63 Eyes Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Don't Call It a Comeback: Mark Poole's Produced #WVmusic For Years

“[The Phantom Six] never went away. I’m not one of these guys who can get a record out every two years, but it’s consistent though. I’ve kept doing it for a long time. I don’t plan on stopping.”

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 longstanding pillar of the Morgantown scene who is a rocker, a songwriter, and even a producer. This… is Mark Poole.

Mark Poole is part of The Phantom Six. Follow them on social media as they gear up for a new release. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Connect with A Change of Tune on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds.

Interview Highlights

On beginning in music:

A really good friend of mine named Scott Fetty, who lived in Morgantown for a long time and was a drummer, I got started through him. He had a band in junior high school, and I went to see them in the talent show [laughing]. I was blown away that I could have friends that were 14-years-old on stage playing “Taking Care of Business,” and they had explosives on stage. One guy, Gary Turner, had a top hat and jumped off a Fender Princeton amplifier when the explosion went off. And it was only ten inches tall, so it was a very Spinal Tap moment.

But Scott and I were skateboarding buddies and he was like, “If you get a guitar, I could probably get you in this band,” so that’s how it started. I’ve got to thank Scott for that. I convinced my parents to get me a guitar for Christmas. And by May of that year, Scott made good on his promise, and I was in that band playing house parties. I guess that was the first thing I did moving forward to actually become a musician. I started taking lessons from John Gallagher in Parkersburg; he owns a store there now called Gallagher’s Music. It seems like everyone in Parkersburg has taken lessons from John at some point.

I played in cover bands, and I just tried to get good at playing guitar; no singing, no songwriting until I was in my early twenties. But I played in cover bands all through high school, and we played in bars before we were 18.

On performing with The Larries:

The turning point was a band called The Larries. In early college, Todd Burge formed The Larries. I wasn’t in the band, I was just friends with them, but they were the only band in Parkersburg doing original music… and they really couldn’t play their instruments at the time. At all. The first gig I went to see them, Wes Poole (the drummer) had a Sony Walkman in his pocket, and he had to play the cassette play of the practice between songs so he knew what to do on drums [laughing]. They were really just starting out, and I had already made a little bit of a name as a guitar player in high school cover bands and things, so everybody thought I was crazy when I wanted to join. But I thought “I don’t want to play in cover bands all my life. I’d rather go with my friends and do original music.” That ran its course after three years. Todd moved to California to work for the record label that signed the band, and the whole thing kind of fell apart. Just another one of those stories of your first record label experience being bad.

63 Eyes’ Mark Poole, Todd Burge and Wesley Poole in Boaz, West Virginia, in 1987.

Todd eventually moved back to West Virginia, and that’s when we formed 63 Eyes. That was the really big changing point for me. I started writing songs, singing a little bit. I got a real thrill out of being able to play a song I had written. 63 Eyes was around for ten years, and I developed as a songwriter during that period.

On working with Todd Burge:

Todd has been a big influence on me. He was the principal songwriter in The Larries and 63 Eyes, so I learned a lot by his methods. He was the person who demonstrated that it wasn’t that hard and it could be done. Todd was always like, “If you spend more than an hour on it, you’ve already overthought it.”

You know, we had some disagreements over the years, and there was maybe a little bitterness at times but we’re almost family. We’ve been together so long.

The Phantom Six performing at 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown, WV.

On playing in The Phantom Six:

We never went away, but if you trace the pattern of my musical career, it moves very slowly. I’m not one of these guys who can get a record out every two years, but it’s consistent though. I’ve kept doing it for a long time. I don’t plan on stopping. But it’s been five-and-a-half years since our last release came out.

After the record came out in late 2011, I basically spent all of 2012 trying to push it. We’re not really a band that can head out on the road for long periods of time. We’ve maintained pretty regular practice schedules. We shot two videos. We’re a very DIY band, so we made the videos ourselves. We played a good bit of gigs that year, and we did radio promotion (which is a lot of work to package 400 copies of your CD and send them out). After that, we just started writing songs for a new record, but we get two songs done a year. To me, it doesn’t feel like a reunion; just another slow process of trying to come up with 15 songs. And we’re almost there. We’ve been doing it separately since William Matheny’s been on the road a lot.

The Phantom Six performing at Huntington’s The V-Club.

