The 2013 West Virginia Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place November 16 at Charleston’s Culture Center Theater. This 5th class of inductees included The Goins Brothers, Melvin and his late brother Ray. Melvin Goins sat down at the recent Hall of Fame induction ceremony and shared some thoughts…
Melvin Goins has been involved in the music since the mid-1950s when he joined the legendary Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, an outfit that helped launch the careers of other bluegrass notables like Paul Williams, Bobby Osborne, Charlie Cline and Curly Ray Cline. He worked for a time afterwards with The Stanley Brothers, but made his largest mark with his younger brother Ray as The Goins Brothers over 35 years. When a heart attack took Ray off the road in ’94, Melvin continued on as Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain, a show he fronts to this day.
Goins was born in 1933 on Sinai Mountain, close to the coal mining town of Goodwill in Mercer County. The WV Music Hall of Fame makes the third he’s been inducted into. He was recognized by the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2011 for his contributions as a resident of the Commonwealth, and the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2000.
For the first time since joining Conference USA in 2005 Marshall Football will compete for a conference championship.The Thundering Herd will take on the…
For the first time since joining Conference USA in 2005 Marshall Football will compete for a conference championship.
The Thundering Herd will take on the Rice Owls on their home field in Houston Saturday at noon. After a big win by the Herd over East Carolina on Friday, 59-28, the chances of Marshall hosting the conference championship game seemed more likely than ever. But the computer polls used in the Bowl Championship Series rankings had Rice ranked higher. Because both teams finished conference play 7-1, the rankings were used to break the tie and determine the host of Saturday’s game.
Marshall Head Coach Doc Holliday said the team has put the fact that they didn’t get to host behind them and is preparing for a good Rice team.
“They’ve won 15 of their last 18 games, they haven’t lost a home game since we beat them there a year ago and if you look at them offensively their leading our league in rushing and their third in total offense and their quarterback McHargue is a tremendous player that can beat you with his feet as well as throw it and they have a great tailback that has over 1,000 yards,” Holliday said.
Rice capped their regular season with a 17-13 home victory over Tulane University. The win improved their conference record to the aforementioned 7-1 and to an overall record of 9-3 just like the Thundering Herd. Holliday said his Herd have to be ready for a team that will come right at them with a physical running game.
The game will mark the fifth meeting between the two programs, all coming since Marshall joined Conference USA in 2005. Marshall holds a 3-1 series edge and has won the last two meetings including a 54-51 victory in overtime in Houston in the 2012 season. Holliday said this year’s team is better than that 2012 version because of a balanced offense that includes 2012 league MVP Rakeem Cato at quarterback throwing to 1,000 yard receiver Tommy Shuler and handing the ball off to 1,000 yard running back EssrayTaliaferro.
The game marks the first time the Thundering Herd has played for a conference championship since hosting and winning the 2002 Mid-American Conference Championship game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington. A win by the Rice Owls would be the first time since 1957 that they have won a conference title.
Senior Tight-End Gator Hoskins said to win the war you have to win your individual battles.
“That team isn’t just going to lay down and let us come in there and win, they’re a great defense and it’s just going to be a war,” Hoskins said.
Holliday said the difference in this year’s 9-3 team that’s playing for a conference championship and last year’s 5-7 team is this year’s team handles adversity.
"Whether it's in a game or regardless of the adversity these kids face, instead of running and hiding from it they look it right in the eye and go attack it," Holliday said.
“I think in years past any adversity that hit them it would affect them in a different way, whereas right now adversity doesn’t affect them a whole heck of a lot, they’re use to adversity and they can handle it, whatever it is, whether it’s in a game or regardless of the adversity these kids face, instead of running and hiding from it they look it right in the eye and go attack it,” Holliday said.
Saturday’s noon kickoff between the Herd and Owls can be seen on ESPN2.
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and First Lady Joanne Jaeger Tomblin were joined by hundreds of West Virginians at the Capitol complex to celebrate their annual holiday gathering, ‘Joyful Night.’
The evening was full of musical performances, a reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and the lightning of not one, but two Christmas trees.
Performances included:
Governor’s School for the Arts students Raven McCormick (piano), Molly Blackwood (cello) and Olivia Boughton (viola)
For 30 years and with over 800 episodes, Mountain Stage has been a mainstay in public radio and American music.
Like anything that evolves into a lasting endeavor, Mountain Stage’s success is part happenstance mixed with years of dedication and hard work. Truly, though, it all comes down to the people who made the show possible coming together with a shared vision.
In this hour-long radio special, you’ll hear how the show came to be, its rise to a national program, and examine what it is that makes Mountain Stage mean so much to the artists who have performed on the show and the audience it reaches.
