This Podcast episode is a special compilation that features Grammy award winners and nominees as heard in past performances on Mountain Stage. Larry Groce chose some of his favorite performances from our archive, including songs by Randy Newman, Eric Bibb, Little Big Town, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. We’re also highlighting sets from beloved country superstar Chris Stapleton and Alison Krauss & Union Station. You can see the entire playlist here.
The Mountain Stage Podcast is brought to you in support by Digital Relativity. www.digitalrelativity.com
When country superstar Chris Stapleton stopped by a special FestivALL Charleston edition of Mountain Stage on June 28, 2015, he brought songs from arguably one of country music’s greatest debut albums in recent memory. His performance – full of polish, genius and passion – foreshadowed the fame and fortune that would soon come for the workhorse Nashville songwriter who had only just begun to build a reputation for his own crowd-pleasing performances as an opening act and at bars, clubs and bluegrass festivals.
Hidden in plain view in Nashville, the well-established songwriter, Stapleton, had by then already written six No.1 hits for other artists like George Strait and Kenny Chesney. He had recently released his game-changing solo album Traveller the previous month. That album on Mercury Records would go to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, win three CMA Awards for “Album of the Year,” “New Artist of the Year,” and “Male Vocalist of the Year” and two Grammys for “Best Country Album” and “Best Country Solo Performance.”
Stapleton came barreling out of the gates like a thoroughbred, with his well-rehearsed studio and touring band that includes his wife Morgane, on her trademark harmony vocals, Robby Turner on steel guitar Derek Mixon, drums, and childhood friend and bandleader, J.T. Cure on bass.
In his introduction, Mountain Stage host and artistic director Larry Groce prophesied exactly what was to happen later that year for Stapleton, who grew up across the Big Sandy River near Paintsville, Kentucky, a day-trip from the show’s hometown of Charleston, W.Va. As a proud son of the region, located along the famed Country Music Highway known for such country stars as Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, Ricky Skaggs, and now Tyler Childers, Stapleton donated money for new band uniforms for his high-school about a year after this performance.
“We’ve had him on once before singing with The SteelDrivers,” Groce said, “The last 15 years he has been one of the most successful songwriters in Nashville, and now he is about to become one of the most successful singers in Nashville.”
Well aware of Stapleton’s long-list of barn burners he wrote and sang with The SteelDrivers, this sold-out and rowdy regional crowd was simply electric with waves of whistles, claps and love hollers as Chris and Morgane poured out some hurtin’ on the honky-tonk ballad “Nobody to Blame.”
“I can tell that a few of you might have bought the record we have out and we appreciate it,” said Stapleton, of the album that would go triple platinum and secure him his first musical appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
One of the set highlights comes from one of the best road songs written in recent times – the title cut “Traveller,” that Stapleton penned on a cross country trip from Phoenix to Nashville in 2013 after his father passed away.
“I couldn't tell you honey, I don't know/Where I'm going but I've got to go/'Cause every turn reveals some other road/And I'm a traveler, oh, I'm a traveler.”
Stapleton sets up two back-to-back 100 proof musical shots with “Tennessee Whiskey,” and “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey.” The former, “Tennessee Whiskey,” is the David Allan Coe cover that he would sing later in 2015 on the CMAs with Justin Timberlake, forging a musical friendship that saw the two collaborating on three songs from Timberlake’s last album, including the Top 10 hit “Say Something.”
Stapleton’s hidden secret though is that- while he may look the part – he is far from being just whiskey-bent and lonesome, ornery and mean. Stapleton showcases his lyrical versatility and vulnerability, which make him simply one of the best. No wonder he received the Academy of Country Music’s first ever ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Decade Award in 2019. His talents are at their clearest on the teary-eyed set closer, “Sometimes I Cry.” Shedding his burly biker exterior, Stapleton shows there is no shame in the crying game and that everybody needs to let it go.
“There are days that I can walk around like I'm alright/And I pretend to wear a smile on my face And I could keep the pain from comin' out of my eyes/But sometimes, sometimes/ Sometimes I cry.”
In today’s world, as strange and troubled as it ever was, that’s a message and song worth repeating.
Since leaving beloved bluegrass band The SteelDrivers, Chris Stapleton has become one of Nashville’s most respected and in-demand songwriters. He has written five number one songs for George Strait, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker and Josh Turner; and his solo debut, The Traveller, was released to wide acclaim. But for his Mountain Stage performance, Stapleton dips back into his SteelDrivers catalog with the crowd favorite, “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey,” in a broadcast that also features sets by Joan Osborne, Joe Ely, and the Fairfield Four / McCrary Sisters project called Rock My Soul.
The 2016 Americana Music Awards nominations are in! We’re proud to see so many of Mountain Stage’s guests on the list. Click on the artist’s name to hear their recent performance on Mountain Stage.
Missed hearing these talented folks on Mountain Stage? Make sure to subscribe (and rate/review) the Mountain Stage podcast on iTunes and sign-up for our email newsletter for future show announcements! You might just hear/see the next big artist before they start grabbin’ Americana Awards.
Good luck to all the nominees! And if you haven’t already, go out and hear some live music wherever you are just as soon as you can.
The 2016 Grammy Awards Nominations are in! We’re proud to see so many of Mountain Stage’s guests on the list. Click on the artist’s name to hear their recent performances on Mountain Stage.
Congratulations to the performers who performed this past year on the show, including Chris Stapleton (for Album of the Year, Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Song and Best Country Album), Lee Ann Womack (Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Song), The Fairfield Four (Best Roots Gospel Album), The Milk Carton Kids (Best American Roots Performance), The Mavericks (Best American Roots Song, Best Americana Album), The Steeldrivers (Best Bluegrass Album) and Rhiannon Giddens (Best Folk Album).
Missed hearing these talented folks on Mountain Stage? Make sure to subscribe (and rate/review) the Mountain Stage podcast on iTunes and sign-up for our email newsletter for future show announcements! You might just hear/see the next big artist before they start grabbin’ Grammys.
Good luck to all the nominees! And if you haven’t already, go out and see some live music wherever you are just as soon as you can.
We’re so excited for Kentucky bluegrass rocker Chris Stapleton’s return to the Mountain Stage! We’ll announce more June 28 artists soon (make sure to sign-up for our e-newsletter for the complete list), but in the meantime, let’s open up the archives to hear Stapleton’s 2008 Mountain Stage debut on this week’s “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
Broadcast from 1am-5am Saturday and Sunday mornings here on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, “Mountain Stage After Midnight” takes the best episodes from the show’s 31 year history and shares their memories and songs with our late-night listeners.
Take a mid-day nap and stay up late to hear some amazing live performance radio on Saturday April 4 and Sunday March 5 during “Mountain Stage After Midnight.”
First up is a July 2008 show, recorded live in hip, historic Charleston, WV. The show featured Chris Stapleton’s The SteelDrivers, seminal folk rocker Amos Lee, Philly soul singer Sharon Little and low-key roots player Peter Bradley Adams.
What’s more, we’ll hear an August 2008 show featuring Phish co-founder Mike Gordon, the Mountain Stage debut of jaw-dropping singer-songwriter Vienna Teng, alt-bluegrass supergroup Crooked Still, indie pop-rockers The Rescues and singer-fiddler Carrie Rodriguez.