On the growth of the #WVmusic scene:

It’s cool seeing friends that have gone on to pretty impressive success. Todd’s had a successful career. Karma to Burn play in front of huge crowds all over Europe. Like I tell everyone, it’s good for all the West Virginia bands when any band is successful. The tide rises with their success, and everybody gets more notice.

The internet is a completely different way to go about things. In the 63 Eyes days, it was all done snail mail. The internet has changed everything. Maybe something’s lost; there was something really cool about that old method of doing stuff. I wouldn’t say it’s easier for bands now, but it’s easier to network. It seems like there were a lot more rock’n’roll bands when we started out, and there’s been a move towards singer-songwriter and newgrass bands. There’s a lot of music bringing back old-time sounds.

Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:

Phantom Six- Outta this Wasteland

63 Eyes- Trucker’s Misery

Phantom Six- Will (Don’t Let Me Down)

Support for 30 Days of #WVmusic is provided by Bunj Jam Music, featuring the album, Todd Burge Live on Mountain Stage (2006-2015). More information at toddburge.com.

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.

The Secret to Making #WVmusic Look as Good as it Sounds

Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Tyler Childers to Coyotes in Boxes’ Sean Knisely, Twin Cousins Records to Qiet and beyond.

But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.

And today, we are chatting with 37-year-old Jimbo Valentine. He’s not exactly a singer or a songwriter. But even though you don’t hear his work, you’ve undoubtedly seen it around the West Virginia music scene. From concert posters in Morgantown and Huntington to album artwork for Charleston bands to listening party signage down in Fayetteville, Jimbo’s work makes West Virginia music just as eye-catching as it is ear-catching. Since he’s worked on over 1200 pieces for various artists over the years, we asked him about his creative process, his favorite pieces and how music plays a role in his artistic life.

Jimbo Valentine is a graphic designer with Brand Yourself, not to mention a freelance artist. Hear #WVmusic (some of which he’s created posters for) on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!

Credit Jimbo Valentine

Jimbo Valentine regularly designs Huntington Music & Art Festival promotional material, including this poster from last year’s festival.

Interview Highlights

On the art he creates in and around West Virginia:

I do a lot of graphic design around the area and the state, making posters for The V Club and Black Sheep Burrito and Brews, as well as bands and events and festivals and really whoever needs whatever they need. I do a lot of album layouts and T-shirt designs and sticker designs. I also… oh man, I don’t know where to start [laughing]. Designing the cards for West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s #WhyListen: First Listen Music Party was a fun event to do.

A lot of people like to look down on West Virginia and don’t think we have much of anything to offer. But we actually have really good artist communities that have been building and building. I started working at The V Club in 2009, and I had been doing a little stuff before that, but that was when I really started getting more involved with everybody in the region. Ever since then, it’s been non-stop growing. Just all kinds of people you don’t expect who play music and make art and do all kinds of stuff. That’s really one of the best things we have to offer. But it’s getting people to recognize that.

On moving from Fairmont to Huntington:

I’m from Fairmont, from up in-between Morgantown and Parkersburg. Actually, this May marks my 14^th anniversary of living down here in Huntington. I’ve almost lived here in Huntington as much as I’ve lived up in Fairmont. At this point of time, Huntington feels more like my home than Fairmont actually is.

Like most stories, it was a failed love story. I moved down here with a girl who was from Huntington and who graduated from West Virginia University. Give a year or so, she was out of the picture, and I was just left here. I started going to Marshall University for a little bit, and it didn’t work out too great. Now I’m here [laughing], trying to do something. I don’t know what, but…

On getting into art:

I had grown up doing art in high school, and I started taking art at Fairmont State for a year-and-a-half, but I dropped out of there. I didn’t do any art for a long time, but after I moved down here, I had a bunch of time on my hands and started learning how to use Photoshop. I bought some screen printing gear and taught myself how to screen print. I decided I’d try to make a go at this for a living, which I’m still working towards. So I tried learning how to do it around 2007, but 2009 is when I really kicked it off.

Credit Jimbo Valentine

This 2006 Todd Burge / 63 Eyes / Tripleshot show marked Jimbo Valentine’s first as a #WVmusic graphic designer.