Anna and Chuck Baker are just returning from their farm to check in a deer. It was Anna who bagged the did a little nine point buck.
Listen to Anna share the story of how she killed her buck.
Anna has been hunting for about 30 years. Her husband processes the deer and she cooks them up and she’s proud of her recipe. They prefer deer meat to beef, saying it’s healthier due to its lower fat and cholesterol content.
West Virginians and visiting hunters will spend the next two weeks in the mountains and valleys of the state tracking that prized buck. Deer season helps keep the population manageable but it also means a big boost for the state’s economy. The state Department of Natural Resources expects hunters to spend an estimated $230-million in mostly rural areas.
For Anna and Chuck, part of the sport involves an annual competition.
“We say whoever gets the biggest buck gets to wear the buckmaster cap,” Anna said.
They are at the Country Roads Store, in Pence Springs located in Summers County, which has a curious feature.
A front window peppered with bullet holes the owner says came from an incident involving a disgruntled customer. The game checking station sign hangs behind the holes now. Hunters drive into the parking lot to report and tag the deer they harvested… or at least share stories about the ones they saw. Rarely they volunteer stories about the one’s they miss…it’s usually a friend who offers that lead.
Cashier and game checker, Sybil Crane, works at Country Roads. She says it’s been a busy one, with 25 deer checked so far and many more people stopping by for hot dogs, pizza, gas and propane. Some were from Virginia, North Carolina and even El Paso, Texas.
“Deer season is a pretty big thing around here,” Crane said. ” Usually if you get here at a certain time of the evening, they all come piling in at dark when it’s done and over with.”
“You’ll see five or six out in the parking lot…standing around…talking.”
Crane not only checks game, she also hunts it. She has already been out earlier that morning but came back empty handed after only seeing two does and a fawn.
So who gets to wear the buckmaster cap, a baseball cap with the title in bright, blaze orange across the front?
“So this year, so far…I’ve got it,” Anna beamed. “Unless he gets a bigger one. He got a 5-point.” Chucked laughed, acknowledging that getting a bigger buck was going to be difficult.
For Anna, the hat is as much of a trophy as the 9-point-buck-itself.
Marshall Football will finish the regular season Friday at noon against East Carolina University.
With the winner of the game winning the East Division and a spot in the following weekend’s Conference USA Championship game, Friday’s noon kick-off is quite possibly the biggest game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium has seen in more than a decade. In 2002, Huntington played host to the Mid-American Conference Championship that Marshall won. Both the East Carolina Pirates and the Thundering Herd enter the contest with 6-1 conference records. Marshall Head Coach Doc Holliday said this is what everyone has been looking forward to.
"I came here and took this job for the opportunity to play for championships," Holliday said.
“I came here and took this job for the opportunity to play for championships and that’s what this fan base wants and that’s what you all want, that’s what the town, the city and the school, that’s what everybody wants and here we are,” Holliday said.
ECU’s overall record, however, is a game better than the Herd’s at 9-2 compared to 8-3. Holliday said they are good football team.
Both teams rank near the top of the conference in most offensive categories. Marshall ranks number one in total offense with ECU at number two and ECU ranks first in passing with Marshall just a step behind at second in the conference, but Holliday said it’s not just the offense that makes ECU a worthy competitor.
“They’re a very talented team that we have to make sure we do a good job preparing for,” Holliday said.
“If you look at their defense they’re very athletic, kind of similar to us if you look at them, they’ve made great improvements with their defense and they’re very athletic.”
The winner of the Friday afternoon matchup will take on one of three teams from the West Division, Rice, Tulane or the University of Texas San Antonio depending on the outcomes of games this weekend.
Senior Cornerback Monterius Lovett will be honored before Friday’s kick-off on Senior-day along with many of his graduating teammates. He said he understands what this game means for team, university and community.
“It’s going to mean a whole lot, they deserve it, it’s been I think 11 years since we have won a championship and we’ve never won a championship in Conference USA so yeah it’s going to be a great feeling and I know our fans are going to have our back,” Lovett said.
Senior Defensive End Alex Bazzie said the predicted cold temperatures or large crowd won’t affect ECU, so the Herd has to be ready.
“You just have to find a way to slow them down and find a way where they have to start going to different plays and not the plays they want to run, you’ve got to find a way to take them off track,” Bazzie said.
The site of the 2013 Conference USA Championship game goes to the school with the best conference record. In the event of a tie the higher team in the Bowl Championship Series Rankings will host the matchup. A Herd win could possibly bring that championship game back to Huntington and Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
