Original Post: Since we’ve been unable to record fresh episodes recently, we reached out to the guests we’ve had to postpone appearances by and asked for performance video submissions. The results will premiere this Sunday June 28 at 7p.m. EST as we present “There’s a Stream,” a collection of virtual performances curated by Mountain Stage. Join host Larry Groce at MountainStage.org or LiveSessions.NPR.org to watch along as we enjoy remote performances from Steve Earle, Darrell Scott, Amy Speace, Karan Casey, Lilly Hiatt, Nobody’s Girl, Malcolm Holcombe, The Haden Triplets and Frances Luke Accord.
We’ll have a featured set from Earle, whose latest album, released on New West Records, is called The Ghosts of West Virginia. It features songs he wrote for the play “Coal Country,” which premiered in New York City in February but was shuddered shortly after due to the pandemic. The songs are built around the tragic explosion of the Upper Big Branch Mine that killed twenty-nine coal miners in 2010.
This and many more intimate performances await you this Sunday.
If you’re able, we hope you’ll help support these independent artists, and any artist whose work you appreciate, by purchasing music, making direct contributions, or streaming their work online. We’ll have helpful links to all the guests below, and in the video descriptions on Sunday. Be sure to RSVP on Facebook and share the event so others can enjoy.
“There’s a Stream” is presented as part of FestivALL Charleston’s VirtuALL schedule of events.
This week’s broadcast reflects on some of our favorite performers who appeared on Mountain Stage in recent years during FestivALL Charleston, the city-wide arts celebration that helps our hometown become a work of art throughout the year, including their summer and fall festivals.
For this retrospective our host, Larry Groce (a co-founder of FestivALL), chose some of the best performances in recent years, including Todd Snider, Lucius, Alsarah & the Nubatones, and a couple West Virginia artists, William Matheny and John R. Miller, to name a few. The show culminates with an outstanding set from The Wood Brothers, whose track “Can’t Look Away” is our Song of the Week.
Hear this special “FestivALL Favorites” episode starting Friday, June 19 on these public radio stations. Here in West Virginia you can tune to WVPB at 8p.m. on Saturday, June 20 (West Virginia Day!) and Friday June 26. See the entire playlist here and be sure to watch for our special virtual presentation, “There’s a Stream,” coming on Sunday, June 28 at 7p.m. at MountainStage.org and LiveSessions.NPR.org.
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.”
Credit Josh Saul / Mountain Stage
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Mountain Stage
Chris Stapleton met audience members after Mountain Stage, June 28, 2015 at the Clay Center in Charleston, W.VA.
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.
This week’s broadcast continues our Listeners’ Choice series with a 2015 episode we recorded at The Clay Center in Charleston, W.Va. during FestivALL Charleston. We’ll hear performances by Chris Stapleton, Joan Osborne, Joe Ely, and a collaboration between The Fairfield Four and The McCrary Sisters called “Rock My Soul.”
Revered vocalist and song stylist Joan Osborne first appeared on Mountain Stage in 1995 and has continued to return, always with a different batch of songs wrapped in her singular vocal style.
Our Song of the Week, “Brokedown Palace,” is a Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia collaboration from the Grateful Dead cannon, performed here by Osborne with keyboardist Keith Cotton accompanying.
When writing about the song for Dead.net, David Dodd theorizes “The song can be a song to someone departed from life, or just from the relationship with the singer. Or maybe the singer is departing, and possibly departing this life, or possibly departing a relationship. Some have suggested it is a song about reincarnation, and the journey through existences”
This 2015 set from Osborne also includes a remarkable, stripped-down version of her mega-hit “One of Us.” Take a peek at the playlist and find a station where you can listen here starting Friday May 29.
Credit Brian Blauser/ Mountain Stage
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The McCrary Sisters’ and The Fairfield Four’s collaboration is called “Rock My Soul.” Hear some of the songs recorded live on this week’s encore broadcast starting May 29.
This show was taped at The Clay Center during FestivALL Charleston, our hometown’s multi-faceted arts festival that takes place each June. This year their summer event is taking place online, with special FestivALL VirtuaLL events scheduled from June 14-28. Click here to view the entire schedule, and set a reminder for our special virtual presentation, “There’s a Stream…” scheduled for June 28, at 7p.m.
Due to the current circumstances, Mountain Stage is canceling our live shows scheduled for June 7, June 21 and June 28, in Charleston, West Virginia.
