On this week's premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage, you'll hear performances from Bettye LaVette, Kim Richey, Keller Williams, The Langan Band, and Megan Jean’s Secret Family. This episode was recorded live at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium in Athens, Ohio.
It’s Saturday night and the dance floor of the American Heritage Music Hall is crowded with couples swinging, stepping, and shaking to live country and rock ‘n’ roll music.
The music hall is spacious and makes a perfect venue for live music. Its walls are strewn with banjos, guitars, and photographs of early country music stars.
A lot of the folks in attendance are regulars, like Marjorie Hamrick, from White Sulphur Springs. “I’ve been coming to the music hall, probably about 10 years. I love the people, and the dancing, and the music.”
Charlie Massie founded the American Heritage Music Hall back in 1998. “We started, Jeannie Crane and I and Fred Bolt. The three of us started jamming in her family room, my basement, and Fred’s garage. We kept inviting musicians in, and we outgrew our basements and family room,” Charley remembers.
Tonight’s band is Nashville Departure, from up the road in Alderson, West Virginia. At set-break everyone in the venue grabs a seat at a table or files to the back, where a potluck dinner of pastas, pizza, and salad is served.
Randy Goodsonsings and plays guitar and keyboards with the band. After Music Hall co-founder Jeannie Crane passed away in 2013 Randy was asked to become vice president of the organization.
“We’ve had this place packed. It’s a lot of fun,” says Randy.
Despite the older makeup of the crowd here, the music hall still draws lively crowds. In a way, Charlie and the music hall organization are looking to Randy and his wife Renee to continue the tradition of the venue and possibly help inject new life into it, too.
“The people here are just really nice. It’s so family oriented, it’s like one big family.”
On this West Virginia Morning, the stage is now set for a two man, two party political race for governor of West Virginia. Randy Yohe gives us an initial look at what we can expect from the Republican and the Democratic nominees.
On this week's premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage, you'll hear performances from Bettye LaVette, Kim Richey, Keller Williams, The Langan Band, and Megan Jean’s Secret Family. This episode was recorded live at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium in Athens, Ohio.
On this West Virginia Morning, the results from Tuesday’s primary election came in mostly as expected. Government Reporter Randy Yohe has covered the intense campaigning leading up to the primary and he joins us live in the studio with results and reactions.
Tim Armstead, chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, declared May 'Treatment Court Month' to recognize an alternative to incarceration that addresses substance use disorder.