Mountain Blog

Just a quick reminder to our songwriter friends that the early bird deadline for the General Round of the 2012 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest is rapidly approaching: 11:59 pm on Saturday, June 2nd.

Visit the NewSong website to enter, and to find out more information.

Mountain Stage is back this week with an all new broadcast, recorded live at the Paramount Theater in the border town of Bristol TN / VA, in partnership with our friends at the Birthplace of Country MusicAlliance. You’ll hear from country music icon Marty Stuart and his band, The Fabulous Superlatives; newcomer John Fullbright, The McCrary Sisters, experimental alt-folk-pop from The Pines, and bluegrass heavyweights Blue Highway.

Click here to find a list of stations and times where you can listen.

As a part of the New Traditionalist movement, Marty Stuart was instrumental in changing the sound of New Country music. Dubbed the “Hillbilly Crusader,” after long stints with Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash, Stuart struck out on his own, adding a rockin’ twist to traditional country. His 2010 release Ghost Train (The Studio B Sessions) features his band The Fabulous Superlatives and realizes Stuart’s vision of making a record that “upholds traditional country music.” His latest release, Nashville Volume 1: Tear the Woodpile Down continues down the same heartworn path. Hear Marty discuss his new album, and share his take on the state of country music in our latest Backstage at Mountain Stage video.

Since bursting on the scene in the late-‘90s, Blue Highway has all but dominated the bluegrass charts over its 17 year history. Comprised of five experienced musicians, the members of this progressive group have played with Alison Krauss & Union Station, Ricky Skaggs, Larry Sparks and Doyle Lawson. With ten highly-acclaimed albums to its credit, Blue Highway has garnered two Grammy nominations, a Dove Award, topped the Bluegrass Unlimited radio charts, and won numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards. Their current release is Sounds of Home.

After playing in fellow Oklahoma singer-songwriter Mike McClure’s band for a year, John Fullbright has become the most talked about young musician in Oklahoma. Prior to the 2009 Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Fullbright, still in his early 20s, recorded a live CD at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City. Already he has received endorsements from many great musicians, including fellow Oklahomans Jimmy Webb, Kevin Welch, and Tom Skinner, and Mountain Stage favorite Jimmy LaFave.

Nashville’s McCrary Sisters have recorded with Stevie Wonder, Bobby Jones, Wynonna, Ray Stevens, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin, Mike Farris, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Daughters of the late Rev. Samuel McCrary, founding member of Nashville’s legendary gospel quartet the Fairfield Four, the four sisters have been singing their entire lives. Ann began singing at age three while Regina toured with Bob Dylan for six years and recorded three albums with him. Their release, Our Journey, features cameos by Buddy Miller, Delbert McClinton, and Patty Griffin.

Listen to Doc Watson on Mountain Stage, recorded August 15, 2010.

"All of us at Mountain Stage join the rest of the world of music this week as we grieve the passing of Doc Watson. Doc was on the show four times, the most recent being at one of our visits to Bristol Tennessee / Virginia just two years ago. On that last visit many of our cast and crew commented on how young he seemed when he was playing and singing.

I remember first hearing his music on an album in 1962 when I was 14. He was immediately a giant in my world. His first visit to Mountain Stage in 1988 was monumental and unforgettable to a boy who grew up in the folk revival. I was almost afraid to talk to him. But he was as friendly and common as you might think he would be. It was always a pleasure to see him.

You will have many chances to hear Doc in the future because he made scores of fine recordings. I’m grateful that a few of them were on Mountain Stage. Take a listen to his last one and take a look at the interview he did that day. He was a Doc whose medicine cured a lot of ills."

-Larry Groce, May 30th 2012
 

Mountain Stage is thrilled to announce that we’ll be returning to the North House Folk School, on the shores of Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota to record two shows on September 13 and 14.

Once again, we'll be helping the North House celebrate its 11^th annual Unplugged concert series, a long running collaboration between the school and Grammy award-winning songwriter Jon Vezner. This will be our second trip to Grand Marais, and we’re truly honored that Mr. Vezner and the North House have asked us to join them again for this special occasion.

