Mountain Blog

In fact, we've just added blues-roots duo Scrapomatic to the February 15 show here in Charleston. It's a bit of a no-brain-er considering Scrapomatic lead singer Mike Mattison is also the voice behind the Derek Trucks Band. He'll get to showcase his diversity on Feb. 15 as we hear him work his vocal magic with both acts. Click HERE for tickets.

Also just added to February 15 is pop-starlet Lenka, who's self-titled debut is a carnival ride of interesting instrumentation and offers up sing-a-longs galore. Give "The Show" a view on her web-site and we feel sure you won't "want your money back."

Are you staying up-to-date with Mountain Stage? I saw Charleston area music-historian, record-store owner and Drive By Truckers fanatic Jon Nelson (profiled recently by the Charleston Gazette) over the holiday. He hadn't heard about the Truckers upcoming appearance on February 22. That's a shame, I told him, because we announced it on this blog as soon as they confirmed. Thanks to the wonders of RSS feeds, staying up to date requires only slightly more work than breathing. Simply click the RSS button above  (or the smaller one above the calendar at the top right of this page) and you'll get updated every time there is new content on the Mountain Stage blog.
If you're not familiar with subscribing to online content, here's a simple video that lays it out for you. You'll need a reader- like Google Reader, My Yahoo!, News Gator or Blog Lines- and it will let you know when new content has arrived. Subscriptions basically send new content to you instead of making you check back. We're currently working on an RSS feed for Mountain Stage podcasts as well.

LIVE
Just announced for February 15,  a return performance on Mountain Stage by the Derek Trucks Band. The group has a new record, "Already Free," set for release on January 13. You can hear the lead single- an appropriately swampy version of Dylan's "Down in the Flood"- with some trademarked slide-guitar work by Trucks and the distinctive, bigger than life vocals of Mike Mattison by clicking HERE.
Pick up your tickets for February 15 NOW.

ON-LINE
Over at NPR Music there is lots of live music on tap. Indie-popsters Mates of State, East-LA Chicano band Quetzal, and the deeply personal songs of British songstress Thea Gilmore. Still to come this afternoon is a healthy dose of traditional tunes from South of the Border with Son de Madera (pictured). On Friday listen up for Al & the Transamericans, a side project by moe. guitarist Al Schnier. We know you like your music and you know we like it live!

ON RADIO
Those of you listening on the radio this weekend are in for a treat with a show originally recorded in December 2007 featuring the sweet country harmony of Little Big Town, piano blues and jazz by outstanding vocalist Catherine Russell (above), fire-alarm finger-work by Larry Keel & Natural Bridge, Canadian folk from Prince Edward Island's Rose Cousins and a little hillbilly rock by WV's own The Davisson Brothers Band.

On stage as Mates of State, Kori Gardner-Hammel and Jason Hammel have become one of the most critically acclaimed indie-rock groups of the past several years. Their latest CD "Rearrange Us" has been included in several year-end best of lists (including PASTE and taste making public radio station KCRW).

But, as you'll see in this ABC World News piece, the life they live on the road is a far cry, pun fully intended, from that of a stereotypical rock band.

Take a look into their everyday life and then head over to Mountain Stage on NPR Music to catch a four song set, captured live in Morgantown earlier this year, and stay up to date with the rockin' 'rents on their cleverly titled blog, "Band on the Diaper Run."

Set list:
My Only Offer
You Are Free
These Days (Jackson Browne cover)
Like U Crazy
So Many Ways

From Kent, OH, singer songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield has been building up steam on the festival circuit and on the blogosphere. Her debut recording was produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and the Avett Brothers and Paleface have been big fans since the beginning.

She'll be joining us at Mountain Stage on February 1, for a show that has just been announced. Get a sampling of her music courtesey of WXPN right HERE, and get your tickets (bound to go fast) right HERE.

