Adam Harris Published

Bettye LaVette, Joan Osborne and More on Mountain Stage February 25.

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This Sunday, February 25 Mountain Stage is hosting a four-act show in Charleston, WV at the Culture Center Theater. Tickets are still available. Soul music powerhouse Bettye LaVette will make her fourth appearance on Mountain Stage since 2003, with songs from her new album of Bob Dylan songs called “Things Have Changed.” There are plenty of tour dates planned around the March 30 release of “Things Have Changed,” but Mountain Stage audience members will be the first to hear LaVette and her band play the songs publicly.

Dylan fans are in for a treat however, because another one of music’s most versatile and talented singers has also released a collection of songs by Dylan. Released in September, 2017 Joan Osborne’s Songs of Bob Dylan features Osborne putting her voice to songs like “Tangled Up In Blue,” “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and others. Perhaps the most interesting part? LaVette and Osborne both did full albums of Dylan material but not one song appears on both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caOeydFeHok

It won’t be “all Dylan all night,” however, as February 25 we will also welcome acoustic blues mainstay Chris Smither and a rockin’ set of electric blues as we are joined for the first time by The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling.

Smither’s latest, “Call Me Lucky,” is his first set of brand new originals in six years. Smither’s deft guitar picking is matched by his trademark observational humor and commentary. “Call Me Lucky” is a duel disc affair: Disc one features the eight originals and two covers the sessions started with, and disc two catapults some of the very same songs into another dimension. Essentially Smither covering Smither.

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Credit Chris Monaghan
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Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling on harmonica will make their first appearance on Mountain Stage Feb. 25.

Chicago guitarist Nick Moss has been releasing music under his own name since 1998, which quickly established him as a guitarist and bandleader to watch. Now a 30-year veteran of the city’s take-no-prisoners blues scene, Moss’ latest incarnation includes New Jersey’s Dennis Gruenling, who is considered among today’s best blues harmonica players. Alligator Records, the seminal blues label based out of Chicago, is set to release its first collaboration with Moss, “High Cost of Low Living,” on March 9.

Tickets for February 25 are $30 in advance and $35 day of show (when available). Purchase tickets online, by phone at 877.987.6487 or at Taylor Books in Downtown Charleston. Be sure to RSVP on Facebook and follow along on Twitter and Instagram to glimpse behind the scenes.

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