Grammy Award-winner and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea will serve as guest host for West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s ‘Mountain Stage with Larry Groce’ this Sunday at the WVU Creative Arts Center
The 2018-2019 University Arts Series season will come to a close this Sunday night,
April 28, at the WVU Creative Arts Center when Mountain Stage with Larry Groce
returns with Kathy Mattea as guest host. Darlingside, Greg Brown, Lula Wiles, Si
Kahn and The Looping Brothers, and Sean McConnell are scheduled to perform. Tickets,
starting at $27, are on sale now at the Mountainlair and CAC box offices, online
at Ticketmaster.com, and by phone at 304-293-SHOW (7469) and 800-745-3000.
Indie folk quartet Darlingside (Don Mitchell, Auyon Mukharji, Harris Paseltiner and
David Senft) perform all their music around a single vocal microphone, inviting
audiences into a lush, intimate world where four voices are truly one. The group’s
superpower harmonies have been compared to those of Crosby, Stills & Nash,
and Simon and Garfunkel. Audiences are drawn to their lyrics that speak of growing
up, growing old, love, loss and the humble experience of being human. They are
all skilled instrumentalists and incorporate the mandolin, banjo, cello, violin,
electric and acoustic guitar into their music. Their single “Hold Your Head Up
High” was recently featured in the season three finale of the hit NBC show “This
is Us.”
Iowa-raised singer-songwriter Greg Brown came to music through jam sessions hosted
at his family's house, and his recording career dates back to 1974. Brown's mother
played electric guitar, his grandfather played banjo and his father was a preacher
in the Hacklebarney section of Iowa, where the Gospel and music are a way of life.
Brown's songwriting has been celebrated by many and his songs have been performed
by Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin
Carpenter. He has also recorded more than a dozen albums, including his 1986 release,
“Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” when he put aside his own songwriting to
set poems by William Blake to music. Brown has earned two Indie Awards from the
National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD) and two Grammy
nominations.
Isa Burke, Eleanor Buckland and Mali Obomsawin are Lula Wiles. The trio came of age
in the practice rooms of Boston’s Berklee College of Music and in the city’s lively
roots scene. Their sophomore album “What Will We Do” reflects on the topics that
“we are all staying up late thinking about and talking about over drinks at the
dinner table,” says Obomsawin. On this new album the trio’s voices burn, twist,
mingle and rise like smoke signaling changes to come, but the trio’s mastery of
folk music and their willingness to subvert to its hallowed conventions provide
an anchor. Lula Wiles brings new perspective to age-old traditions and above all
the practice of sharing struggles through song.
Si Kahn is a civil rights, union and community organizer, and musician. His songs
of family, community, love, work and freedom have been recorded and performed by
hundreds of artists around the world. They have been translated into at least half
a dozen languages, including French, Welsh, Hebrew, Swedish, Drents (a Dutch dialect)
and Plattdeutsch (“Low German”). Such songs as “Aragon Mill (aka Belfast
Mill, Oregon Mill, Weave and Spin, Douglas Mills),” “Gone Gonna Rise Again,” “Go
to Work On Monday,” and “Rubber Blubber Whale” have become part of the oral tradition,
and are sung in folk clubs and living rooms, at demonstrations and on picket lines
around the world. Kahn has toured with Pete Seeger, Andy Irvine, Cathy Fink &
Marcy Marxer, and John McCutcheon, and has shared festival and workshop stages
with artists ranging from Ani DiFranco to the Fairfield Four. His musical
body of work includes 16 albums of original songs; a CD of original songs for children,
“Good Times and Bedtimes;” and a collection of traditional labor and civil rights
songs recorded with Pete Seeger and Jane Sapp.
Sean McConnell’s latest recording, “Secondhand Smoke,” is his 13th album, and it
is a cohesive collection of modern folk music. McConnell has a grassroots following
now hundreds of thousands deep. Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Rascal
Flatts, Meat Loaf, Jake Owen, Brothers Osborne and more have all recorded his songs––a
dizzying list that spans not just styles, but generations. McConnell earned his
first No. 1 single on country charts in early 2018 with breakout artist Brett Young’s
delivery of “Mercy,” which the two co-wrote. As a performer, Sean packs listening
rooms and quiets unruly bar crowds. His sound––a warm tenor painting vivid stories
over acoustic guitar often cushioned by keys or other strings––has prompted a diverse
range of music scenes from the storied Boston folk community to Texas’s defiantly
self-sovereign camp to warmly claim Sean as one of their own.
Sunday night’s show will be hosted by West Virginia native and Grammy Award-winner
Kathy Mattea. A singer, musician, songwriter, public speaker and activist, Mattea’s
music and message have taken her across America and overseas. Her music career
spans 20-plus years and in recent years, she has found a growing audience for her
words and ideas on a variety of issues, ranging from Arts education to global climate
change. She is also deeply involved in social and environmental activism, believing
that music can influence social change by giving a voice to the those who have
none.
Mountain Stage with Larry Groce is produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
The live radio show is taped for air on more than 200 National Public Radio stations
across America. WVU has been the show’s second home for the last decade.
Tickets, starting at $27, are on sale now. WVU Student tickets are $10 with valid
WVU Student ID (limit one). The show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets may be purchased
at the Mountainlair and CAC box offices, online at ticketmaster.com, and by phone
at 304-293-SHOW (7469) and 800-745-3000.
The University Arts Series is produced by WVU Arts & Entertainment and presented
by University Toyota with support from the Holiday Inn – University Area. Stay
connected with the latest event updates through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
by following @wvuevents.
-WVU A&E-
ksg/04/22/19