On his first gig poster:

It was for New Year’s Eve at a show at 123 Pleasant Street for 63 Eyes and Todd Burge. That was the first gig poster I had ever done. I got hooked up through the poster community because I would go to website called gigposters.com and post on their forums, and a guy on there from Saint Albans hooked me up with that gig.

I definitely listened to 63 Eyes and Todd Burge a bunch [prior to making that poster]. In high school and my formative years, that was my band. 63 Eyes were some of the earliest shows I had ever seen, back when 123 Pleasant Street was still The Nyabinghi. So it was really cool to make that my first poster because it was something I had grown up with. Todd is obviously one of the greatest West Virginia musicians we have, and I still have a big place in my heart for 63 Eyes.

On the number of artists he’s worked with in West Virginia:

Honestly, at this point of time, there’s not many bands in West Virginia or the region that I haven’t done something involving them. Which is pretty awesome. I’ve done over 1200 gig posters at this point of time, and some of them I have had the opportunity to do multiple things for. Working at The V Club has gotten me to be able to do posters for national acts and other regional acts. Like I just did a poster for The V Club for Kiefer Sutherland’s band, which is a weird thing to add to your list because I never in a million years would expect to be doing something like that. And that’s some of the cool stuff that I’ve gotten to do: the stuff I didn’t expect.

Credit Jimbo Valentine

Jimbo Valentine designed the gig poster for actor-turned-musician Kiefer Sutherland’s recent concert at The V Club.

I’ve done posters for the legendary bands that I like, including Saint Vitus and The Obsessed, people who have been around for a long time. I’ve also gotten to do posters for really cool bands like Man Man and The Felice Brothers.

On listening to #WVmusic growing up:

There was a band from Morgantown called The Law Abiding Citizens, and I used to go see their shows. They were a punk hardcore band. Fast-forward after their break-up, they did a reunion show, and I got to do a poster for them. That was really cool.

There weren’t really any bands from Fairmont. I mean, there were bands up there, but it was weird at that point in time because some of them were basically bar bands, and I wasn’t old enough to see too many of them. But 123 Pleasant Street (back when it was The Nyabinghi), sometimes they would do early shows that were all-ages and then at night, they would do an 18+ show.

Karma to Burn was a band that I grew up listening to. They blew up, disappeared for a little while, then got back together, and I got to screen print posters for all four of their West Virginia reunion shows and a poster when they played in England. I’ve done stuff for their side projects and such, which is cool because I grew up listening to them. Now I work for them, and now they’re my friends. To me, sometimes it feels like completing a circle of your life.

That’s why I got into doing this: I love bands, and I love music. And I want to make T-shirts for bands, which is totally a 12-year-old goal that I was doing in my 20’s. But that’s really where that started from.

Credit Jimbo Valentine

Were it not for Maryland rock band Clutch, Jimbo Valentine might not have gotten into #WVmusic graphic design work.

On his first gig poster for The V Club:

One of my all-time favorite bands is Clutch. They’re a Maryland / West Virginia-based band. I grew up loving them and going to their shows. I used to go onto their message board, and when I started getting into all this art, the guy who ran the message board hooked me up to make some screen printed posters for them. And then in 2009, the first time they played at The V Club, I had already contacted them and made a poster for them and showed up to the show with it. That’s when The V Club’s Patrick Guthrie saw it and found out that someone in town made it. That’s how I got hired at The V Club. That was all because of Clutch. That’s how all this happened.

On the process for making posters:

Once they have the opening acts and bands nailed down, I get to work. The next step depends on how familiar I am with the band. If it’s a band I already listen to, I might have an idea for the design. Sometimes I get an idea and then try to make that idea come to life. Other times I sit down and start trying to do things that might look cool. I’ll find old stock photos or a photo I’ve taken. Maybe I’ll get an idea from an illustration. Or a combination of all those things.

Credit Jimbo Valentine

Yep. Jimbo did this Jason Isbell gig poster back in 2014.

Then I try to match it to the feeling that I get when I listen to that band. Even if it’s a band that I don’t know, if they have something online to check out, I’ll listen to it to see what kind of vibe I get from it. I’ll look at the things they’ve released and see what kind of vive they go for, so I can play off that. I always try to match it to the feeling of the band. I never try to shoehorn a band into a piece of work that I’ve made. To me, it’s all about representing what the band is about or what the band sounds like.

