Mountain Blog

As you might have heard, Beth Orton has decided to cancel tomorrow night's performance on Mountain Stage. But the show must go on – and go on it will with our friend Chuck Prophet.  

 No stranger to Mountain Stage audiences, this will mark Prophet's fifth appearance on the the show – you can listen to his 2010 performance here, when he stopped by in support of his album Let Freedom Ring. Based out of his native California, prophet has worked with, and had his songs recorded by a who's who of music luminaries, including Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Kim Richey, Heart, Mofro, and Kelly Willis. Among his most notable collaboration is with roots music great and “genre unto himself” Alejandro Escovedo, who has co-written his last few albums with Prophet.  

And you may have even noticed his song “You Did” during the closing credits of HBO's True Blood:
 

Many thanks to Chuck for agreeing to swing by our show on a moment's notice. It's going to be a great night of music in Charleston, with Lucy Kaplansky, David Wax Museum, Jesse Harris, and Barnaby Bright. We'll see you there! 

It is with great enthusiasm that Mountain Stage reminds everyone that this Sunday, October 28th, we return to our home at the Culture Center Theater for our first show in a very long time. And we’d also like to remind you we’ll be spending even more time in Charleston in the very near future – click here to see our upcoming schedule of live shows that feature Robert Cray, Calexico, Kathy Mattea, and more.

But back to the matter at hand! This Sunday, we’ll be joined by Beth Orton, David Wax Museum, Lucy Kaplansky, Jessie Harris and Barnaby Bright. Tickets are available online, by phone (800.549.TIXX) and in person at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston. As always, they’re a mere $15 in advance, and $25 at the door.

With a diverse career that has mixed acoustic folk with trip-hop and electronica, U.K. singer/songwriter Beth Orton’s music has earned critical and popular acclaim. Her music has been featured in films and on television programs including “Felicity,” “How to Deal,” “Charmed,” “Dawson's Creek,” “Vanilla Sky” and “Grey's Anatomy.”

Orton came to international attention when she joined forces with British acid/house/remix pioneer William Orbit in the duo Spill and on his 1993 release “Strange Cargo 3.” But it was her 1996 full-length solo debut, “Trailer Park,” that brought her to the attention of the Americana scene. Since then, she has collaborated with ex-Whiskeytown frontman Ryan Adams and the Chemical Brothers. After a six-year hiatus from recording Orton signed to Anti Records and released “Sugaring Season” in 2012.

Named “Americana Artist of the Year” at the the 2010 Boston Music Awards, David’s Wax Museum’s creates a vibrant hybrid of traditional Mexican folk and American music. NPR described the group as “pure, irresistible joy” while Time.com praised the group for its “virtuosic musical skill and virtuous harmonies.”

While attending college in Missouri, David Wax spent summers working in rural Mexico with the American Friends Service Committee. He finished his degree at Harvard before heading back to the Mexican countryside to study its rich folk music tradition on a year-long fellowship. Utilizing Latin rhythms, call-and-response shouts, accordion and donkey jawbones, the band was featured on an NPR segment about Mexico-centric indie rock.

Its performance at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival was hailed by “All Songs Considered” as one of the weekend’s highlights. The band’s latest release, “Everything Is Saved,” has earned rave reviews from The New Yorker, Paste Magazine, and a nod from Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 acts of this year’s SXSW music conference, and an appearance on NPR’s World Café.

Raised in Chicago by a piano-playing mathematician and a homemaker, Lucy Kaplansky began singing in bars when she was a teenager. When she was just out of high school, she moved to New York City where, along with Suzanne Vega, The Roches, Steve Forbert, John Gorka, and Shawn Colvin, she became part of the renaissance of the Greenwich Village folk scene.

Although The New York Times said it was “easy to predict stardom for her,” Kaplansky earned a doctorate in psychology and started a private practice. Eventually, Colvin lured Kaplansky back to music and produced her 1994 debut “The Tide.” In addition to her six solo releases on Red House Records, Kaplansky was a member of folk supergroups Red Horse and Cry Cry Cry. Her latest release is titled “Reunion.”

