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Tune in this weekend to hear the phenominal fingerstyle guitar styles of Leo Kottke, Canadian roots-group The Duhks, veteran songwriting trio The Refugees, Mountain Stage NewSong co-winner Kelleigh McKenzie and pop-rock super group Fiction Family, featuring members of Switchfoot and Nickel Creek. You'll find the playlist HERE and find a station and airtime in your area to tune in.
This Sunday's live recording here in Charleston has been making headlines in the local press. Check out the two features on Calexico:
Charleston Daily Mail by Monica Orosz.Charleston Gazette by Bill Lynch
And two features on Harper Simon:
Charleston Daily Mail by Monica Orosz.Charleston Gazette by Bill Lynch.
Other guests include Solas, Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers and Jesse Winchester. Tickets for Sunday's show are still available online, by calling 800.594.TIXX or visiting Taylor Books in Downtown, Charleston.
And for good measure, here's the latest video from Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers!
Tickets are on sale NOW for our next live recording in Morgantown, WV. We'll return to the WVU Creative Arts Center on Sunday March 21 to feature Country Music mainstay Patty Loveless, Bluegrass big guns the Grascals and, just announced, the charismatic songwriter extraordinaire, Loudon Wainwright III . Loudon will make his 14th appearance on the show. You can hear his most recent appearance, from 2007, at NPR Music.
We've added Juliana Hatfield to our February 7 line-up here in Charleston. She joins Dashboard Confessional Acoustic, Clare & the Reasons, The Watson Twins and Brooke Waggoner at the Culture Center Theater for a 7pm showtime.
Tickets - available ONLINE, at Taylor Books or by calling 800.594.TIXX - are going fast, so don't hesitate!
Hatfield's latest record Peace & Love hits stores on February 16 so you can bet we'll get a preview on Mountain Stage. You can preview two tracks from Peace & Love on her MySpace page. She was on last in 2001 with the reunited Blake Babies and she appeared solo in 1992.
Our friend Mona put it nicely over on WV Public Radio's Classically Speaking Blog : You LOVE the programming on Public Radio but probably don't like the Pledge Drives.
You're in luck! Through the power of the internet, we're giving you the listener the ability to shorten the pledge drive by making your pledge online, NOW, BEFORE the radio pledge even starts.
For every $10,000 you pledge online before Thursday the 21st, the "Chocolate Challenge" fund drive will be cut one day. So time is running out to make your dollars count towards the abbreviated drive. It's simple - Just CLICK HERE and follow the steps to give through our secure server. You'll automatically be entered for a chance to receive a box of Holl's Chocolates every month for a year! You can choose your pledge level and you can even pick a gift that fits your taste - Classical, News or even Mountain Stage gifts are available. So now it's up to you. Mountain Stage has begun offering some great new features over the last couple of years: We maintain a presence on MySpaceThere are almost 5,000 fans on FacebookThe latest news on The Mountain Stage Blog,Daily Content over at NPR MusicOur Song of the Week Segment Weekly access to our PodcastsThe "Live on Stage" NewslettersOur own Video Channel, Backstage at Mountain Stage. If you've been enjoying these features, not to mention two hours of live-performance radio each week, now is the time to show your support financially. If you appreciate Mountain Stage then we hope you can make a gift in the amount you can afford.
Thanks for your support because without you, there'd be no Mountain Stage and we never forget that.
Mountain Stage is saddened to share the news that another member of our musical family has passed. Folk singer and songwriter Kate McGarrigle died yesterday at age 63. We send our heartfelt condolences to her family and other loved ones.
Kate and her sister Anna made four appearances on Mountain Stage between 1989 and 1997. "On her four visits, her music never failed to express the beauty and poignancy for which she and her sister Anna were known," says Mountain Stage host and artistic director Larry Groce, "The McGarrigles often brought their families with them and included them in their performances. Kate and Anna's songs, their harmonies and their family-band spirit spoke directly to the hearts of listeners in a manner that is true and rare."Long time listeners might recall a memorable moment in 1989 when Kate & Anna McGarrigle brought out Kate's young son Rufus and daughter Martha Wainwright to sing two Stephen Foster classics.
Here is what the The NY Times and Canadian Broadcast Company had to say.
Our sincere thanks to everyone in the 1,000+ audience last night in Morgantown, WV for Mountain Stage. We hope you enjoyed hearing Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing, Tommy Emmanuel, The DePue Brothers, Among the Oak & Ash, Vetiver and Jorma Kaukonen & David Bromberg. This episode will air in most areas the week of April 2-4. Keep an eye on our Broadcast Schedule for the latest.
If you are interested in coming to see a recording in person, visit the Live Show Schedule and come see us in Charleston. If you are so inclined, you can connect with us on MySpace and Facebook, and keep an eye here on the Mountain Stage Blog for the latest in line-up additions and upcoming broadcasts. Thanks as always for supporting live music and Mountain Stage. Without you, there'd be no Mountain Stage and we never forget that.
