Mountain Blog

Mountain Stage returns this week with a premier episode featuring the acclaimed Americana-Mexican fusion band David Wax Museum. You’ll also hear from guitarist-singer-producer Chuck Prophet, sweet harmonies from duo Barnaby Bright, an acoustic set from Grammy-winner Jesse Harris, and folk mainstay Lucy Kaplansky makes her tenth appearance. Click here for a complete list of stations where you can listen to Mountain Stage, and click here to see our entire schedule of upcoming episodes. And preview this week’s broadcast via our MountainStage Song of the Week. This time, it’s Lucy Kaplansky's heartbreaking goodbye to her Mother, “Sleep Well.”

Named “Americana Artist of the Year” at the the 2010 Boston Music Awards, David Wax Museum creates a vibrant hybrid of traditional Mexican folk and American music. While attending college in Missouri, David Wax spent summers working in rural Mexico, and finished his degree at Harvard before heading back to the Mexican countryside to study its rich folk music tradition on a year-long fellowship. Together with Suz Slezak, the pair uses Latin rhythms, call-and-response shouts, accordion and donkey jawbones to create a sound that is truly unique to the American continent.

Based out of his California, singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Chuck Prophet has worked with and had 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. Often compared to heavyweights like Tom Petty, Alex Chilton and Ray Davies, Prophet’s latest, Temple Beautiful, showcases his own signature blend of rock, folk and punk.

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. A Renascence woman, Kaplansky has also earned a doctorate in psychology and started a private practice. In addition to her six solo releases on Red House Records, Kaplansky was a member of folk supergroups Red Horse (with Gorka and Eliza Gilkyson) and Cry Cry Cry (with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell). Her latest release is titled Reunion.

Guitarist and songwriter Jesse Harris first came into prominence on Norah Jones' 2002 Grammy-winning Come Away With Me. 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 his band, 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 with a group of stellar Brazilian musicians who weave Brazilian-influenced arrangements into Harris’ understated folk-pop.

Barnaby Bright - 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. The pair average 40,000 miles and 200 shows a year, and were recently among the finalists at the 2012 Mountain Stage NewSong competition held at Lincoln Center in NYC.

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