Guitarist-songwriter Jesse Harris first came into prominence on Norah Jones' 2002 Grammy-winning "Come Away With Me." The New York native grew up studying classical piano and teaching himself guitar. Club dates in his late teens led to a deal with EMI and a 1995 album recorded with vocalist Rebecca Martin under the group name Once Blue. Harris went on to form the more organic Ferdinandos and through that band developed a working relationship with Jones.

The success of Jones' debut helped bring Harris' songwriting abilities to the music community's attention and led to his collaborations with other contemporary artists as well as a label deal for the Ferdinandos. The soundtrack to Ethan Hawke's "The Hottest State" featured versions of Harris' songs by performed by artists including Willie Nelson, Bright Eyes, The Black Keys, Feist and Emmylou Harris. His latest - and 11th - release, “Sub Rosa,” was recorded in Rio de Janeiro.

Since the release of its 2009 debut, “Wake the Hero,” the duo known as Barnaby Bright - Nathan and Becky Bliss - has garnered high praise for its songwriting and sound. The group’s music - which features guitars, harmonium, banjo, ukulele, thumb pianos and stunning harmonies - has been featured on television shows including “ER” and “Days of our Lives.”

The follow-up EP, “Gravity,” was named one of the “Top 100 Records of the Year” by Amazon.com. Traveling to Europe, the U.K. and throughout the U.S., Nathan and Becky average 40,000 miles and 200 shows a year. Barnaby Bright (a medieval term for the summer solstice) was among the finalists in the 2012 “Mountain Stage Newsong” competition held at Lincoln Center in NYC.

Mountain Stage returns this week with the second of our two shows recorded at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Recorded just feet away from Lake Superior, you’ll hear from Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, Jonathan Edwards, Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore, Gretchen Peters, and Chip Taylor featuring Paal Flaata.

Click here to see a list of stations and times where you can tune in. And click here to preview this week’s show via our Mountain Stage Song of the Week. This time, it’s Hillman & Pedersen taking on the bluegrass standard “The Old Crossroads.”

As members of the Byrds, the Dillards, the Desert Rose Band, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen have been part of the very fabric of American Music for nearly a half-century. In the early ‘60s, Chris Hillman switched from mandolin to bass to take a job in the original Byrds lineup.

Serving time with the Byrds (including the Gram Parsons’ incarnation) and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Hillman played an important role in the evolution of folk- and country-rock and, more recently, the “Americana” movement. In the early ‘80s, Hillman joined forces with Pedersen who, for decades, was one of the top session singers and instrumentalists in the Los Angeles area, and guitar master John Jorgenson in the successful Desert Rose Band.

By the mid-‘90s, Hillman and Pedersen were performing as an acoustic duo and recorded several projects together. Their latest record, “At Edward’s Barn,” continues their long-running love for country and bluegrass music.

Born in Aitkin, MN, folk and country singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards may be best known for his Top 5 hit "Sunshine." After growing up in Virginia and studying art in Ohio, Edwards and his blues band Sugar Creek moved to Boston in the late ‘60s.

Opting to try a career as a solo artist, “Sunshine” made its way onto his solo debut as an afterthought. “Honky-Tonk Stardust Cowboy” followed in 1972 as did singing backup on Emmylou Harris’ 1976 LP “Elite Hotel.” He recorded his 1976 release “Rockin' Chair, with Harris' Hot Band.

After touring with a national production of the musical “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” Edwards joined the bluegrass group the Seldom Scene for 1983's “Blue Ridge.” After moving to Nashville, his 1989 album “The Natural Thing” spawned his biggest country hit, "We Need to Be Locked Away." In 2011, Edwards returned with the studio album “My Love Will Keep.”

