Joni Deutsch Published

West Virginia Music, Mountain Stage Staff Featured on NPR Music's Best of 2015 List

Mountain Stage's Larry Groce and A Change of Tune's Joni Deutsch join over 50 public radio hosts in listing their favorite songs of 2015.

Public radio hosts from across the country came together this past month to pick their favorite songs of 2015. The result? An NPR Music Best Songs of 2015 playlist, of course!  Here’s a recap of that list and the music you heard this past year on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Mountain Stage host and artistic director Larry Groce was one of the 50 public radio music hosts selected for NPR Music’s year-end list. His favorite song of 2015 came from Darlingside, an indie folk group who performed on Mountain Stage this past fall and appeared on our own Inside Appalachia podcast. This is what Larry had to say about their music:

Darlingside, "God Of Loss" The instrumentals are just as meticulous as the harmonies, the harmonies just as haunting as the lyrics, and the lyrics a testament to the Boston quartet's success to come.

Mountain Stage assistant producer and “A Change of Tune” host Joni Deutsch had this to say about the emerging electro-R&B act who left an impression on her:

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, "Can't Keep Checking My Phone" From its Tarantino spaghetti western start to its groovy "Purple Rain" end, this single by the Portland-by-way-of-New Zealand band is a cinematic treat for our ears.

The NPR Music list includes other familiar faces, like singer-songwriter Sam Gleaves, whose song about an openly gay, West Virginia coal miner led to an interview with Roxy Todd for Inside Appalachia and Us & Them, as well as a guest appearance on Mountain Stage.

Morgantown native Dave Bello also chatted with “A Change of Tune” about his band The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and their 2015 single “1/10/2014” long before it became an NPR Music pick, as did Beach House drummer and West Virginia native Graham Hill, The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Rhiannon Giddens and Canadian crooner Andy Shauf.

And our locally-produced music programs Eclectopia, Lost Highways and Sidetracks spun more than a few NPR Music favorites from Jason Isbell, Courtney Barnett, Laura Marling, Hiatus Kaiyote, The McCrary Sisters, Turnpike Troubadours and more.

Listen to the complete list of NPR Music’s Best Songs of 2015 here and subscribe to West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s podcasts (including Mountain Stage, Inside Appalachia, Us & Them and more) here.

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