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Listen: Dumpstaphunk Brought the Modern Sounds of New Orleans to Mountain Stage in 2014

With essentially every large American music festival canceled for the summer of 2020, we sure could use a dance-inciting funky live set to pry us off the couch and help us shout it out, shake it off and get our groove back.

Straight from the New Orleans hot-funk time machine comes Dumpstaphunk, which stopped by the Culture Center Theater in Charleston on March 23, 2014, for a smoking set on an all-star night that also included blues ‘n’ soul veterans The Robert Cray Band, gospel legends The Blind Boys of Alabama, and blues torchbearer John Hammond.

Keyboardist Ivan Neville, who’s toured and played with everyone from The Rolling Stones to The Neville Brothers, leads the band, which includes his younger cousin, Ian Neville, son of Art Neville who organically built the band in the early 2000s. Dumpstaphunk debuted at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2003, and has returned every year since, resulting in a couple of live releases.

On this legendary March night in 2014 at Mountain Stage, the band kept everyone on their feet rolling a sweet wave of funk over fans with an infectious double-bass fusion and funk jam style that has made Dumpstaphunk main stage favorites at massive festivals from Bonnaroo to Lockn, and helped draw in everyone from Carlos Santana and Bob Weir to Trombone Shorty, Flea and Chaka Khan to perform with them.

“People have gone crazy about them for a decade and compared them to some greatest funk bands of all time – The Meters, James Brown, Parliament, Booker T – and I think they are carrying on in all that tradition,” said Mountain Stage founder and host Larry Groce introducing the band.

Playing songs mostly off of their album Dirty Word, on Louisiana Red Hot Records, Dumpstaphunk transported the crowd down to the Big Easy in their groove-powered mothership with the set opener “Dancing to the Truth.” Drummer Nikki Glaspie — who spent half a decade as Beyonce’s hand-picked percussionist – trades lead vocals with the band’s two bassists Tony Hall and Nick Daniels, before blasting full steam ahead into the fast-paced rocker, “Blueswave” showcasing the sound and fury of Ian Neville’s shredding lead electric guitar.

Dumpstaphunk performing on Mountain Stage in 2014.

Glaspie took over lead vocals to pay respect to Betty Mabry Davis, the female funk pioneer on her smoking hot song “If I’m in Luck,” which was recorded with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea sitting in on the album cut. After the smoke cleared, Dumpstaphunk slid back comfortably into their Sly and the Family Stone-like funk revival with more of their sweet trade-off lead vocals and harmonies served up on two powerful message-packed songs preaching unity and social equality – “Reality of the Situation,” and “Everybody Want Sum.”

“Everybody just can’t get along – that is the reality of the situation/ Instead of hurting each other, let’s look out for one another,” the band sang on “Reality of the Situation.”

Dumpstaphunk continued its powerful voice for unity on their topical 2017 single and music video, “Justice,” featuring fellow NOLA super rocker Trombone Shorty, which bears revisiting in light of recent events.

Currently Ivan is offering virtual “Piano Sessions” on the band’s Facebook page, and they have plans to release their fourth studio album later in 2020.

Dumpstaphunk is one of 60 bands performing at Quarantine Comes Alive, a one-day virtual music fest on Saturday, May 30. This donation-based event will directly benefit the participating musicians as well as Sweet Relief, MusiCares, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, World Central Kitchen, Partners In Health, Trans Lifeline, Backline, and local organizations helping the homeless. Those who donate will be e-mailed a link to watch the event on various platforms.

Go deeper with Dumpstaphunk on their website.

Setlist:
“Dancing To the Truth”
“Blueswave”
“If I’m in Luck” (written by Betty Mabry Davis)
“Reality of the Situation”
“Everybody Want Sum”

Band Members:
Nick Daniels III – Bass/Vocals

Ian Neville – Guitar

Nikki Glaspie – Drums/Vocals

Tony Hall – Bass/Guitar/Vocals

Ivan Neville – Organ/Clavinet/Vocals

Revisit a 2011 Set by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit on Mountain Stage

In the midst of a historical lockdown with people spending a hazy daze of unprecedented hours in their house, what a time to dive back into a set of music written about home’s comforts and complexities. Who better to pull back the complicated shades of home than a seasoned veteran of the road, like Jason Isbell.

It was October 23, 2011 when Green Hill, Alabama native Isbell stopped by Mountain Stage with his well-oiled alt-country machine, The 400 Unit, to take the audience on a trip down South. This kinetic four-song set of material comes from Isbell’s third solo album, Here We Rest; an album whose themes revolve around the idea of home.

Mountain Stage founder and host Larry Groce gave a welcoming nod to the road warrior, who had played the Grand Ole Opry by 16 and spent his 20s rocking, writing and living furiously with The Drive-By Truckers from 2001-2007. “This album is a wonderful, wonderful CD,” Groce said, “Here We Rest,” is an early motto of the state of Alabama. When you hear the songs, you will know why it is named that way.”

