Bela Fleck Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Ohio’s Poet Laureate And Our Song Of The Week On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Kari Gunter-Seymour is Ohio’s third poet laureate. Inside Appalachia Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Gunter-Seymour about poetry, getting published and the Appalachian part of Ohio.

On this West Virginia Morning, Kari Gunter-Seymour is Ohio’s third poet laureate. She’s the author of several poetry collections and editor of “I Thought I heard a Cardinal Sing,” which showcases Appalachian writers in Ohio, as well as eight volumes of “Women Speak,” a series showcasing Appalachian women writers and artists.

Inside Appalachia Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Gunter-Seymour about poetry, getting published and the Appalachian part of Ohio.

Also, in this show, Mountain Stage officially kicks off its 40^th broadcast season this week with its 39^th anniversary celebration. Our Song of the Week comes to us from Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart. We listen to the group’s performance of “Vertigo.”

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Caroline MacGregor, Curtis Tate, Chris Schulz, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, Randy Yohe, and Shepherd Snyder.

Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced Friday’s show.

Eric Douglas is our news director.

Teresa Wills and Chuck Anziulewicz are our hosts.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

LISTEN: Bela Fleck Has The Mountain Stage Song Of The Week

Mountain Stage officially kicks off our 40th Broadcast Season this week with our 39th anniversary celebration featuring Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart, The Brother Brothers, Alice Howe with Freebo, The Bing Brother feat. Jake Krack, and a special appearance from West Virginia’s Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.

Mountain Stage officially kicks off our 40^th Broadcast Season this week with our 39^th anniversary celebration featuring Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart, The Brother Brothers, Alice Howe with Freebo, The Bing Brothers featuring Jake Krack, and a special appearance from West Virginia’s Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.

By our best count, Bela Fleck has appeared on Mountain Stage more than 15 times, including trips with his wife Abigail Washburn, alongside his band The Flecktones, small group performances with Edgar Myer, Zakir Hussain, Chris Thile, and his very first which occurred in 1989 as a member of New Grass Revival.

New Grass Revival, 1989, courtesy of Mountain Stage Archives.

His most recent appearance is perhaps the most star-studded yet. Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart features Fleck on banjo with Sierra Hull on mandolin, Michael Cleveland on fiddle, bassist Mark Schatz, multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The corresponding album My Bluegrass Heart won top honors in the Bluegrass Album category at the 2022 Grammy awards.

Our Song of the Week is the opening track on that album, “Vertigo,” performed live on Mountain Stage.

Join us starting Friday on these public radio stations, and be sure to visit our podcast page for fresh episodes coming soon. Sign up for our e-mail updates to plan your trip to be a part of our radio audience.

Host Kathy Mattea welcomes everyone back for one more song to end the night.

From 2014: Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Kate Miller-Heidke, Janiva Magness, Gabriel Kahane, and Storyman

The first family of banjo, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn join us for this podcast episode recorded in 2014. We’ll also hear from Australian Kate Miller-Heidke, composer and witty songwriter Gabriel Kahane, blues vocalist Janiva Magness, and Irish folk-pop duo, Storyman.

Support for the Mountain Stage Podcast is provided by Digital Relativity. https://digitalrelativity.com

Listen: Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn on NPR's Mountain Stage

Lovingly referred to as The First Family of the Banjo, partners in love, life and music Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn join us on the Mountain Stage for an extended set during this week’s encore broadcast.

This week’s encore broadcast also features performances from The Del McCoury Band, Malcolm Holcombe and West Virginia’s own Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys on Mountain Stage.

Like what you hear? Subscribe to the Mountain Stage podcast where you can find our episodes in their entirety.

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn, The Del McCoury Band to Perform on Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage with Larry Groce is proud to announce the return of Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn and The Del McCoury Band to Charleston, West Virginia.

On Sunday, May 14, Mountain Stage will celebrate its 34th season of live performance radio at The Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia, with the unofficial “First Family of the Banjo” Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn. The duo are widely credited with reinventing the sound and image of the banjo — Fleck through the three-finger Scruggs style and Washburn via the traditional clawhammer approach. A fifteen-time Grammy winner, Béla has devoted time away from his genre-busting ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones to a staggeringly broad array of musical experiments, from writing a concerto for the Nashville Symphony to exploring the banjo’s African roots to jazz duos with Chick Corea, while Washburn has drawn critical acclaim for her solo albums, done fascinating work in folk musical diplomacy in China, presented an original theatrical production, contributed to singular side groups Uncle Earl and The Wu-Force and become quite a live draw in her own right.

The show will also feature the return of The Del McCoury Band. One of the most respected and beloved performers in bluegrass music, Del McCoury began working as a musician in the ’60s, touring and playing as a singer and guitarist with various groups, including Bill Monroe’s famous Bluegrass Boys. He made his first trip to Mountain Stage in 1989, backing legendary mandolin player David Grisman. It was also around this time that he began spending more time with his own band, which included his young sons Ronnie on mandolin and Robbie on banjo. The band’s popularity has continued to rise over the years, and they remain one of the few groups capable of headlining both traditional bluegrass festivals and jam band shows with equal success and adoration.

More acts for this show will be announced in the coming weeks.

Tickets are already available for Clay Center subscribers. Single tickets go on sale for the general public online and at the Clay Center Box Office on Friday, January 6, and are $25 in advance and $40 day of show. All tickets are assigned seating for this May 14 show, with doors opening at 6:30pm and the show promptly starting at 7pm.

Stay up to date on Mountain Stage show news and ticket deals by following us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram and signing up for our e-mail newsletter. And if you’re looking for a new soundtrack between now and then, listen back to our favorite performances of 2016 and subscribe to the Mountain Stage podcast on iTunes.

Listen to Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn on Mountain Stage

First Family of the Banjo Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn return to Mountain Stage this week, with songs from the first album they’ve recorded together as a duo. Over a bed of intertwined banjos, Abigail takes the lead on a song Bela wrote, lyrics and all, “What’cha Gonna Do?”