It also depends on the opening act. Sometimes you have a show where all the bands are similar. And sometimes you have a show that’s like a grab bag, where all the bands are different. Say you have an Americana show; it’s easier to tie it all together with that kind of imagery. But then sometimes you have a show that has an Americana band, an indie rock band and an acoustic something: that gives me the opportunity to do something a little weirder, a little broader. It really is a show-by-show basis.

On his favorite poster creations:

Some of my favorite posters are the ones where, when I did them, they were creative turning points for me.

Credit Jimbo Valentine

It’s been a few years, but people still talk about this poster that Jimbo Valentine designed for Man Man’s 2014 show.

The Man Man poster that I did was one of my absolute favorite ones, because it was one of the first ones I did on a new tablet with a screen on it, so you could draw right in Photoshop. I loved how the poster turned out, and l lot of people have told me that’s their favorite poster that I’ve done.

I did one for the band called Universes. They broke up, and one of the guys moved away, but I did a poster for them a few years ago. It had a Native American in it, but the techniques I used in it? I had never done anything like that in Photoshop. It turned out so well, I ended up using it as a basis for painting a mural outside The V Club. So that’s one of my favorite ones.

I’ve done quite a few for Tyler Childers and Ona that turned out really well. I love working with those guys.

On the #WVmusic scene:

It’s really, really good now. I want to say that a few years back, we probably had more bands (at least in Huntington) and maybe a little more variety. At this point in time, there might be a little less bands, but all of them are top notch. So it’s a balance of quality over quantity.

Credit Jimbo Valentine

Tyler Childers is but one of the many regional artists that Jimbo loves to work with, not to mention listen to.

One of my favorite things is stoner rock and doom music, and we had more of those bands here in Huntington a few years ago. But now we don’t really have those bands anymore.

On advice to folks wanting to get into gig posters:

If you know somebody in a band and they’re going to put on a house show or a show at a bar, see if you can do a poster for them. Do some work, show’em what you’ve got. And then if you have the opportunity, do your best. If it’s good enough, people will notice and people will start asking you to do it. You have to fight tooth and nail to get really, really big. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to get there, but sometimes it just takes being in the right place at the right time to get the right set of eyeballs on it.

Music featured in this #WVmusic chat:

Of the Dell- “Runnin’”

63 Eyes- “Who”

Big Rock and The Candy Ass Mountain Boys- “Good Ole Wagon”

Tyler Childers- “Shake the Frost”

'As Hard as It Is, It’s a Beautiful Thing:' Todd Burge on #WVMusic and Identity

Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats that range from Heavy-Set Paw-Paws to Qiet, Sean Richardson to Goodwolf and beyond. But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia day is coming up, not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday, we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new West Virginia music interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers to Parkersburg singer-songwriters to venues and management and artists, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.

And today, we are chatting with Parkersburg’s own Todd Burge, who’s often named one of West Virginia’s premier singer-songwriters. From choir boy to punk rocker to folky acoustic musician, Todd Burge has played it all and seen it all. He’s even co-hosted Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, but we’ll get to that in the interview.

Todd Burge’s newest release is Todd Burge: Live on Mountain Stage. You can find him, his music and his tour schedule on toddburge.com. You can hear him on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic.

Interview Highlights

On playing in bands over the years:

It really was the punk rock scene of Morgantown in the eighties [that led me to being a musician]. It really struck me. I can pin-point the second that I decided I had to be a songwriter and get into the music scene. I was turning the corner of Kingwood and Wilson, and I heard a band called Gene Pool on U92 there in Morgantown on the radio, and it was a song I heard the night before called “Pilots are Melting.” It was my first venture into the Underground Railroad there, what’s now 123 Pleasant Street. I heard that song on the radio, and as silly as it sounds, it was like a bolt of lightning. I thought, “I’ve got to do that! Here’s a local band… on the radio? Are you kidding me?!” That didn’t happen in Parkersburg. It was unheard of, and it just blew me away.

Six or seven weeks later, I learned three chords, got together with some buddies, and we were in the garage writing songs. There was an attitude there, a do-it-yourself attitude… Live music is crucial. I went from a choir boy to literally weeks later playing at some club in Parkersburg.