Held in equally high regard as a guitarist and as a songwriter, Isbell made his first appearance on Mountain Stage in 2010. He marched into this 2011 set with his trusted comrades- bassist Jimbo Hart, drummer Chad Gamble, former Son Volt keyboardist Derry DeBorja- who make up the 400 Unit. The name was derived from a psychiatric ward of Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence, Alabama, near Isbell’s hometown on the border of Alabama and Tennessee.

With a train shuffling snare, jangling guitars and swirling organ, Isbell and the 400 Unit warm up in style walking a soldier home in “Tour of Duty”- written about an Iraq War soldier stepping off the train and straight into the cobwebs of civilian life – trying to devour the missed goodness of home, while bottling up emotional demons to hide his fears.

“I promise not to bore you with my stories/I promise not to scare you with my tears/I never would exaggerate the glory/I'll seem so satisfied here.”

The band pours a flurry of hurt into his now classic “Go It Alone,” about the wake of his first divorce and being left with himself in a quiet house of regret.

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, seen here performing on Mountain Stage in Charleston, W.Va. in October 2011.

Isbell and the 400 Unit saved the best for last, closing with what have become two of his most recognized songs from Here We Rest: “Alabama Pines,” which would go on to win the 2012 Americana Music Association’s Song of the Year, and the crowd-pleasing set-closing jam of “Codeine.”

In “Alabama Pines” Isbell captures that illusive feeling of truly feeling at home with yourself. And while we may all feel a bit unanchored in our current state, we are not in this alone. Take a deep fresh breath in these evergreens. We still have these songs to transport us musically back home, “through those Alabama Pines.”

Isbell, who has gone on to win four Grammy Awards, has a new album, Reunions, produced by Dave Cobb and featuring such guests as David Crosby, and his wife Amanda Shires.

Set List:
Tour of Duty
Go It Alone
Alabama Pines
Codeine

Hear A 2011 Set by Vince Gill On Mountain Stage

Between 2006 and 2014, Mountain Stage made regular trips to the Paramount Center for the Arts in the Virginia/Tennessee border town of Bristol to raise awareness about the now completed Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

On August 21, 2011, Mountain Stage host Larry Groce welcomed one of the greatest and multi-talented country music artists – Vince Gill, who gave what Groce has described as one of the best sets ever performed on Mountain Stage.

“When we come to Bristol, we like to do some special things in celebration of the Birthplace of Country Music,” Groce said introducing Gill, who has won 21 country music Grammy Awards – the most of any country male artist. “Here is a man who has explored every part of country music and far beyond

He started out in bluegrass, got into mainstream country and pop. If there as anything as a triathlon for music he would no doubt win because he can not only sing wonderfully but he writes great songs, is a wonderful guitar player.”

The laid-back Norman, Oklahoma native showed why he’s such a welcomed and frequent performer on the Grand Ole Opry, interacting early and often with the audience with gentle and self-effacing humor. He then flows into a soulful, stripped down acoustic version of his 1991 hit “Liza Jane,” with his veteran band of Nashville cats, David Hungate on bass, Pete Wasner on keyboards and Billy Thomas on drums.

As a guitarist, Gill is so good he was asked to join Dire Straits at their height, and he’s been pulling double duty singing and playing with The Eagles since 2017. But his superpower throughout his career- from the 1980 No. 1 smash “Let Me Love You Tonight” with Pure Prairie League, to several of his chart-topping solo hits- is his ballad slaying vocal abilities. No male country star can more powerfully drip that vulnerable love ballad vocal honey like Gill. Evidenced here through his beautifully simple and powerful song, “Whenever You Come Around.”

A highlight of this set is the full-on Opry-style comedy routine, with vocal impressions leading up to the sweet song about his father, “The Key to Life.’ Gill described the towering, gruff character as Gen. Patton, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood rolled into one. “One of the best things he ever said to me was – ‘I’ll knock you through a wall and make you fix it,’” Gill said in a gruff voice to a laughing audience.

Gill then paid tribute to his father and to Bristol playing the first song his dad taught him on guitar, The Carter Family’s “Wildwood Flower,” before solemnly paying his respects to his pops.

“I wouldn’t play a guitar or sing songs if it wasn’t for my dad,” said Gill, who as a teenager and young man was in a series of bluegrass bands and these days has a regular Nashville gig with the Time Jumpers. “He sat me down and showed me G, C and D. He said you’re on your own that is all I know. The first thing I learned was recorded right here in this town.”

Gill shared two new songs during this 2011 set, “Threaten Me With Heaven,” which he dedicated to one of the song’s co-writers Will Owsley, who passed away earlier that year, and “Red Words,” a faith-filled tribute to his wife that wouldn’t be released until 2019.

It was grab-the-tissues time when Gill turned in a searing rendition of “Go High Rest On That Mountain” – a 1995 song he started writing after Keith Whitley died in 1989, then finished when his brother Bob died in 1993. “Driving over here I heard a gospel group singing it on the radio on a Sunday morning, and that made me feel pretty good,” Gill said.

Gill closed thanking Mountain Stage for bringing folks together to share in the magic of live music. “I love it when you share a stage with so many different kinds of people and so many different kinds of musicians,” Gill said. “This was a real gift today to get to meet some new friends to hear some people play music that I had never gotten the opportunity to do that with. So as I leave here and go home, I am the one that got the blessing, so thank you.”