On the 13, our confirmed guests are Minnesota’s own Trampled by Turtles, LOW, with other guests to be announced. On the 14, our guests will be Jonathan Edwards, Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore, Gretchen Peters, Chip Taylor, and the ever-popular TBA.

Tickets will be available beginning July 1 online, by phone (888.387.9762), and in person at the North House Folk School – 500 Highway 61 West, Grand Marais, MN 55604.

Mountain Stage will be at our home away from home in Morgantown this weekend, but just around the corner on June 24, we’ll be back in Charleston for a Special FestivALL show at the Culture Center Theater featuring Dar Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard, the dB’s and more.

 Get your tickets here. That’ll be your last chance to catch Mountain Stage in Charleston in for a while. But don’t fret! We’ll be back for an extended stay in Charleston this fall. Until then, come see us as soon as you can, wherever you can.

This week's broadcast of Mountain Stage features pop-rock legend John Oates, along with Frontier Ruckus, Amber Rubarth, Blame Sally and Moreland & Arbuckle.  

 Click here to find a station and time when you can listen in your area.

As one half of one of the best selling duos of all time, John Oates needs little introduction. But for his recent solo project Mississippi Mile, Oates took a departure, exploring American roots music, R&B and folk blues -- the sounds that first made him want to become a musician while growing up outside Philadelphia.

He’s backed by his own band for a set comprised of songs he calls his “musical biography,” including R&B standards like “It’s All Right,” a minor key reworking of  “All Shook Up,” and a surprisingly retooled version of the Hall & Oates classic “Dreams Come True.”

You can preview Oates’ set here via the Mountain Stage Song of the Week, and you can get an even longer look at each of our guests this week from our Backstage at Mountain Stage videos.

You’ll also hear from singer-songwriter Amber Rubarth, winner of the Mountain Stage NewSong contest:

East Lansing Michigan-based folk-rock band Frontier Ruckus makes their first appearance on Mountain Stage:

Find a radio station in your area where you can listen by clicking here, and connect with us on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in touch with the latest information, and follow us on Twitter for even more.  

Thanks again for listening to Mountain Stage!

This week’s premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage features guitarist and songwriter Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes. You’ll also hear from Canadian alt-country-rock institution The Cowboy Junkies, who make their 9^th appearance on the show, along with Vermont singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, and Australian rock icon Paul Kelly.

Click here to see when and where you can listen. Click here to stream our Mountain Stage Song of the Week, The Cowboy Junkies performing “Damaged From the Start.” And if there’s a tune you’re hoping to hear, check out this week’s playlist.

The sprightly Anais Mitchell kicks off the show. She backed by her own band for songs from “Young Man in America,” which finds Mitchell taking on the voices of multiple characters, both men and women; and features cameos by guitarist Adam Levy and Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile.

You’ll also hear from Australian songwriting institution Paul Kelly. A storyteller on a par with the likes of Ray Davies, he has amassed a catalog whose quality and variety are unmatched - all the while remaining a beloved cult figure in the U.S. Dubbed “Australia’s Rock Icon” by Rolling Stone Magazine, in In 2004, he began staging “A-Z concerts” which found him performing 100 of his songs over four nights - in alphabetical order.

The Cowboy Junkies make their 9th visit to Mountain Stage. More than 25 years after their formation, The Cowboy Junkies are more active than ever. Over an 18 month span beginning in 2010, the band released four new studio albums. Renmin Park, Demons, Sing in My Meadow and The Wilderness comprise what the band calls “The Nomad Series,” a loosely-connected cycle of recordings inspired by everything from a life-changing trip to China, their collective love for singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt. The resulting work has been called some of the best of their career.
 