On his “bad record business” story:

Everybody who’s been in it long enough and has been signed to a label has their little “bad record business” story, and this is kind of mine. I had a falling out, I couldn’t get tour support and the label went under, and I could never get those [Bunj and the Beats] tapes for that record, which I really liked. And 30 years ago this year, literally a month ago, I got those tapes back and had it digitized. [Laughing] So I have this record that has never been released, which was my first full-length record with this band, Bunj and the Beats. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, but I still like it.

Todd Burge, performing with his band 63 Eyes back in 2013.

On transitioning from playing in bands to being a solo singer-songwriter:

It didn’t just happen. I always wrote songs on acoustic guitar. Always. I would take those songs to whomever I was around. The music became something different depending on whatever room I was in and whoever was with me. A lot of people say Dylan, Black Francis or Jello Biafra was my biggest inspiration. For me, more realistically, it’s the people you’re sitting in the room with, whether it’s Mark Poole of the Phantom Six (who I was with in 63 Eyes), Jimmy Clinton, Tim O’Brien or William Matheny. The songs become what they are depending on who you’re surrounded by.

I was always really writing what I considered acoustic-based, folky-sounding stuff, and then I would put it in whatever weird blender. 63 Eyes was really melodic, and I still consider it folk stuff, but nobody would say that about that kind of music [because] I had to sing over top a chain saw and [laughing] some bone-crunching rhythm section.

I started playing some acoustic shows for fun at Maxwell’s in Morgantown. I would play two sets by myself and realize, “Jeez, I could make more money by doing this.” That’s really where the acoustic stuff started. That’s really where the acoustic solo stuff started. It was an ego trip for me to pull off a show by myself, too. [Laughing] I’m willing to admit: I’m here for the attention, folks.

On the difficulty of making original music (and the value of playing covers) in West Virginia:

When I came back to West Virginia and started this band, 63 Eyes, there was no way I wanted to do a regular job, even though I had four years at WVU. I took psychology and English, and I wasn’t going to go into psychology and have [63 Eyes] as my backburner thing. The music had to be number one for me. And we realized that there was a big demand for cover bands… everywhere. So how could we be a cover band, an offshoot band, a different band with the same members so we didn’t have to depend on other people, and make that our day job and our way to pay the bills while we were home. Because you couldn’t play original music in this area. Nobody was doing it in the Parkersburg area at that point.

So we started going to the animal lodges and seeing what they’d do there, and they were all playing Bob Seger and stuff that just wore us out. And we thought, “Well Jeez, no one is doing Dwight Yoakam and Hank (as in the original Hank).”

63 Eyes’ alter ego (Triple Shot) made an appearance for this 2013 show.

So we started this rockabilly traditional George Jones-like cover band called Triple Shot. Same three guys, but totally different band genre-wise, but we realized those places didn’t want to hear that stuff. [Laughing] But we forced our way through and finally started getting gigs, and we played every honkey-tonk imaginable as Triple Shot. And then we’d sneak in Replacements covers, and no one would notice. We would do some Neil Young, and we would throw in some originals. It was such a music education to learn those covers in that genre, and it really was where I learned how to do bass. It was an invaluable education to come up with 50 songs.

We would play the Pub 47 in Parkersburg. We would start on Wednesday and play till Sunday, five sets a night. It was a physical work out, and you were getting these classic songs embedded into your nervous system. It was valuable.

On live recordings vs. studio recordings:

I always say that the CD is small but the music’s been enlarged to show texture, and that’s what happens in the studio. You take the songs and you expand them, and it’s nothing like what the live experience is like. But people are always asking me when I play live, “What CD is most like what you just did?” And I’ve thought, “Well… nothing really.” [This new CD] is real, and it is live, and it’s a totally different vibe. There’s an energy you just can’t get in a studio. There’s a huge difference really. It’s a totally different beast.

On staying motivated as a musician:

You have to struggle through. A lot of times, what I chose to do was to answer to myself. People think that I sit here and write songs all day. “Oh god, that would be great to be you and sit around and play music all day!” I have to carve out time to do that, to write, and it’s a must because it doesn’t survive without that. But it’s just like anything that anybody does, really. You have to be tenacious, you have to stick with it if you’re self-employed. My challenge to myself is to always do something new and to not repeat myself, and that’s a blast and a challenge. And to realize that eventually, something interesting will come along that I like that I can present it. I try not to get wrapped up in the dry spots creatively. I try to stay calm in that regard. But the frustrating part is that people don’t understand what I’m doing [laughing], but the beautiful part is also that as well.

