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Brian Blauser Booker T. Jones performs Live on Mountain Stage |
Booker T. Jones, Backstage at Mountain Stage
Booker T. Jones is truly one of the most
important musicians, songwriters and producers in all of American popular music.
From his early work as one of the architects of the soul sound at Stax records,
to the tunes he cut with Booker T. and the MG’s, to his production work with
legends like Bill Withers – it is difficult to overstate the impact Booker T.
Jones has had on the American soundscape.
During his Mountain Stage set, Jones
plays a few of his well know favorites, touches on some of his work with heavyweights
like Bob Dylan and Albert King, and shares some of the new songs he’s cut with
contemporary artists like the Roots and the Drive-By Truckers.
And in this week’s
Backstage at Mountain Stage video, you’ll get to see Jones talk about how as a
teenage high school student in Memphis, he
wound up on some of the 20th century’s most iconic recordings,
including our Song of
the Week, “Green Onions.”
Lake Street Dive, Backstage at Mountain Stage
Fresh off their first appearance at South By Southwest, Lake
Street Dive (NOT “drive”) are, as Mountain Stage producer Adam Harris
likes to say, “pretty hot right now.”
The four members the band met when they
were students at Boston’s New
England Conservatory. Jazz-schooled and DIY-motivated, what originally began as
a “free country” project was eventually overcome by the band’s penchant for
classic pop and groove-driven jazz. Drummer Mike Calabrese and trumpet-wielding
guitarist Mike Olson highlight the vocals of jazz-inspired singer Rachel Price
and bassist Bridget Kearney. Kearny,
who is also one of the band’s key songwriters, previously appeared on Mountain
Stage with her other band, the
bluegrass-inspired Joy Kills Sorrow.
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Brain Blauser Kenny White, live on Mountain Stage |
Singer-songwriter
Kenny
White kicks off the show. For many years, White
was a fixture in the NY studio
scene, writing and producing hundreds of commercials
for TV and radio. His relationships with Marc
Cohn and Shawn Colvin led to his
producing Colvin’s Grammy-nominated, I Don’t Know Why and to his involvement in Cohn’s wildly successful
self-titled debut record.
White’s Mountain Stage set includes two of the
funniest tunes you’ll hear in a while: one about two very unlikable lovers, and
another that explains in no uncertain terms how to write a successful pop love
song. One of the secrets: First you sing high,
and then you sing higher.
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Brian Blauser Jill Sobule, live on Mountain Stage |
Jill Sobule returns to Mountain
Stage. Since first stirring the pot in the mid-90’s with her alternative hit “I
Kissed a Girl,” Sobule has maintained vibrant career and loyal following.
In
recent years, Sobule has received even more attention for all but
single-handedly pioneering the idea of fan-funded projects – a concept that’s
now widely utilized by her fellow musicians. In 2009, she raised over $85,000
from 500 fans to help record her album California
Years.
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Brian Blauser The Spring Standards, live on Mountain Stage |
Also returning to the Mountain Stage are the young ethereal
indie-pop ensemble The Spring Standards. All
three members - James Cleare, James Smith and Heather Robb originally played
together when they were in high school. A few years later, they all found
themselves living within a few blocks of one another in New
York City.
The band’s full-length debut, Would Things Be Different was released
in 2010 and led to an appearance on Conan O’Brien, and tours alongside Squeeze,
The Old 97s, Marc Broussard, Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers, and Ha Ha Tonka.
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