Adam Harris Published

Mountain Stage and Blenko Glass Collaborate on 33rd Anniversary Record

blenko_record_3.jpg

Milton, WV based Blenko Glass Company has teamed with West Virginia Public Broadcasting to commemorate 33 years of Mountain Stage with a limited edition, hand blown glass record. This one-of-a-kind piece will be available for an introductory price of $60 per piece, at Mountain Stage’s SOLD OUT event on Sunday, December 4 in the Culture Center Lobby, and when Mountain Stage opens its “Pop Up Shop” at WVPB, 600 Capitol St. Charleston, WV on Wednesday December 14 and Thursday December 15, from 11a.m. to 6p.m.

"Blenko has many opportunities to work with creative people and to translate their ideas into glass," said Dean Six, VP of Marketing and Sales at Blenko, "One of the most exciting, challenging and unique projects we have recently participated in is the record we made for Mountain Stage. The resulting glass phonograph record, for those of us who remember such a thing, is a really fun piece of art glass. Blenko loves to accept challenges and make really fun objects like this."

To capture the retro vibe of classic LP labels, Mountain Stage enlisted the help of creative strategists Charles Ryan Associates. 

“We wanted to give the design a classic look that would truly represent and celebrate the rich Mountain Stage tradition,” CRA Creative Director Robb Major said. “We studied popular LP label designs from vinyl's heyday and put together something that's fun, unique and a little bit funky. We're commemorating 33 years of live performance radio with a blue glass record for a reason. Not only is it the signature "Blenko Blue," and the somewhat obvious correlation between the 33 RPMs of an old LP and 33 years of Mountain Stage, but it should also be noted that 27 albums of live performances from Mountain Stage have been released on Blue Plate Records. So the color of this piece has significant meaning, as well. It was an honor to collaborate and create something special for such an important piece of music history.”

Continuing their collaboration with local Charleston-based letter press company Base Camp Printing, Mountain Stage will also commemorate the 33rd Anniversary show with limited edition poster, available exclusively at the Mountain Stage merchandise table and at the Base Camp store (613 Tennessee Ave, Charleston, WV 25302) the week following each performance.

While Sunday’s show is sold out, with guests Iron & Wine, Tift Merritt, Todd Burge, Andy Shauf and Paper Bird, audiences can tune in from anywhere in the world at 7p.m. EST via MountainStage.org and VuHaus.com to watch live. Follow along on Twitter and Instagram and let us know you’re watching with the hash tag #MountainStage33 and #GoToWV.

IronandWine-640.jpg

Mountain Stage recorded its first regularly scheduled program in December 1983 and today is heard on 180 NPR stations nationwide and also at NPR Music. Select video performances are at VuHaus.com and the podcast is available on iTunes and wherever you find your podcasts.

The December 4 episode is scheduled for broadcast starting March 5, 2017.