Comprised of powerhouse singer - and Wheeling, WV, native - Mollie O’Brien and guitarist Rich Moore, this pair is no mere “folk duo.” Described as “national musical treasures... and truly among the best out there keeping American music alive and vital” by renowned roots rocker Dave Alvin, their repertoire spans the range of American music from ragtime, jazzy blues, gospel to Dixieland, tango and saloon cabaret.

The instrumentation on their debut “Saints and Sinners” includes with tuba, bouzouki, accordion, fiddle, trumpet, trombone, oboe, and steel guitar. Mollie, one of acoustic music’s premiere vocalists, started her career in a duo with her brother Tim O’Brien.

Respected by songwriters, musicians and critics alike, Gretchen Peters’ tunes have been covered by a who’s who of country artists including Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis, George Strait, Martina McBride and Patty Loveless.

Born in Westchester County, NY, she moved with her mother to Boulder when she was in her teens. In the late’80s, she relocated to Nashville to pursue songwriting. In 1995, Peters won a Grammy for “Song of the Year” with her hit "Independence Day" (recorded by Martina McBride).

At the Country Music Awards that year, the song won the same award, as well as a CMA Video of the Year in 1994. She also co-wrote "Rock Steady" with Canadian pop-rocker Bryan Adams which was covered by Bonnie Raitt. After a tumultuous year in her personal life, she released “Hello Cruel World” in 2012.

Singer, songwriter, and producer Chip Taylor has penned some of the most memorable songs in music history including “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning” and “Try - Just A Little Bit Harder.” When Chet Atkins heard some of Taylor’s country songs, he quickly started recording them with artists he was producing.

Taylor is also credited with discovering, then co-producing both James Taylor and Neil Diamond. He released six solo albums in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including “Chip Taylor's Last Chance” which “Rolling Stone” named as one of the best country albums of 1973. A true renaissance man, Taylor also finished third in Las Vegas’ World Black Jack Championship, was a professional golfer, and one of the foremost thoroughbred horse race handicappers on the east coast.

Thanks again for listening to Mountain Stage. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for the latest news, backstage photos, and stories.

After a dip into the archives, Mountain Stage is back this week with another premier broadcast. Recorded in a tent on the North Shore of chilly Lake Superior in partnership with our good friends at the North House Folk School, you’ll hear from Minnesota’s own Trampled By Turtles, Low, the band Minnesota featuring Peter Himmelman, and Barbara Jean.

Click here to see a list of times and stations where you can listen. If there’s a specific song you’re hoping to hear, take a look at the playlist. And preview the show via our Mountain Stage Song of the Week – this time, it’s LOW’s “Silver Rider,” which recently found a wider audience thanks to Robert Plant’s acclaimed Band of Joy album.

A bluegrass band gone bad, Duluth’s Trampled By Turtles “approaches the banjo and mandolin with a level of brash recklessness ... that would make Bill Monroe and Joe Strummer proud.” Formed in 2003, the members were raised on punk ‘n’ roll but gravitated to traditional instruments to craft a pedal to the metal style of “bluegrass that meets Basement Tapes-era The Band with a fistful of gunpowder tossed into the wood-burning stove.”

And we should tell you from the outset that TBT’s set features one of the most electric Mountain Stage audiences in ages. They were on their feet for the entire set, clapping, cheering, dancing – and if you’ve ever wondered if the audience mics are actually on, listen this week and wonder no more.

Another band from Duluth, LOW was formed in 1993 by the husband-and-wife team of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. Low’s sparse, understated “rock” was initially something of a reaction to the grunge music that was in vogue at the time.

The group’s resume includes recording with Bongwater member/Shimmy Disc producer Kramer and later signing to the Sub Pop label, a slot on the Joy Division tribute A Means to an End and having its version of “Little Drummer Boy” featured in a Gap commercial. Then, none other than Robert Plant covered two Low songs on his 2010 solo album Band of Joy earning a Grammy nomination for his interpretation of Low's "Silver Rider.”