We’ll be working to reschedule the artists for another time. We’re unsure when we’ll record our next new episode, but we look forward to doing so when it’s safe for everyone. Be sure to sign-up for our e-mail newsletter so you can be among the first to receive updates when we have them.
If you purchased your tickets through our online ticketing service Eventbrite or at a live show, your refund will be processed soon. This normally takes 5-7 business days, but it could be longer due to staff reductions at Eventbrite.
Our local box office Taylor Books remains closed as a preventative measure, therefore, refunds for tickets purchased at that location cannot be offered at this time. If you purchased your tickets at Taylor Books, please send a photo of the tickets (including the full barcode), along with your mailing address, to live@mountainstage.org. We will send a gift certificate via U.S. Mail in the coming weeks, for an amount equivalent to the tickets purchased.
Mountain Stage has now canceled nine live events, including three shows in March, one April event in Athens, OH, and our two events scheduled for May. These include the May 17 show scheduled with Saving Grace feat. Robert Plant and Suzi Dian at The Clay Center. Please call the Clay Center box office at 304-561-3570 to request a refund if you have tickets to that particular show.
We are working to reschedule all these guests though nothing has been finalized. Be sure to sign-up for our e-mail newsletter so you can be among the first to receive updates when we have them.
UPDATE: All three of these shows are on sale now online and at Taylor Books in downtown Charleston.
Ticket buyers will notice sales tax has been added to the cost of these tickets. Due to a change in West Virginia tax law, Eventbrite will now collect sales tax on all Mountain Stage tickets for Culture Center shows, starting with our June 2020 events.
Original post:
Three Mountain Stage events for June have been added to the already packed calendar for the live performance radio show. All three shows are on sale to Mountain Stage Members right now for just $15. Tickets will be available online and at Taylor Books starting Friday February 14 at 10a.m. EST. Mountain Stage Members should check their inbox for redemption instructions.
Members make a recurring gift of at least $10 a month or $120 annually and receive early online presale to our Culture Center shows and other periodic discounts and benefits. Click here to browse the levels and sign-up for a membership.
On Sunday June 7 Portland’s Blitzen Trapper will make their third appearance on the show, along with the folk rock of Nashville’s Lilly Hiatt, and songwriting super-trio Nobody’s Girl. This will also be Hiatt’s third appearance on the show since 2015, and her new record, Walking Proof –due March 29 on New West Records- is one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year. You should check out American Songwriter’s recently published preview and interview.
Credit Valerie Fremin
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We’ll also welcome Nobody’s Girl on June 7. The indie-folk trio features Rebecca Loebe, BettySoo and Grace Pettis, who have been friends now for a decade. They first met at the legendary Kerrville Folk Festival, each a winner of the prestigious annual “New Folk” award there. The trio’s first full-length album (a follow up to their critically acclaimed EP, Waterline), is due in May 2020 and we’re looking forward to hearing these harmonies live and in person.
Sunday June 21 will be the first of two Mountain Stage shows during the 15 days arts extravaganza FestivALL Charleston. This city-wide celebration of the arts takes over our hometown each June. FestivALL turns our city into a work of art, and it’s a great time to plan a visit to see what Charleston is all about.
We’re excited to welcome the “Psychedelic-Soul Force” of Black Pumas, to the show for the first time. The “Best New Artist” Grammy nominees have already taped an appearance on Austin City Limits and they’re currently touring the UK behind their stand-out self-titled album Black Pumas.
Country Music icon and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea will return to guest host on Sunday June 28 as we close out the FestivALL activities at the Culture Center Theater with a set from New Jersey-bred singer/songwriter Nicole Atkins. Atkins is currently wrapping up a European tour ahead of the release of her upcoming album Italian Ice- out April 17th via Single Lock Records.
Recorded at legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, Italian Ice features legends Spooner Oldham and David Hood, plus collaborations with Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers, Erin Rae, and John Paul White. According to promo materials, “At turns as opulent as symphonic pop and gritty as garage punk, the album wanders into shades of psych-rock and honky-tonk and girl-group melodrama, endlessly spotlighting the tightly honed musicianship and unbridled originality at heart of Atkins’s artistry.”
Rolling Stone just premiered the first video and single, “Captain,” featuring Spoon front man Britt Daniel.
Tickets for all three June shows are $20 in advance and $30 day of show, available starting Friday February 14 at 10a.m. online and at Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street in downtown Charleston.
As always, be sure to follow Mountain Stage on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates and to glimpses behind-the-scenes.
