The Carpenter Ants have been a staple of the state’s music scene for decades. For the holidays, the band released “There Ain’t No Sanity Claus,” a Christmas record featuring friends like Mountain Stage’s Larry Groce, actress/singer Ann Magnuson and singer/songwriter John Ellison. Bill Lynch talked with guitarist Michael Lipton about the album.
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.
Fleck’s most recent appearance is perhaps the most star-studded yet. Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart features the banjo master along 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.
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Freebo & Alice HoweSierra Hull & Bela FleckThe Brother BrothersThe Bing Brothers & Jake KrackWV Poet Laureate Marc HarshmanFinale Song
Our Song of the Week comes from The Critton Hollow String Band, a band that has been performing traditional American music to audiences around the world since 1975. The trio stopped by Mountain Stage during their 50th anniversary and performed a handful of songs, including "A Better Life to Find," which is our Song of the Week. The song features an old melody and a traditional refrain, with lyrics updated by the group's Joe Herrmann.
Our Song of the Week comes from singer-songwriter and guitarist Joy Clark. “Tell It To The Wind” was written in a moment of gratitude while Clark was on tour in Waterford, Mississippi at Foxfire Ranch.
On this week’s encore broadcast of Mountain Stage, we revisit the first of two 41st anniversary shows, which were recorded at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, West Virginia in December 2024. Guest host and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Conor Knighton welcomes Stephen Kellogg, Jill Sobule, Mindy Smith, Caleb Caudle & The Sweet Critters, and The David Mayfield Parade.
Our Song of the Week comes from Catskills singer-songwriter Hannah Cohen. On this episode of Mountain Stage, Cohen performs "Summer Sweat," a single from her newest album, Earthstar Mountain, which Rolling Stone called “one of the best indie releases of the year.”