Mountain Stage | Jan 16, 2022

featuring performances by: 

A bold reclamation of independence and identity, "K Bay," White's latest album, establishes him as one of his era’s most imaginative and audacious songwriters, composers, and bandleaders. 

Bendigo Fletcher's frontman Ryan Anderson crafts lyrics like patchwork poetry that when matched with band’s gorgeously jangly collision of country and folk-rock and dreamy psychedelia, results in a batch of story-songs graced with so much raw humanity, wildly offbeat humor and a transcendent sense of wonder.

There is talent you glancingly acknowledge and then there is talent you ignore at your own risk. Consider West Virginia’s William Matheny amongst the latter. His solo debut album, "Strange Constellations" (released 2017 on Misra), contained echoes of the hard won wit and wisdom of Loudon Wainwright, the guitar prowess of James Burton and the tensile anger of a young Paul Westerberg. His 2018 single “Christian Name,” has become lauded as Matheny’s signature song in recent years.

Tall Tall Trees is the pseudonym of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Savino. Savino has been touring for the last decade, pioneering a world of psychedelic electric banjo music and captivating audiences with his loop-based one man shows.

Andrea von Kampen is a musician who bridges acoustic folk and lyrical singer/songwriter pop, using a deeply felt, folk-indebted sound and inquisitive, empathetic lyrics. Her newest album "That Spell" is an emotionally evocative powerhouse. It’s cinematic and sweeping - with literary references, reflections on nature and above all the ability to transport you to a memory, a place in time or somewhere you saw in a dream with vivid lucidity.

“From the start, we wanted to make a show where the music could speak for itself,” says co-founder, artistic director and longtime host Larry Groce. “We didn’t want to chase trends or build a cult of personality; we just wanted to showcase the kind of art that deserved to be heard.”

Groce launched “Mountain Stage” as a regional production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting in 1983 alongside executive producer Andy Ridenour and chief engineer Francis Fisher. Bookings on the two-hour, Sunday afternoon program were eclectic, to say the least, with each episode showcasing a handful of artists across a broad range of styles and genres. Audiences responded favorably to the unique mix of down-home talent and household names and the show quickly gained National Public Radio distribution and a national audience.

Groce stepped away from hosting duties earlier this year, handing the microphone to Grammy Award-winner and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea.

“If someone was going to invent a job that combined all of my passions and all of my skills, this would be it,” Mattea reflects. “It’s just the perfect fit in every way. There’s something quintessentially West Virginia about ‘Mountain Stage.’ It’s a culture steeped in humility and generosity, which makes for a groundedness, for a sense of continuity and community that I think artists are really drawn to.”

“Mountain Stage” has been a staple in Morgantown since 2004. It became a regular event in the University Arts Series in 2015 and quickly became a favorite among season subscribers.

“Mountain Stage” is produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The live radio show is taped for air and heard on nearly 300 radio stations nationwide and globally via NPR Music.