Finally, you'll hear from guitarist and singer-songwriter Rich Robinson. As the guitarist for popular rockers the Black Crowes, Rich Robinson had achieved the American Dream Before he was 25. Then, a divorce and the band’s unexpected hiatus ushered him into a painful, introspective period. The result was his first solo release, “Through a Crooked Sun,” a lyirically personal album which evidences a musical and spiritual awakening that addresses family, fame and fear. 

Find a radio station in your area where you can listen by clicking here, and connect with us on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in touch with the latest information, and follow us on Twitter for even more.

Thanks again for listening to Mountain Stage!

Our latest video featuring the Canadian duo Whitehorse is up. As we keep saying, If you’re a fan of the Civil Wars, Buddy & Julie Miller, and/or Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, then there’s a strong chance you will love these guys. They’re truly one of the best under-the-radar (for the moment, anyway) duos working right now. Check them out!

This week’s premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage was recorded live in on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College in the sunny town of Buckhannon. You’ll hear from contemporary folk master Martin Sexton, Canadian duo Whitehorse, bluegrass band NewFound Road, soulful jammers the Ryan Montbleau Band, and hometown favorite Belinda Smith.

Click here to find out when and where you can listen. And preview this week’s show via our Song of the Week. This time, it’s Martin Sexton with a solo acoustic cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” complete with some very convincing beat boxing towards the end of the performance.

If there's a song you're hoping to hear, check out the playlist.

A native of Syracuse, NY, Martin Sexton relocated to Boston where he began making his mark in the city’s vibrant coffee house and club scene. A self-produced CD landed him a deal with Atlantic Records where he released a pair of critically acclaimed discs, one of which featured bassist Tony Levin and original E Street Band keyboardist David Sancious.

Sexton’s songs, which tap the American musical landscape - soul, gospel, R&B and country - inspired a Billboard Magazine writer to call Sexton "the finest new male singer-songwriter of recent memory." Following up 2010's Sugarcoating, Sexton issued an EP titled Fall Like Rain. None other than John Mayer described Sexton as "the best live performer I've ever seen." 

Combining the unique talents of Canadian singer-songwriters Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, Whitehorse is greater than the sum of the parts. Individually, Doucet and McClelland have been recognized with awards and nominations from the Juno Awards, the Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Hamilton Music Awards, the Independent Music Awards and Polaris. Together, they create vital music that plays off of their personalities and chemistry.

One of the most exciting bluegrass bands of the new millennium, NewFound Road has shared the stage with a diverse array of artists including Oscar winner The Swell Season, Joe Diffie, Hall of Famer Mavis Staples, Grammy nominee Ryan Shaw and folk icon Judy Collins. In addition to powerful singer Tim Shelton, the group includes mandolinist Joe Booher, bassist/brother Jamey, and banjo/guitarist Josh Miller.

Once an acoustic solo artist, Ryan Montbleau released One Fine Color, his first full band project in 2006. Following an acoustic tour that Martin Sexton and Montbleau did together as solo performers, Sexton hired the entire group to back him this spring and summer on a tour that included a run of shows opening stadium gigs for the Dave Matthews Band. In addition, Sexton produced the band’s latest CD, Heavy on the Vine.

A Dove Award Winning songwriter and singer, WV native Belinda Smith moved to Nashville in 1997 to pursue a career in songwriting. Since then, she has charted multiple No. 1 songs, BMI play awards and owns an award winning publishing company, 7th Row Music. Her songs have been recorded by artists ranging from FFH to Ty Herndon. She is also the founder and president of Belinda Smith Creative, an online company providing creativity mentoring for writers.

Find a radio station in your area where you can listen by clicking here, and connect with us on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in touch with the latest information, and follow us on Twitter for even more.

Thanks again for listening to Mountain Stage!

An important heads up to all of you who listen to Mountain Stage on West Virginia Public Radio: beginning this Sunday, Mountain Stage is moving from its old time of 3, to its new time at 2 p.m. That’s one hour earlier. The Saturday evening rebroadcast is unaffected, and remains the same.

 So that’s Sunday at 2, folks! Patterson Hood, Van Dyke Parks, Teitrur, Randall Bramblett, and Caroline Aiken. We hope you can listen.