Only Todd Burge could convince Bob Thompson (normally known for his role as the Mountain Stage Band’s pianist) to sing along with Ron Sowell and Julie Adams during this 2015 Mountain Stage performance.

On his first experiences with Mountain Stage:

[Mountain Stage] was like being on Saturday Night Live. It was huge, and it still is in my mind. It’s not like I’ve gotten used to being on Mountain Stage (even though I’ve done a few of them).

I think I tried to get on [the show] for a year-and-a-half or two years, as people do.

The story goes that I opened up for [The Dukes of Hazard’s] Tom Wopat in Parkersburg here at the Smoot Theatre. And I asked Deni Bonet from the Mountain Stage Band to play fiddle with me. I didn’t know her at all. I just called her and asked her to do it, expecting her to say no. Because in the music business, they say no. I would say 90 percent of the time, the things you ask or want to do or are reaching for, “no” is the answer. That’s just the way it is. But she said “yes,” and I freaked out. She played with me, so I came in through that backdoor. She listened to my music, and I started bugging Larry Groce. I sent every newspaper article that was written about me. I sent postcards. I would invite them to shows when I would come to play Charleston. On and on and on.

And then Larry told me I was supposed to be on a show with Joan Baez, and that just blew my mind. I mean, she used to date Bob Dylan! But then I got bumped by Bob Mould for my first Mountain Stage. And then I waited another six months before I was on that first one. But from there on out, I was able to say that I was on Mountain Stage and I would literally book shows (pre-Internet) on the road by saying I had been on Mountain Stage, without even sending stuff. Through the years, it’s worked for me in that way. It gives you “cred.”

On performing on Mountain Stage since 1991 but releasing Todd Burge: Live on Mountain Stage with performances starting in 2006:

I started performing in 1991, but if people want to know why [the record] started in 2006… One reason was a technical reason: around that time, [Mountain Stage] went digital. So it was much easier to get those recordings from 2006.

For Todd Burge, this 2006 Mountain Stage performance was a career reawakening of sorts.

Now, there’s another thing: in 2006, at that Tamarack show, something clicked in me. Nothing before that time for me made sense musically. Those performances were crucial before that time, between 1991 to 2006, but I was not really happen with [my performances] on Mountain Stage. I was a wreck. I was a mess. I was a bundle of nuts. And so I never really relaxed and performed on that show, and that was a long freak’n stretch. People have told me, “Jeez, I would have never known,” but I can’t even exaggerate how flakey I was on that show. I was glad to get it over with, [laughing] but I’m on freak’n Mountain Stage! I just couldn’t get over the nerves. I didn’t really get comfortable on stage as a solo performer until the year 2006. It was around that year where I got to the point where I had a show, I had an act, and I had a comfort level where I was real on stage. I was just faking it up till then. That’s another thing I can’t exaggerate: what Mountain Stage has meant to what I do.

On what it takes to be a musician from West Virginia:

The West Virginia thing is brought up almost like it’s a weight that we’re carrying, or like we’re trapped on this side of the mountain or living in a bubble or whatever. People make a lot of that. But what I’d say is get in your car, drive out of the state, play some shows and come back. [Laughing] It’s that simple.

Being from West Virginia is a big plus. I’ve lived in Austin, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh, and I’ve lived most of my life in West Virginia. What I’d tell people is work your ass off, organize your work, and book your shows and go. Make your shows as good as they can be. Once you do that, make your show better and keep doing that. Make that your priority.

I’m here because I want to be. Maybe I have to be in West Virginia. Maybe if I was working a regular job (whatever a regular job means) and had to tend to that every day, I don’t know if I could do that. I think it’s a plus, especially when I go up north. I’ve got a little bit of a twang in my voice and people dig that. There’s this thing about West Virginia.

Music Featured in this #WVmusic chat:

Todd Burge- “Time to Waste Time – Live on Mountain Stage”

Todd Burge- “The Longer – Live on Mountain Stage”

Todd Burge- “Enough About Me – Live on Mountain Stage”