This week on Inside Appalachia, we talk with East Tennessee’s Amythyst Kiah. Her new album contemplates the cosmos. Also, hair salons are important gathering places where Black women can find community. And, West Virginia poet Torli Bush uses story to tackle tough subjects.
What do you get when you mix two iconic singer-songwriters with a whole lot of good music? A little something called “Mountain Stage After Midnight.” Broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Radio, “Mountain Stage After Midnight” takes the best episodes from the show’s 31 year history and shares their memories and songs with our late-night listeners. Each week we’ll hand-pick two of our favorite episodes and they’ll alternate order each night.
Tune your dials to West Virginia Public Radio this Saturday October 4 and Sunday October 5 for two great performances on “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First you’ll hear a 2008 performance recorded at the Templeton-Blackburn Auditorium on the campus of Ohio University. Hear from Colorado folk rock group Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist George Stanford, legendary jam band moe., and the iconic AniDiFranco. See the playlist.
Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage
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Jose Gonzalez made his Mountain Stage debut with this March 2008 performance
Next is another 2008 performance recorded in good ol’ Morgantown, West Virginia, featuring the musical stylings of German folk band 17 Hippies, art-folk rocker Mia Doi Todd, singer-comedian Nellie McKay, indie country group everybodyfields, singer-songwriter Julia Douglass, and Swedish indie folk maestro Jose Gonzalez. See the playlist.
On this West Virginia Week, seven mining operations are to close, the state Senate votes to ban abortion medication by mail, and Gov. Patrick Morrisey presses for tax cuts.
This week on Inside Appalachia, we talk with East Tennessee’s Amythyst Kiah. Her new album contemplates the cosmos. Also, hair salons are important gathering places where Black women can find community. And, West Virginia poet Torli Bush uses story to tackle tough subjects.
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah released "Still + Bright" last year, which featured guests like S.G. Goodman and Billy Strings. Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams spoke with Kiah from her home in Johnson City, Tennessee at that time. We listen to an encore of that conversation.
America continues to wrestle with racial division, but music has often been a space where those barriers are challenged. In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay revisits a 1960s moment when a band refused to perform unless a mixed-race couple was allowed to dance — and paid the price for taking that stand. It’s a story about courage, consequences and the uneasy intersection of music and race in America.