Tickets remain for “Mountain Stage with Kathy Mattea” Sunday, Jan. 16, at the WVU Canady Creative Arts Center. Matthew E. White, Bendigo Fletcher, William Matheny, Tall Tall Trees and Andrea von Kampen are scheduled to perform. Tickets start at $27 and are on sale now.
For nearly 40 years, “Mountain Stage” has stood as one of the most beloved and enduring programs in public radio history, broadcasting thousands of raw, unforgettable performances by rising stars and veteran legends alike from the series’ humble home in Charleston. Grammy Award-winner and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea took over the host microphone in 2021.
The concert, taped for broadcast on nearly 300 radio stations nationwide and globally via NPR Music, features performances by five artists.
Matthew E. White has established himself as one of his era’s most imaginative and audacious songwriters, composers and bandleaders. His influences include New Orleans rhythm and blues legends Randy Newman and Allen Toussaint as well as Alan Lomax, whose field recordings of folk music have been credited with the preservation of America’s folk music traditions. White specializes in reggae-infused folk-gospel, indie pop, Tropicalia (celebrating Brazilian culture) and Stax-era R&B. Stax is the record label formed by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton considered to be more creative and less mainstream than Motown.
White’s third solo album, “K Bay,” includes 11 pieces that are retro-futurist magic tricks. They feel instantly classic and contemporary, the product of a musical mind that has internalized the lessons of his idols and used them to build a brilliant world of his own. White’s debut album, “Big Inner,” garnered him a cult following and mention by several critics at the end of 2012.
The Louisville, Kentucky, quintet Bendigo Fletcher, fuse folk music with indie rock to create what “AllMusic.com” describes “trippy Americana [that] can be witty or passionately sincere depending on the tenor of their songs.” The band’s third album (and their major label debut) “Fits of Laughter” is a collection of moments both enchanted and mundane, sorrowful and ecstatic that showcases the patchwork poetry of frontman Ryan Anderson’s lyrics. The album’s ragged elegance is grounded in a sound embroidered with everything from crystalline harmonies to blistering guitar riffs to heady drum-machine beats.
West Virginia native William Matheny was born in Mannington – the grandson of The Rhythm Rascals’ Mansfield Matheny. He has played with both the indie-folk-rock band Southeast Engine (as a multi-instrumentalist) and the garage rock band The Paranoid Style (as both keyboardist and guitarist).
“American Songwriter” says he is “quickly becoming one of independent country music’s most exciting emerging artists.” Matheny’s solo debut album “Strange Constellations” (2017) 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 single “Swollen Rivers” pays homage to Morgantown nightlife and showcases his knack for spinning stories.
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. He originally aspired to be a bassist in New York City’s vibrant jazz and experimental music scene but switched his focus to playing banjo and writing songs.
“A Wave of Golden Things,” Savino’s fourth studio album, opens with the distant crow of a rooster and takes off in a dust cloud of swirling banjo, drums and bass, while its lead track, “The Wind, She Whispers,” quickly evolves from a droning mountain melody into full-blown banjo funk. Though the banjo is heavily featured, the influence of Pink Floyd and Cat Stevens can be felt as much as banjo mavericks Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck.
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.
Tickets for the Jan. 16 show start at $27. WVU Students may purchase tickets for only $10. The show begins at 7 p.m. Tickets 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. WVU Student discounted tickets are limited to one per valid WVU Student ID or offer code. Discounted rates for groups of 20 or more are available by calling 304-293-8221.
Masks are required inside the WVU Canady Creative Arts Center and audience members are required to remain masked throughout the performance regardless of vaccination status.
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