Stage Flight

Mountain Stage reaches a milestone.

by Mary Armstrong

Prairie Home Companion sets the tone for live performance radio. Yet some listeners hear PHC’s imaginary commercials and letters from home as necessary evils on the way to good music. Other listeners love PHC’s roots music but long to hear the branches as well. These two listening groups are a ready-made audience for Mountain Stage.

Mountain Stage airs Saturday evenings on WXPN (88.5 FM), conveniently scheduled opposite PHC, from 6 to 8 p.m. With its 500th edition on May 5 — featuring Steve Earle, Bruce Cockburn and Amy Ray with the Butchies — Mountain Stage reminds us that it too has become an institution. Bruce Warren, program director at WXPN, gives the show a warm endorsement, enthusing that they give airtime to folks who don’t necessarily fit into formats as they stand today, particularly in the singer/songwriter and Americana genres. High praise from a station that produces a live performance show of its own, World Café, which competes with Mountain Stage for precious public radio syndication airtime.

Not only does Mountain Stage offer Americana a much needed forum, but they slot it alongside the likes of the Violent Femmes, the Crash Test Dummies and Dr. John. Here’s one I wish I’d heard: The Sept. 26, 1999, show with Jerry Jeff Walker, Kevin Welch, Barbarrito Torres (Cuba), Okros Ensemble (Hungary) and Waldemar Bastos (Angola). Last week MS offered steaming zydeco from CJ Chenier, the fragile soprano, and fresh songs of Tish Hinojosa and Michael Martin Murphy talking and singing about "the cowboy way."

Larry Groce, the man who enhanced American culture with the timeless hit "Junkfood Junkie" hosts the show. He, Andy Ridenour and Francis Fisher launched the first live show in Charleston, WV, almost 20 years ago. They have since changed performance spaces several times, but not their hometown. Today, the syndicated West Virginia show is heard all over the world.

Mountain Stage has not been satisfied to leave its rare performances sitting in the archives. A look at the show’s Blue Plate label catalogue (www.blueplatemusic.com) reveals that they’re up to eight Best Of volumes which mix folks like John Prine and June Tabor, The Texas Tornados and Jo-el Sonnier, The Bobs and Tracy Nelson. Blue Plate has issued themed collections: women, Canadians, Texans, rock and two separate volumes of music from Louisiana, all offered at discount prices. Among their rarest releases are two focused on late lamented artists, father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe and the recently released ten-song collection from distinctive singer/songwriter/pianist Laura Nyro.