Elk Creek, Virginia, is a small, unincorporated community located in Grayson County, about a half hour from the North Carolina border. Many people in Elk Creek have deep ties to their land, and for one family taking care of their land and honoring their ancestors meant creating a traditional Japanese Shinto Garden. From Elk Creek, Folkways Reporter Wendy Welch brings us the story.
Chuck Prophet performing on Mountain Stage in November 2020. The show was recorded without an audience at the Culture Center Theater and offered live via NPR Music Live Sessions. BRIAN BLAUSER
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This week’s encore broadcast was the first episode we released after halting production due to the pandemic in March of 2020. On November 1, 2020, we welcomed Chuck Prophet with Stephanie Finch, Kim Richey, S.G. Goodman, and Sierra Ferrell to Charleston, W.Va. to record at the Culture Center Theater with no audience, under strict safety protocols. The results are hitting airwaves starting Friday on NPR stations.
San Francisco rock and roller Chuck Prophet and his partner Stephanie Finch are joined by the Mountain Stage Band throughout their set, including our Song of the Week, “Marathon.”
The song appears on Prophet’s most recent Yep Roc release The Land That Time Forgot. Tune in starting Friday, November 26 for the entire set.
Chuck Prophet-Marathon 2020
Rec. 11/1/20, Charleston, WV
1 of 5 — S.G. Goodman
S.G. Goodman and her band jumped the Kentucky border to make some music in W.Va. last November.
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2 of 5 — Kim Richey
Kim Richey has made six appearances on Mountain Stage since 1997.
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3 of 5 — A sign of the times
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4 of 5 — There's a stream…
While this episode was recorded without a live audience, fans streamed the show from the comfort of their homes all around the world thanks to WVPB’s video production team.
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5 of 5 — Sierra Ferrell
Hometown gal Sierra Ferrell made her Mountain Stage debut in November of 2020.
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We also hear Nashville’s Kim Richey, who brought with her songs from A Long Way Back…the songs of Glimmer, in which she reimagines tunes from her 1999 album Glimmer. She even asked Chuck Prophet, a regular collaborator of hers, to join in on her set. We hear songs from western Kentucky’s S.G. Goodman, whose album Old Time Feeling was released last year to critical acclaim. We’re also proud to welcome West Virginia native Sierra Ferrell and her trio to Mountain Stage for the first time. Ferrell’s debut single “Jeremiah/ Why’d Ya Do It,” was released on Rounder Records in 2020.
On this week’s encore broadcast of Mountain Stage, host Kathy Mattea welcomes Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Jack Blocker, Cole Quest & The City Pickers, Courtney Hartman, and The Critton Hollow String Band.
The 2026 West Virginia Quilt Festival will bring quilters from across the state and beyond to the Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley Sept. 17 to Sept. 19.
This week, a Japanese Shinto garden took root in southwestern Virginia because of family connections spanning geography and generations. Also, in Whitesburg, Kentucky, a new mosaic uses recovered objects to honor the town’s people after the flood of 2022. And, the young adult novel Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire mixes historical fact with spooky Appalachian folklore.
This week’s encore broadcast of Mountain Stage was recorded at the Peoples Bank Theatre in Marietta, Ohio in 2025. Guest host David Mayfield welcomed Hannah Cohen, Boulevards, Amy Millan, Lera Lynn, and Oyo to record episode 1,069.