A collaboration between lauded singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman, and acclaimed screenwriter-filmmaker David Hollander, Minnesota is a departure from Himmelman’s usual sound. The resulting record, produced by Hollander, has been described as ethereal, deep and moving.

“'Minnesota’ represents the whole experience,” Hollander says. “It’s not a Peter Himmelman solo album, or ‘A Film by David Hollander’; it’s a larger collaboration, well beyond the two of us. We pushed each other out of our comfort zones and into new territory.” Himmelman adds: “I was sometimes frustrated by the new approach, but a great producer – and David qualifies as that – can make you become yourself again.”

Calling the rugged grandeur of Lake Superior's North Shore home for the last several years, Barbara Jean has developed her craft through constant live performance and has struck out on her own to take her debut record, "The Great Escape" to fans all across the Midwest. Classically trained on the viola at the University of Minnesota, and self-taught at the banjo, her voice and songs transcend tradition with a mix of Americana, Appalachia, and an insightful vulnerability in lyric and delivery.

After winning the songwriting competition in 2011 at Big Top Chautauqua and making honorable mention in the 2012 Telluride Troubadour Contest, Barbara Jean has shared bills with such notable acts as Trampled By Turtles, The Pines, Low, and Jonathan Edwards.

Thanks for listening to Mountain Stage. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for the latest news and backstage photos and stories.

Just a quick reminder, folks – this Sunday, Mountain Stage will make the short trip to the campus of Ohio University in Athens. Our guests include the incomparable country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, Memphis roots rock powerhouse Lucero, singer-songwriter Sara Watkins (formally of Nickel Creek), The Lost Brothers, and Doug Paisley.

Tickets for this show are still available, but moving fast. Get yours online, by phone (740.593.1780) or in person at Templeton Blackburn Memorial Auditorium box office.

 Click here to see our rather extensive, and still growing live show schedule.

See you at the show.

This week’s broadcast of Mountain Stage is a special archive edition, recorded in April of 2003. You’ll hear from legendary folk singer and activist Joan Baez, along with the incomparable Guy Clark, Roseanne Cash, Josh Ritter, and Tracy Grammer. Click here to find a list of times and stationswhere you can listen in your area. And preview the show via our Mountain Stage song of the week – this time, it’s Joan Baez singing the traditional tune “Lily of the West (Flora).”

Joan Baez needs little introduction to anyone who has listened to American Music over the past 50 years. In fact, even that’s an understatement, because Baez’s legion of fans is worldwide, and it started with her appearance as a teenager at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. Besides having a voice that’s earned millions of fans and spawned thousands of imitators, Baez is known almost as well for her social and political activism. As host Larry Groce said in his original introduction to this set, which was recorded in April of 2003, “I wish I could be the first to introduce you to her, but I’m pretty sure I’m not.”

Roseanne Cash got her start working with her father, Johnny, but it wasn’t long before she was doing her own thing, with an album released in 1978. Since then, she’s had a steady stream of successful records, including 11 more albums, and 11 number one singles. She’s defied categories, and known variously as a rock, pop, country, and roots performer. Her last album, The List, made up from a list of songs that her father said were important, was voted Album of the Year by the American Music Association in 2009.

Guy Clarkwas born in Texas and moved to California for a while as a young man before relocating to Nashville in 1971. He stepped into the spotlight in the early 70’s with songs like “L.A. Freeway” and “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” both recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker. Over the years, drawn from the 20 albums Clark has released on his own. Clark was a good friend and road buddy of Townes Van Zandt – the two toured together, and even visited Mountain Stage together. Clark has appeared on the show ten times, always bringing a handful of new songs that are as well crafted as the guitars he also makes. A Guy Clark tribute album, This One’s For Him, featuring a who’s who of Americana artists was released this year, and recently named Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association  

Josh Ritter had just released, or rather re-released his album The Golden Age of Radio when he appeared on Mountain Stage in April of 2003. He had recorded and released the album himself in 2000, but it was picked up by Signature Sounds and given a more national release in 2002. Ritter left his native Idaho for Oberlin College, where he studied folk music and opened for Joan Baez. He’s a serious prose writer as well as songwriter, and he published his first novel Bright’s Passage in 2011 - a story about a West Virginia man around the time of the first World War. His latest studio album is 2010’s So Runs The World Away. Earlier this year he released an EP called Bringing In the Darlings.

