This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust belt and even the Northeast. The Appalachian Regional Commission defined the boundaries for Appalachia in 1965 with the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commision, a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It was legislation that sought to expand social welfare, and some localities were eager for the money, while others resisted the designation. The boundaries and definition of Appalachia can now only be changed by an act of Congress.
This week’s encore broadcast was the first episode we released after halting production due to the pandemic in March of 2020. On November 1, 2020, we welcomed Chuck Prophet with Stephanie Finch, Kim Richey, S.G. Goodman, and Sierra Ferrell to Charleston, W.Va. to record at the Culture Center Theater with no audience, under strict safety protocols. The results are hitting airwaves starting Friday on NPR stations.
San Francisco rock and roller Chuck Prophet and his partner Stephanie Finch are joined by the Mountain Stage Band throughout their set, including our Song of the Week, “Marathon.”
The song appears on Prophet’s most recent Yep Roc release The Land That Time Forgot. Tune in starting Friday, November 26 for the entire set.
Chuck Prophet-Marathon 2020
Rec. 11/1/20, Charleston, WV
1 of 5 — S.G. Goodman
S.G. Goodman and her band jumped the Kentucky border to make some music in W.Va. last November.
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2 of 5 — Kim Richey
Kim Richey has made six appearances on Mountain Stage since 1997.
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3 of 5 — A sign of the times
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4 of 5 — There's a stream…
While this episode was recorded without a live audience, fans streamed the show from the comfort of their homes all around the world thanks to WVPB’s video production team.
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5 of 5 — Sierra Ferrell
Hometown gal Sierra Ferrell made her Mountain Stage debut in November of 2020.
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We also hear Nashville’s Kim Richey, who brought with her songs from A Long Way Back…the songs of Glimmer, in which she reimagines tunes from her 1999 album Glimmer. She even asked Chuck Prophet, a regular collaborator of hers, to join in on her set. We hear songs from western Kentucky’s S.G. Goodman, whose album Old Time Feeling was released last year to critical acclaim. We’re also proud to welcome West Virginia native Sierra Ferrell and her trio to Mountain Stage for the first time. Ferrell’s debut single “Jeremiah/ Why’d Ya Do It,” was released on Rounder Records in 2020.
This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust belt and even the Northeast. The Appalachian Regional Commission defined the boundaries for Appalachia in 1965 with the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commision, a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It was legislation that sought to expand social welfare, and some localities were eager for the money, while others resisted the designation. The boundaries and definition of Appalachia can now only be changed by an act of Congress.
On this West Virginia Morning, Erika Howsare is the author of The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors, a book that takes some of the mystery out of the white tail deer that have lived on the edge of humanity for a very long time.
On this West Virginia Morning, it was a shock when author, musician and West Virginia University professor Travis Stimeling died abruptly in November. They were 43. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold collected remembrances from colleagues, former students and friends. He shared them recently on Inside Appalachia.
On this week’s premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage, we hear the second part of our 40th anniversary celebration. This episode was recorded on Dec. 10, 2023 at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, West Virginia with host Kathy Mattea, James McMurtry, Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainright Roche, John Doyle & Mick McAuley, Tommy Prine, Cheryl Wheeler & Kenny White, and a special appearance from West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.