exciting addition to the schedule with Jenny & Johnny, featuring Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice. They will join us Sunday, October 24 at the Culture Center Theater here in Charleston. Tickets are already on sale for this event too, and we’ll be making some more announcements regarding other guests in the coming weeks.

You can pre-order the duo’s debut release, “I’m Having Fun Now,” via Amazon. It hits stores next Tuesday, August 31.

October 3 we head to the WVU Creative Arts Center in Morgantown, WV for a show with our friends at WVU Arts & Entertainment. We’ve just added immensely talented guitarist and soul singer Raul Midon and emerging New York-based duo The Paper Raincoat to the line-up. Raul has been with us once before and Alex Wong of the Paper Raincoat accompanied Vienna Teng on her latest appearance on the show.

We’ve added. Stan Ridgway, he of Wall of Voodoo fame, to the bill for November 7 in Morgantown, along with Hot Rize and Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers.

Tickets for both of these Morgantown shows are also on sale now via ticketmaster. Click HERE for tickets to all the other shows.

Here is a video of Raul Midon on the Making of Synthesis(Click to order on Amazon).

Don't forget that tickets for our upcoming Live Shows go on sale Monday, August 23 at 10am. Tickets for our Charleston shows (Oct.10 and Nov. 14) are available by phone at 800.594.TIXX or at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston, and Online.  

Tickets for our October 31 trip to Buckhannon, WV are available online and by phone at 800.594.TIXX.

Tickets for shows at the WVU Creative Arts Center (Oct. 3 and Nov. 7) are available at TickeTmaster.com, 304.293.SHOW, or at the Mountain Lair box office on the campus of WVU.

Visit our Live Show Schedule for more and get all the ticket information HERE.

This week’s radio broadcast is an encore episode featuring Regina Spektor, Yo La Tengo, Will Hoge, Great Lake Swimmers and Sonny Landreth. Check out the Playlist and head over to our Affiliates page where you can find a station and air-time in your area. 

This encore is dedicated to Daniel Cho, the cellist and quartet leader for Spektor’s band who passed away tragically July 6. He was an accomplished performer and in-demand studio player whose credits include Coldplay, Katy Perry and John Mayer. He was also a frequent ESPN Soccernet contributor and devoted family man. There is a memorial page set up in his honor and Mountain Stage sends our best to his young family. 

As always, we have a preview of the show on our Song of the Week page. This week we feature Regina Spektor’s thought-provoking “Laughing With,” from her CD “Far.”

Whadaya need when you’re 8,000 feet high on Mount Fuji, at a near-zero degree centigrade summit? Our friend Mike Kappus took along his Mountain Stage sweatshirt to help stave off the altitude chill on his second trip to the peak. Mike, who is the head honcho at the Rosebud Agency, made his first excursion up Mount Fuji 20 years ago to celebrate his 40^th birthday. We bet he’ll be doing this again in another 20 years-hopefully with a new Mountain Stage garment.

Thanks for taking Mountain Stage with you, Mike!