This week, some of the stories on our show inspired college student art — including a vivid image of a bear smashing a clarinet. Also, a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia serves vegetarian food made in three sacred kitchens. And, COVID-19 exposed the contempt society has for marginalized people. One author says, these folks are anything but passive.
LISTEN: Bela Fleck Has The Mountain Stage Song Of The Week
Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart, performing on Mountain Stage in 2022.Chris Morris/Mountain Stage
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Mountain Stage officially kicks off our 40th Broadcast Season this week with our 39th anniversary celebration featuring Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart, The Brother Brothers, Alice Howe with Freebo, The Bing Brothers featuring Jake Krack, and a special appearance from West Virginia’s Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.
By our best count, Bela Fleck has appeared on Mountain Stage more than 15 times, including trips with his wife Abigail Washburn, alongside his band The Flecktones, small group performances with Edgar Myer, Zakir Hussain, Chris Thile, and his very first which occurred in 1989 as a member of New Grass Revival.
New Grass Revival, 1989, courtesy of Mountain Stage Archives.
His most recent appearance is perhaps the most star-studded yet. Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart features Fleck on banjo with Sierra Hull on mandolin, Michael Cleveland on fiddle, bassist Mark Schatz, multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The corresponding album My Bluegrass Heart won top honors in the Bluegrass Album category at the 2022 Grammy awards.
Our Song of the Week is the opening track on that album, “Vertigo,” performed live on Mountain Stage.
Our Song of the Week comes from Ray Benson. During his tenth visit to the show, he performed "Faded Love," a Bob Wills tune often covered by Benson's longtime band, Asleep at the Wheel, who have been creating music together for over 50 years.
Our Song of the Week is “The False Lady,” performed by Dublin-born singer-songwriter and guitarist John Doyle and Manchester-born flute, whistle, and uilleann pipes maestro Michael McGoldrick.
On this week's broadcast of Mountain Stage, host Kathy Mattea looks back on some of her favorite archival sets from 2006 featuring The Derek Trucks Band, Bettye LaVette, Soulive (featuring Reggie Watts), Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, and more.