Mountain Stage

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ll hear about a new program at Marshall University that aims to accommodate all students. It’s called the Trans Closet -- where students who identify as transgender can find clothing in a judgement-free zone. This story and more on West Virginia Morning.

"A voice that's part Memphis, part Chicago and all woman," Shemekia Copeland returns to the Mountain Stage with a fiery performance of "The Battle is Over (But the War Goes On)." Catch it on over 240+ NPR stations during this week's encore Mountain Stage broadcast.

No stranger to the Mountain Stage, acclaimed singer-songwriter and West Virginia native Tim O'Brien makes his returns to the program with a set of songs from the Mountain State, including this cover of Larry Groce's own "When the Mist Clears Away," which you can hear during this week's encore broadcast.

If Judith Owen had not gone off to become a powerhouse singer-songwriter, she could have easily become a full-time humorist with her sharp wit and self-deprecating charm.

For her fourth appearance on Mountain Stage, the Welsh chanteuse is joined by Portuguese percussionist Pedro Segundo and the legendary bassist Leland Sklar for a performance of "We Give In," which you can also hear during this week's broadcast.

Country music's reigning honky-tonk queen, Margo Price, performs "Hurtin' (on the Bottle)" from this week's encore broadcast of Mountain Stage with Larry Groce. 

Our Song of the Week comes from acclaimed Nashville singer and songwriter Kim Richey, along with her band and San Francisco's Chuck Prophet, who was a guest on this episode and also appears on Richey's new album "Edgeland."

The seeds of our Song of the Week were sown from a tune that Los Angeles area musician Joachim Cooder would sing to his houseplant, called a Fuchsia Machu Picchu.

Ranky Tanky are a South Carolina based band that specializes in "Gullah" music- a style born out of the coastal region and influenced by West African traditions. Here's the band's take on the American folk song, "O Death," for our Mountain Stage Song of the Week.

This week's Song of the Week is from Kenny White, a highly regarded session musician, producer, songwriter and pianist.

This week's episode of Mountain Stage features past performances from the show's archive by Grammy award nominees and winners. Our Song of the Week is "Forget About It," which comes from Alison Krauss and Union Station's 2005 performance on Mountain Stage.

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear from West Virginia high schools students gearing up for the March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C.; a farmer and chef who uses maple syrup as a main ingredient in his recipes; a former coal miner and veteran who has been honored with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in volunteerism; and this week's Mountain Stage Song of the Week.

Dailey & Vincent's song "More Than a Name On the Wall" is what Larry Groce calls "one of the most patriotic songs ever performed on Mountain Stage." A beloved favorite for long time fans of Dailey & Vincent, "More Than a Name On The Wall" is for those who have lost loved ones who "died for God and Country in a place so far away." 

Indie-rock band The Mountain Goats have produced 16 studio albums, including their most recent called "Goths." On this week's Mountain Stage the group helps celebrate 34 years of live performance radio as they make their second appearance on the show.

"An aural anachronism of country, Western swing, ragtime, jazz, bluegrass and Americana [that] brings the nostalgia to Technicolor-life," critically-acclaimed Mid-Westerner Pokey LaFarge performs a rollicking "Hard Times Come and Go" during his fourth appearance on Mountain Stage with special guest host Todd Burge. 

On this week's encore Mountain Stage broadcast, critically-acclaimed "one-man orchestra of the imagination" Andrew Bird stops by with a set full of acoustic roots-pop (not to mention some A+ whistling).

On this week's encore broadcast of Mountain Stage, West Virginia super pickers Johnny Staats & Robert Shafer return with a new self-released record in tow titled Music from the Mountains, featuring this upbeat performance titled "El Cumbanchero." 

Piers Faccini is an English singer-songwriter with Anglo-Italian and Jewish roots who currently resides in Southern France. His music is just as storied as his past, blending folk, acoustic blues, and West African textures into his sound. For his Mountain Stage debut, he performs an even more colorful rendition of "Cloak of Blue" during this week's broadcast.

An ear for cinematic folk music, critically-acclaimed singer Iron & Wine performs "We Two are a Moon" during his Mountain Stage debut from the show's 33rd anniversary celebration.