Well! 2 days, 2 blogs...it'll probably never happen again...but I just wanted to give a shout-out to the very nice folks at "Mountain Stage", the live-performance radio show from West Virginia Public Radio, that is heard around the country. I was invited backstage Saturday night at the Keith-Albee theater in Huntington, where the show was being taped. Everyone was very nice, and I got to meet a few people, including songwriter Paul Thorn. Mostly I just tried to stay out of the way and take it all in.As you can imagine, there are a LOT of moving parts to putting on a concert performance for radio broadcast. Pretty amazing to see how well-oiled a machine the production is, with so much happening all at once. Once the show started I slipped out front to catch the performances...Paul Thorn opened and did a great solo set, followed by a group from North Carolina, Delta Rae, that did some flawless 4-part harmonies. Michael Cerveris, a Huntington boy-made-good, took a break from his Broadway role in the revival of "Evita" (he also starred in the Broadway production of the Who's "Tommy") to bring his group, Loose Cattle, to town. Their finale was an almost-bluegrass version of "Pinball Wizard" with fiddle and banjo.
The show was staged as the 75th season finale of Marshall University's "Marshall Artists Series," and so, for the headliner they had Arlo Guthrie with his band (son, Abe, on keys and grandson, Krishna, on guitar with drummer, Terry "A La Berry" Hall). Arlo and the boys did a full hour set that was just great. All that, and I didn't get thrown out!
Definitely a very cool evening, spent with some very nice folks. So, like my mama taught me, "Thank you, Mountain Stage...I had a very nice time."