Contemporary folk singer Tracy Grammer began her journey in music with her partner Dave Carter, and the duo made three albums before Carter’s untimely death in 2002, which was less than a year before this episode was originally recorded in April of 2003. She’s continued as a solo performer and released three albums on her own, but she often records and performs Carter’s songs – in fact, all of the songs in this set were written by him.

Find a time and radio station in your area where you can tune in. Connect with Mountain Stage on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in touch with the latest information, and follow us on Twitter for news about upcoming shows.  

Thank you for listening to Mountain Stage! 

We’ve made several exciting additions to our fall and winter schedule that we’d like to pass along.

First, on November 11, we’ll travel once again to Morgantown, where we’ll be joined by Mike Doughty. Formerly the frontman of the jazzy experimental rock band Soul Coughing, singer-songwriter and guitarist Mike Doughty cut his first solo record while that group was still together.

Soul Coughing disbanded in 2000, but Doughty's 2005 album Haughty Melodic spawned his hit "Looking at the World Through the Bottom of a Well." An avid blogger with a wry sense of humor, the title of his new album, Yes And Also Yes was taken from the headline of his profile on an online dating site. We’re not making this up.

Tickets for this show are already on sale, online, by phone (304.293.SHOW) and in person at the CAC Box Office in Morgantown. Four more acts will be added to this show in the very near future. Watch this space for the latest.

On December 9, we’ll return to our home at the Culture Center Theater here in Charleston, where our guests will be the Robert Cray Band, Shemekia Copeland, and Kelly Hogan.

As one of the foremost names in blues music for decades now, Robert Cray needs no introduction. He’s out on the road with his band again, but this time with a refreshed lineup that includes bassist Richard Cousins, whose original tenure with Cray included his landmark Strong Persuader and Don’t be Afraid of the Dark albums; along with longtime Cray keyboardist Jim Pugh, and drummer Tony Braunagel (who has worked with Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, B.B King and many more).

“Blues is one of the foundations of our music, but it’s not all that we play,” Cray says. “When I first started playing guitar, I wanted to be George Harrison – that is, until I heard Jimi Hendrix. After that, I wanted to be Albert Collins and Buddy Guy and B.B. King. And then there are singers like O.V. Wright and Bobby Blue Bland. It’s all mixed up in there.” Cray’s latest album is This Time.

Blues singer  Shemekia Copeland  is a force of nature. With a voice like a blast-furnace, her music has the kind of timeless power and a heart-pounding urgency that few can achieve. Born in Harlem, New York, in 1979, Copeland actually came to her singing career slowly. Her father, the late Texas blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, brought her on stage to sing at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club when she was just eight.

At the time, Shemekia’s embarrassment outweighed her desire to sing. But when she was fifteen and her father’s health began to fail, her outlook changed. At only 19, Shemekia stepped out of her father’s shadow with the Alligator release of 1998 debut recording, Turn the Heat Up! She’s just released her brilliant new album, 33 1/3, which was produced by Oliver Wood for Telarc records.

Kelly Hogan  will also be there. Many music fans will recognize Hogan as the prominently featured backing vocalist who has shared the stage with Neko Case on hundreds of tour dates, along with Jakob Dylan, Mavis Staples, Otis Clay and Andrew Bird. Her extraordinary new solo album, I Like to Keep Myself in Pain has already wound up on several critics “best of” lists, and features songs written by Vic Chesnutt, The Magnetic Fields, The Mekons’ Jon Langford, John Wesley Harding, Robbie Fulks, Robyn Hitchcock, M. Ward and more.  