As you can see on our Live Show Schedule we are going to be busy over the next several weeks, recording episodes #712-718 with stellar line-ups all around. Here are some of the guests we've recently added.
Our February 7 show is coming together nicely. We've just added indie-pop sweethearts The Watson Twins to our lineup alongside Dashboard Confessional Acoustic, Clare & the Reasons , and Brooke Waggoner. Show time is 7pm and tickets, as always, are available at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston, by calling 800.594.TIXX or purchase online HERE.
The Watson Twins have toured with Billy Bragg and their meditative cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" is on the hugely successful soundtrack to the HBO series True Blood. They'll be with us just two days before the release of "Talking to You, Talking To Me," their highly anticipated follow up to "Fire Songs."It can be preordered on CD and on Vinyl at a discounted price! They have a digital single available on Amazon with details on their MySpace blog.
The lineup for February 14 is looking like a songwriter's dream come true. We've got some of the finest crafstsmen, from varying traditions and geographical regions, with stories galore among them. Ray Wylie Hubbard, high-school buddy and former band mate of Larry Groce, will be sharing material from his CD "A. Enlightenment B. Endarkment (Hint: There is No C.)", which just came out January 12 (Click HERE to purchase on Amazon). The cover features a beheaded version of RWH and you can read about the record's guests (including Kevin Russell of The Gourds and Ray Bonneville) on his MySpace Blog .
We've just added another award winning songwriter to the February 14 show in Darrell Scott . He's got a web series on songwriting on his website called "New Moon/New Music," which is worth checking out. His latest CD is called "Modern Hymns."
Songwriting bard Robert Earl Keen, former Bad Liver Danny Barnes, and the "surrogate-sister harmony" of the Sweetback Sisters round out the lineup on February 14. Get your tickets HERE for the 7pm show at the Culture Center Theater.
Mandolin phenomenon Sam Bush has a new record called "Circles Around Me" and he'll be joining us on a packed show February 21 along with Lucero, Sons of Bill, the Bottle Rockets and Huntington, WV's own Bud Carroll & the Southern Souls. Get your tickets HERE and be at the Culture Center for a 7pm show.
We'll head across town to the Clay Center in Charleston on February 28 for a show featuring Ani DiFranco, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Erin McKeown, Andy McKee, and recent Bob Edwards Weekend guest Chuck Prophet. Here's a video about his latest album, Let Freedom Ring! He tells more of the story (including widespread epidemic and brown-outs) in that Bob Edwards interview.
We've added Sunday March 21 to our schedule for another trip to Morgantown, WV at the WVU Creative Arts Center. Our guests will be Country music star Patty Loveless, who just put out another amazing record, a sequel of sorts, called "Mountain Soul II."
Also in the books are Bluegrass kingpins The Grascals, who were voted IBMA Entertainers of the Year in 2007 & 2006 and just added banjo player Kristin Scott Benson to their line-up. We'll let you know right here when tickets are available.
Here's a clip of Mark O'Connor, from the great early 90s TV show "American Music Shop," doing a number called "Swing." He's got a CD of his Hot Swing, available HERE.
We've got two legendary acoustic musicians joining forces on Sunday in the form of Jorma Kaukonen & David Bromberg. These two are gurus of acoustic folk and blues, and they've both made an indelible mark on the world of folk and rock music. Check out the video below of "Key to the Highway", recorded in 1985 in Chicago.
Indie-rockers Vetiver are making their first appearance on Mountain Stage Sunday, bringing their soft, contemplative sound evidenced in the track below, "Rolling Sea" from their critically acclaimed "Tight Knit."
There's lots of great music over at NPR Music, including the latest segment from our Special Tribute edition. Below are the links for each of the segments posted so far.
Koko Taylor- the Queen of the Blues performs three power-house tunes for the audience in 1994.
Various Artists- This segment features tunes by several great artists, beginning with the Hacienda Brothers and closing with folk-icon Odetta. Includes songs by Stephen Bruton, Sean Costello, Dave Van Ronk, John Stewart, Bob Gibson.
John Martyn & Kirsty MacColl- We just posted two tunes from each of these songwriters.
Looking forward into 2010 the Charleston Gazette printed an article, by Bill Lynch, with a bit of a preview of what's in the works here at Mountain Stage. Read the article here. If you'd like to join us for a live recording, take a look at our Live Show Schedule. We'd love to see you in Charleston!
We've added a bit of West Virginia flavor to our March 28 live recording in the form of Martinsburg, WV's own string-band wonderkind The Fox Hunt. They make new music with old-time instruments, and really capture the essence of their upbringing. "I'll Drink Cheap" is a personal favorite. Get a listen to their CD Nowhere Bound at CDBaby.
They're joined March 28 by Paul Thorn and Peter Bradley Adams. Click HERE for tickets.
We look forward to sharing more live music with you this year. We hope you'll tell some friends about us, bring a friend to a recording or call them and tell them to tune in. We thank you for your support because, we say it all the time, without YOU there would be no Mountain Stage. We never forget that.
Don't forget to join us at MySpace and become a fan on Facebook!