How do you counterweight one of the biggest rising indie-stars? If you're Mountain Stage, you line them up alongside country music superstar Dierks Bentley. His rockin' new single (hear it here)  is picking up big momentum ahead of the official release of his CD "Feel That Fire" due in February. He'll be with us shortly before that, February 1 here in Charleston, WV. Get your tickets NOW.

Bentley is one of the first acts whose music will be included in the upcoming video game, "Rock Band Goes Country," according to CMT.com..

 

Tickets are already going fast for the other three February dates. Be sure to grab them while they're here. Buckwheat Zydeco (above) will be with us February 8, Dr. Dog is coming February 15, and Drive By Truckers will be drivin' through Charleston on February 22.

Remember: Tickets to a show make great gifts for the Mountain Stage lover in your life. We even have gift certificates available- just E-MAIL us.

Just announced is a February 22 Mountain Stage taping featuring the Drive By Truckers. Tickets are available online and at Taylor Books in Downtown Charleston. Or you can charge by phone at 1.800.594.TIXX.
More acts will be anounced as they are confirmed.

Tickets are also on sale now for our February 8 show featuring Duncan Sheik, Buckwheat Zydeco and Irish-pop rockers  the Guggenheim Grotto (above). Click here for tickets- they are likely to start going fast.

There's always new stuff to check out at Mountain Stage on NPR Music, including sets by Todd Snider (above), Chris Velan and Jim Boggia. And if you haven't checked out the breezy pop by Alabamians The Bridges (Matthew Sweet produced their debut) than you are truly missing out. Follow the links for individual sets, all recorded live, here in the Mountain State, for your enjoyement.

A Charming gift to Mountain Stage from Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, MD.

Her voice was an accompaniment to the black-and-white images of the freedom marchers who walked the roads of Alabama and Mississippi and the boulevards of Washington in the quest to end racial discrimination. 

Cecil H. Underwood 1922-2008

The Goodle Days- August 6, 1989.
Here's one that would bring a smile to anyone's face, even Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Right), who seems to be contently sleeping through it. Legendary fiddler, dancer and historian John Hartford (Left) with Tony Rice and Hartford's son Jamie. Hartford logged nine appearances on the show (enough for a Mountain Stage BEST OF CD) and Jamie has performed three times since 1997. Ramblin' Jack has nine appearances himself.

Mr. Hartford got to be very close with the cast & crew of Mountain Stage. He's all smiles here with Associate Producer Linda McSparin. They even appear to share a hairstyle.

Four Hands on Deck- Our current house-pianist Bob Thompson was a featured guest on Mountain Stage in Spoleto, SC, when he sat next to the house pianist at the time, Eric Kitchen, June 7, 1986. Bob (sporting a vintage Mountain Stage sun-visor) come on as house pianist in 1991, but he was a featured guest on the pilot episode in 1981 and has logged 11 appearances on the show since then, plus three appearances with Charleston's Vocal Jazz legend Ann Baker.

Beginning of a Beautiful Thang- Dec. 13, 1987 The two folks who have garnered the most Mountain Stage appearances meet here, we believe, for the first time. West Virginia natives Kathy Mattea of Cross Lanes and Tim O'Brien, of Wheeling. Tim wrote one of Kathy's first hits, "Walk The Way the Wind Blows," also a hit for Hot Rize.

Sternwheel Regatta- September 3, 1989
A crowd gathers along Kanawha Boulevard in Charelston for an outdoor Mountain Stage.

Hugh Masekela-September 3, 1989
Legendary South African musician Hugh Masekela performs for the Regatta Crowd gathered for Mountain Stage in 1989. Masekela performed his song "Bring Him Back Home," an anthem of the movement to free Nelson Mandela. When Masekela returned to play Mountain Stage on May 8, 1994, the song was a triumphant hymn, retitled "Mandela." Two days after appearing on Mountain Stage, Masekela played the song at Mandela's inauguration as the President of South America.