This week, too often, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder wind up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, changes to the Endangered Species Act could benefit big business. They could also kill animals like the eastern hellbender. And, in troubled times, a West Virginia writer says to find peace in nature.
Pops Staples on Mountain Stage in the early 1990s.Mountain Stage Archive
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Our Song of the Week is the title song for this week’s special episode of Mountain Stage. Larry has curated a show in four parts, turning an ear to songs about the oppressed, the overlooked, and the experiences of those who are misunderstood.
Roebuck “Pops” Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000) was the patriarch of the gospel-soul family band The Staples Singers. Pops performed twice on Mountain Stage, in 1992 and 1994, and both times he performed his song “Why Am I Treated So Bad?”
Staples performed the song while traveling with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and he tells in his introduction, that King called it “My song.”
This episode is called “Why Am I Treated So Bad” and highlights songs about experiences of people of color, Native Americans, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, women, and those living on the economic edge.
Credit Mountain Stage Archive
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Mavis Staples, acclaimed singer and daughter of Pops, also appears on this week’s broadcast, singing one of her father’s songs.
We also hear from Mavis Staples, Arlo Guthrie, John Trudell, Odetta, Amy Ray, Rhiannon Giddens and others.
If you feel under the weather, how do you know when it’s time to see a doctor? Also, a growing movement to make Appalachia the “truffle capital of the world,” is being led by a small-town farmer in southern Kentucky.
On this West Virginia Week, health care in the state may see transformation, Gov. Patrick Morrisey wants to bring out of state foster kids home, and we explore the origins of a popular American hymn.
This week, too often, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder wind up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, changes to the Endangered Species Act could benefit big business. They could also kill animals like the eastern hellbender. And, in troubled times, a West Virginia writer says to find peace in nature.
Written by a former slave ship captain, “Amazing Grace” has traveled far beyond its origins. In this encore episode, Us & Them traces how the hymn has become a powerful folk song and civil rights anthem — speaking to pain, forgiveness and the possibility of change.