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This October, the Adaptive Climbers Festival will gather in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge for the fifth year. In 2023, Folkways Reporter Emily Chen-Newton covered the event for Inside Appalachia. Since then, the Adaptive Climbers Festival has grown. Organizers say they’re nearly at capacity, with 300 climbers, caregivers and volunteers. Ahead of the festival, the campground has made accessibility improvements. Volunteers with the ACF have also been sprucing up the trails.
Real Talk: Pop, Pirates & Pat Benatar with TeamMate
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“Had we not chosen to be in Morgantown, TeamMate wouldn’t exist.”
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and A Change of Tune, this is 30 Days of #WVmusic, the interview series celebrating the folks who make the West Virginia music scene wild and wonderful.
And today’s interview is with a Los Angeles pop duo with early-beginnings in Morgantown who believe in the power of collaboration. This… is TeamMate.
TeamMate’s Dani Buncher (with Scott Simons in the background)
Interview Highlights
On forming TeamMate:
Dani Buncher (vocals/drums): Scott and I started TeamMate a little bit after we broke up, while we were trying to figure out what our relationship and friendship was going to be like post-breakup. It felt kind of natural to start playing music together. Scott asked me to sit-in on drums for a couple of solo gigs and it felt great! It kind of took on a whole new meaning of what it meant to be together and stay friends and be a part of each other’s live. It kind of transitioned to a full band project for us.
Scott Simons (vocals/keyboards): We met at WVU and dated for ten years before we started the band, but we had never played music together except for maybe a few drum sessions. We were both in the marching band at WVU, and music was always a big part of our life’s when we were a couple, but we never played it together until after we broke up. It sort of became our therapy.
On the Morgantown music scene:
Scott: I grew up in Bridgeport, about 45 minutes away from Morgantown. I was more active in the Morgantown scene [than Dani]. At the time, it was such a great place to be in a band because it was such a diverse scene, but also we could drive anywhere and be in another college town in not a lot of time. There was a punk underground scene, a hip hop scene and a jam band scene, and my old band [The Argument] didn’t fit into any of that. Morgantown was a great place to play music, and I stayed around after the band broke up and did side gigs before I moved. There was a lot going on considering the size of the town. It taught me just about everything I ever needed to do. When I moved to L.A., I played in piano bars the songs I figured out in Morgantown. All the experiences we’re doing now, I got to cut my teeth in Morgantown.
Dani: I didn’t play music while I was in college very much. I saw a lot of bands, but it was mainly Scott’s old band [The Argument]. After college, I moved to Pittsburgh and began playing more.
On the #WVmusic scene’s lack of a pop presence:
Scott: I think that’s reflective of the culture. The poppiest acts haven’t come out of West Virginia, and obviously L.A. is a very pop town. To do it at the scale, we want to do it and to fit our sound we really have to be here. The way the music industry is now, you have to be different and own what comes naturally, and a lot of people in West Virginia are owning what they grew up with, what they grew around and reflecting the culture. You can make things work there, but we’re a little too poppy to be anywhere but L.A. at the moment.
TeamMate’s self-titled debut is out now via Pittsburgh-based label Rostrum Records.
On their self-titled debut release:
Scott: When we started, I was in L.A., Dani in Pittsburgh, and we did an EP that was sort of long distance, sending files back and forth so the writing wasn’t as collaborative. On this new album, once we went into it, we decided to write everything together and sing everything together in unison. We named the band TeamMate because if we couldn’t be partners romantically, we’d be teammates. Keeping up with that name, it felt like the output needed to be more collaborative. We sing mostly 50/50, write 50/50.
Dani: We don’t have one song that we think is the best, but we have songs that are more special to us individually, songs we enjoy playing more on certain nights or if the writing process meant something. I really like “Souvenir,” and “Until You Find Me” was one that helped shape the direction of the record.
Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:
TeamMate- “Until You Find Me”
TeamMate- “We Belong” (Pat Benetar cover)
TeamMate- “Damage”
Support for 30 Days of #WVmusic is provided by Kin Ship Goods, proud supporter of DIY music and the arts. Locally shipped worldwide at kinshipgoods.com.
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Appalachia, and the entire world, really, was shaken by the passing of Dolly Parton. Dolly — everyone called her Dolly — was a Tennessee native, country and pop music singer, and philanthropist who invested heavily in people – especially here in Appalachia. And in children’s literacy through her Imagination Library, which provides free books to young kids. To a lot of people, she was Appalachia. To mark her passing, Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams spoke with Ted Olson, a country music historian at East Tennessee State University’s Department for Appalachian Studies.
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.
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.
Like many U.S. cities, Morgantown has a growing homeless population with far more people in need than shelters can take in. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay moderates a community conversation about the city’s camping ban, the shortage of housing and meaningful solutions for the future.
