The live music program “Mountain Stage,” produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, had been running for almost 37 years when its original host and artistic director Larry Groce handed off the microphone to fellow musician Kathy Mattea in 2021.
This Friday, March 21, Mattea is bringing the show — a curation of singer-songwriters performing in such wide-ranging styles as folk, country, blues, rock and other roots music — to Rochester’s Eastman Theatre. The evening’s lineup includes beloved songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, soul singer Janiva Magness and Rochester Music Hall of Famers John Ellison and Joe Beard.
With regard to the performance’s local connection, Mattea was excited to bring Ellison — the man who wrote the iconic Soul Brothers Six song “Some Kind of Wonderful” — back to “Mountain Stage.”
“This will be the third time he’s been on since I’ve been hosting, and I just love the guy,” Mattea said. “I mean, he’s just freakin’ amazing.”
For his part, Beard isn’t sure how he got the opportunity to play “Mountain Stage,” but he thinks Ellison had something to do with it. The two musicians have been friends for many years; Beard even played bass in the soul band Lincoln Continental with Ellison as its singer, prior to the formation of Soul Brothers Six.
And while the duo has toured across the country over the years, Beard’s connection to the Flower City has remained strong.
“Rochester has (always) been the place I wanted to be,” he said.
“Mountain Stage” performances always close with Mattea bringing all the featured artists together to play a final song. She often finds the way each artist takes turns on lead vocals particularly meaningful.
“You throw the verses around, and everyone’s voice is so different,” she said. “And so you get to hear everybody, all these different voices singing in the same song — and it’s thrilling to hear that.”
Mattea added that each person’s vocal contribution can lead the audience to interpret the same song in multiple ways; emblematic of the power that “Mountain Stage” has to reach its audiences with artists previously unfamiliar to them.
“There is so much great music going on in the world that I was not aware of, and you get that in one song,” she said. “But that’s what the show’s given me. I’ve just become a fangirl of all kinds of people.”
At the beginning of Mattea’s tenure as “Mountain Stage” host, Groce shared an eye-opening insight about why the show is important to artists and audiences alike.
“He said, ‘Kathy, you know, I’m not a fan of every single act that we book on the show,’” Mattea recalled. “‘But every act has a constituency. Every act has done work to build a following to a certain point, and they deserve the chance to widen that scope.”
A native of Charleston, West Virginia, Mattea has enjoyed a highly acclaimed career as a country singer-songwriter, having been CMA’s Female Vocalist of the Year in both 1989 and 1990 and the winner of two Grammy Awards.
Hosting “Mountain Stage” has allowed Mattea to see the industry from another angle.
“For once in my life, it’s not all about me,” she said. “It’s about shining light on other people’s music. It’s just about music and love. I wanna spend my time doing that kind of thing.”
The full “Mountain Stage” March 21 lineup is John Ellison, Joe Beard, Janiva Magness, Ali McGurk, Dan Navarro and Loudon Wainwright III. The live concert will be produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed by NPR. Show is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25-$99. esm.rochester.edu/theatre
Daniel J. Kushner is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