This week’s broadcast of Mountain Stage was recorded in Athens Georgia, and features Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, with a guest appearance from Mike Mills from REM. Also on this show is legendary lyricist, musical arranger and all-around character Van Dyke Parks. This episodes feeds to our stations this Friday, May 4th. Click here to see the playlist. Right now, you can preview Patterson’s performance via our Backstage at Mountain Stage vid, where he talks about how his solo project differs from his work with the Truckers. And you can also stream the song “Pride of the Yankees” from our upcoming broadcast.

Patterson Hood’s last solo album, Murdering Oscar was released in 2009, and his latest, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, is set to be released in the near future. Patterson brought along a band he dubbed “The Downtown Rumblers” (which included several members of the Drive-By Truckers) to help capture the quieter textures of his solo work.

Mike Mills of REM made an unannounced guest appearance, joining Patterson for his closing song, “After It’s Gone.” The two live in Athens, Georgia, and are both involved in a project that promotes the preservation of their downtown. Needless to say, the audience ate it up.

For music fans who pay attention to album credits, the name Van Dyke Parks is nothing short of legendary. As a session musician, composer, arranger, lyricist, and singer, he's contributed significantly to several decades' worth of inimitable masterpieces credited to other artists, as well as releasing notable projects of his own.

Working with a wide array of musicians, from The Byrds and Sonny and Cher to Ry Cooder and Vic Chesnutt, Parks is perhaps best known for collaborating with Brian Wilson on the storied classic SmiLE. In 2011, Parks released his first new music in more than 15 years, a series of singles that features the artwork of artists including Art Spiegelman and WV’s Billy Edd Wheeler.

Singer-songwriter Teitur kicks off the show. Hailing from Denmark's Faroe Islands, a small, remote group of islands between Iceland and Scotland, Teitur Lassen issued his debut, Poetry & Aeroplanes, on Universal Records in 2003.

Supporting the disc, he was featured on MTV’s “You Heard It First,” VH1 and CNN, and his songs were included on the soundtracks of the films My Super Ex-Girlfriend and Aquamarine. He also toured with Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann and John Mayer. His latest is titled Let the Dog Drive Home. 

Born and raised on the Georgia Sea island, St. Simons, Caroline Aiken’s first musical influence was Emma Lee Ramsey of the Georgia Sea Island Singers. She moved to NY in the late ‘60s and joined the rock band Father Time.

From there, music took her to California during the early ‘70s, to South America, Seattle, east to Greenwich Village and, in the early ‘80s, back to Atlanta. It was then that she heard the Indigo Girls - still teenagers - singing a CSNY song in an alley behind the club Good Old Days. Aiken invited them onstage and sang on their first recording.

Dubbed the “the William Faulkner of Southern music,” Randall Bramblett came to prominence in the ‘70s as a member of the fusion band Sea Level. Since then, his credits include work with Steve Winwood, Gregg Allman, Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson.

Called “one of Georgia’s musical treasures” by Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, Bramblett is a multi-instrumentalist who excels on keyboards, saxophone and guitar, and a respected songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Widespread Panic, and Delbert McClinton.

Find a radio station in your area where you can listen by clicking here, and connect with us on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in touch with the latest information, and follow us on Twitter for even more.

Thanks again for listening to Mountain Stage!

Mountain Stage was thrilled to end the 75^th season of the Marshall Artist Series in a big way Sunday, with a show that featured Arlo Guthrie, Delta Rae, Paul Thorn, and Broadway star Michael Cerveris with his band Loose Cattle.

It was especially poignant to have Cerveris there, given the historic nature of the event. As he told the full house at the Keith Albee Theater, his previous gig at the venue was popping popcorn in the basement as a teenager. He’s gone on to win a Tony Award for his role in the musical Assassins, and is up for another Tony this year, for his roll as Juan Peron in the revival of Evita.

The show is set to air September 9. Watch this space for more.