 Tickets for this show are available now online, by phone (800.549.TIXX), and in person at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston. 

 We’ll be adding a couple more acts to this show in the future. Check back with us for the latest, right here, on Twitter, and via Facebook.  

 See you at the show. 

This week’s premier broadcast of Mountain Stage with Larry Groce is the second of our two shows recorded on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. You’ll hear from legendary multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, along with singer-songwriter Tift Merrit, bluegrass band Bearfoot, Steve Brown & The Bailers, Pat Fitzgerald and Robin Dale Ford, and a special appearance by Susan Grace.

Click here to find as station and time where you can listen in your area.

Texas-born, North Carolina-raised singer-songwriter Tift Merritt makes her fourth appearance on Mountain Stage in Fairbanks. She burst on the alt-country scene ten years ago with her solo debut Bramble Rose, and with an assist from fellow North Carolinian Ryan Adams, she signed to Lost Highway Records.

After her 2004 release Tambourine was nominated for a Grammy, Merritt moved to Paris where she wrote the material for 2008's Another Country. Her latest, Traveling Alone is on North Carolina-based Yep Roc. Hear her talk about the new record with Larry Groce in our latest Backstage at Mountain Stage video above, and preview her performance by listening to this week's Mountain Stage Song of the Week.

An eclectic multi-instrumentalist of the highest order, David Lindley performs music that mixes and matches a dizzying array of influences. Known for his many years as the featured accompanist with Jackson Browne, and leader of his own El Rayo-X, Lindley has long championed the concept of world music.

Using an array of instruments including lap steel, the Turkish saz and Middle Eastern oud, Lindley effortlessly combine American folk, blues and bluegrass traditions with African, Arabic, Asian, Celtic, Malagasy, and Turkish musical sources. The list of Lindley’s sessions is as diverse as his musical influences, including Little Feat, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Carlene Carter, the Bangles, Emmylou Harris, Holly Cole and the Blind Boys of Alabama. His latest is Big Twang.

You’ll also hear from Bearfoot, in one of their final appearances featuring their current lineup. Winners of the fiercely competitive Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition in 2001, the band came to Nasvhille by way of its native Alaska.

After their 2009 debut Doors And Windows debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Magazine’s Bluegrass chart, founding members Angela Oudean and Jason Norris recruited Todd Grebe, another Alaskan transplant, and singer-songwriter Nora Jane Struthers and bassist P.J. George. Their latest, American Story, weaves together styles ranging from string band and hardcore bluegrass to acoustic pop. 

Alaskan favorites Pat Fitzgerald & Robin Dale Ford also appear. Collectively and separately an integral part of the Alaskan music scene for more than two decades, Pat Fitzgerald and Robin Dale Ford are part of their state’s unique musical landscape. Pat was a drummer for the seminal Alaskan rock band The Glass Bead Game while Robin, playing banjo, was part of the old-time and bluegrass revival.

After she picked up the electric bass, the two collaborated in a number of bands including Stir Crazy, The Flyers, The Firewalkers and their current group, DANG! At the same time the couple maintained solo acoustic careers and, in the late ‘90s, began touring the U.S., Canada as an acoustic duo. 

You’ll also hear from Alaskan favorites Steve Brown & The Bailers, and Susan Grace. Led by singer-songwriter Steve Brown, this popular Alaska band features acoustic guitars, mandolin, upright bass, and percussion. They were asked to appear on Michael Feldman’s “Whad’ya Know?” when the show traveled to Fairbanks, and remain a staple at fairs and festivals. 

Alaskan native Susan Grace draws inspiration from the natural beauty, spirit and community found in the 49th state. Often referred to as Alaska's Joan Baez, Mountain Stage was thrilled to have Grace as a special guest.

Find a time and radio station inyour area where you can tune in. Connect with Mountain Stage on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in touch with the latest information, and follow us on Twitter for even more about upcoming shows.  

Thank you for listening to Mountain Stage!