Gill’s latest release Okie is available now, and The Eagles “Hotel California” tour have been pushed to 2021.

Set List:

Liza Jane
Whenever You Come Around
Wildwood Flower
The Key to Life
Threaten Me with Heaven
Go Rest High on that Mountain
The Red Words

Recorded August 21, 2011 at the Paramount Bristol in Bristol, TN/VA.

Listen: Cake on Mountain Stage From 2010

In California, the land of endless sun, freeways and possibilities, there’s plenty of room in the musical test kitchen to birth a band that’s a little mariachi, a little bit hip hop, funk, folk country and rock and roll.

Known for such quirky genre-blurring radio hits as “The Distance,” and “Never There,” the artful band known as Cake, founded in California’s capital city of Sacramento back in 1991, made their first trip to Mountain Stage on Dec. 5, 2010 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston.

“It is always something special when they release a CD because they don’t do that every year,” host Larry Groce said of the band’s Showroom of Compassion, released in January, 2011.

After a thunderous welcome from the sold out crowd, the band dug straight back into their own roots – sharing first a gem, “Daria,” from their second album – the 1996-released platinum album, Fashion Nugget, that also featured their breakout hit, “The Distance.”

With their engines fully pumping and thumping in time, they lit up four new songs from Showroom, starting with “Long Time.” The hypnotic, Talking Heads-esque world beat funk jam featured on the first season of the TV show, “Shameless,” is fueled by Cake’s not-so-secret essential ingredients – the guitar of Xan McCurdy and tasty trumpet lines of Vince DiFiore.

As if foreseeing concerts full of audience’s faces buried in cellphones, lead singer John McCrea calls out a few fans in the audience. “Such excellent clapping and audience participation, we thank you, and your timing and tempo, – steady, except for a few people so involved in capturing the moment with their cameras, they can’t even join us here, now in the only moment you have. Here’s a song from the new album. You don’t even have to buy it. You can just be here. Right now. And listen to it.”

Introducing “Sick of You,” (the band’s first single from Showroom of Compassion), McCrea taps into the times which aren’t a changing … “I have noticed too that things have become very polarized in The United States of America…This song is about freaking out and about how furious people are. Some people can’t handle it and there is steam coming out their ears. There is an opportunity in this song for steam to come out of your ears and music to come out of your mouth.”

McCrea was not kidding. In the first of two raucous sing-a-long’s, McCrea dials the music down to bass guitar and cowbell and divides the audience up into “the people who can’t handle things and who want to escape into vampire stories,” and the other side into the “realists who are uncontrollable, unconstrained and unreasonable” to sing “I’m so sick of you sick of me/I don’t want to be with you/I want to fly away/I just want to fly away/.” As Groce stated later, “You not only heard the new single, you sang along with it.”

Watch Larry’s backstage interview with singer John McCrae to hear more about their solar-powered recording studio, how they convinced their label to release the video for “Short Skirt, Long Jacket,” and more.
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After “Bound Away,” a fresh, modern-folk gospel take of tour life colored in with DiFiore’s trumpet and four-part harmony, Cake left the crowd with an interactive version of “Jolene,” not the Dolly Parton song, of course, but “Jolene,” the novelesque garage rocker McCrea and former guitarist Greg Brown wrote for their debut album.

“Somebody coming to the show requested it. You just ask for whatever you want in this life and it will happen,” McCrea joked getting a roar of audience laughter.

You can find follow Cake online, and purchase their music through their online store.

Set List

“Daria”
“Long Time”
“Mustache Man (Wasted)”
“Sick of You”
“Bound Away”
“Jolene”

Listen: R.E.M. on Mountain Stage

R.E.M. made their historic visit to Mountain Stage 30 years ago this week. The appearance was just one of three shows scheduled to promote their upcoming release “Out of Time.” The other appearances included in the media tour were “Saturday Night Live” and MTV’s “Unplugged.”

The anniversary is all the reason we need to revisit their performance of “It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” recorded live in Charleston, W.Va. on April 28th, 1991.

R.E.M.’s full Mountain Stage set was re-released in 2016 on the 25th anniversary deluxe edition of “Out of Time.”

Listeners Choice: Help Pick Classic Shows for Broadcast

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who voted! We'll announce the top vote-getters next week on our Facebook page and we hope you will listen for them on these…

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who voted! We’ll announce the top vote-getters next week on our Facebook page and we hope you will listen for them on these NPR Music stations in the coming weeks.

We’re looking to you, our audience, to help choose some of our upcoming broadcasts.

Since we’re unable to record the fresh episodes we intended to this month, we’re going back in the archive to share some of our favorite episodes. We’re going to fill in six weeks of broadcasts that will air through the end of May, and we are asking YOU to help choose which shows we revisit. We’ve chosen 15 options between the years 2010-2017 which you can see below. You have until Friday, April 10 to vote for the six episodes you’d like to hear again. The top vote-getters will hit stations near you soon.