Mountain Stage with Larry Groce

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Just added: John Németh & The Blue Dreamers! Nominated for the 2017 Blues Music Award – B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. PLUS Edward David Anderson.

Join us for the first live recording of “Mountain Stage with Larry Groce” to take place in Marietta, Ohio!

For more than 30 years “Mountain Stage with Larry Groce” has been the home of live music on public radio. The two-hour radio show is produced in West Virginia and distributed by National Public Radio weekly on more than 150 stations across America and around the world via NPR Music and mountainstage.org. The show, which is recorded before a live audience, features performances by seasoned legends and emerging stars in genres ranging from folk, blues and country to indie rock, synth pop, world and alternative music, and beyond.

Singer/songwriter Larry Groce serves as the show’s host, artistic director and co-producer. The Mountain Stage house band includes jazz pianist Bob Thompson, vocalist Julie Adams, bass player Steve Hill, drummer Ammed Solomon and guitarists Michael Lipton and Ryan Kennedy. The band is directed by Ron Sowell.

Peoples Bank Theatre and Mountain Stage with Larry Groce are excited to announce four of the guests for the radio show’s first appearance in the Pioneer City on April 9: John Németh & The Blue Dreamers, Edward David Anderson, Shemekia Copeland, Bridget Kearney, and The T Sisters.

John Németh

John Németh had already established himself among the very top ranks of blues musicians and modern soul singers when he decided to break the mold with his new record, FEELIN’ FREAKY. Németh fearlessly crushes all barriers of style and genre with an album of original songs that defies all the usual pigeonholes. Drawing from his strong influences in blues and R&B, as well as contemporary sounds in hip hop and rock & roll, John creates music that is personal as well as universal, and owes its origin to no one but John Németh. John’s songs are groove and melody-driven, laced with thoughtful lyrics and nuanced humor, and cover themes from social issues of gun violence and class values to the pure hedonistic joy of dancing, sexuality and marijuana. He creates his songs from melodies and phrases he draws from the sounds of life, from early-morning Memphis songbirds to the din of the city. For this album John brought his new songs to his great touring band, the Blue Dreamers – Danny Banks on drums, Matthew Wilson on bass and guitar, and Johnny Rhodes on guitar.

Edward David Anderson

Edward David Anderson is one of music’s modern makers, a rock & roll veteran who spent his formative years fronting the revered Midwest band, Backyard Tire Fire. Known for infectious melodies and memorable messages Anderson penned 8 albums for the band and played countless shows across the US and Canada. Their eventual hiatus fostered his solo debut, Lies & Wishes (2014, Royal Potato Family) working with friend and Grammy winning producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.  A serendipitous move south in 2013 introduced him to ‘Lower Alabama’ where he found the culture and beaches provided reprieve from life on the road and a second home. He quickly immersed himself into the rich and welcoming LA music scene where he met producer Anthony Crawford (Neil Young, Willie Sugarcapps) and recorded Lower Alabama: The Loxley Sessions over the winter of 2014. The album floats melodiously on rivers of fiddle and clouds of pedal steel, on gentle acoustic guitars and hints of piano, dusted with some ghostly guitar from Will Kimbrough and striking vocal harmony by Crawford’s wife, singer Savana Lee. The nine-song collection steps firmly into the Americana world and was hailed “A wonderfully soulful record” by David Dye (NPR’s World Cafe) and “A simply infectious album” by No Depression.

Shemekia Copeland

Whether she’s belting out a raucous blues-rocker, firing up a blistering soul-shouter, bringing the spirit to a gospel-fueled R&B rave-up or digging deep down into a subtle, country-tinged ballad, Shemekia Copeland sounds like no one else. This month, Shemekia was nominated as the 38th Annual Blues Music Award’s Contemporary Blues Female Artist. Shemekia won that same category in 2016 after the release of Outskirts of Love. Her acclaimed eighth album, released by Alligator Records in September 2015, was also nominated for a Grammy Award.

The Chicago Tribune says Copeland delivers “gale force singing and power” with a “unique, gutsy style, vibrant emotional palette and intuitive grasp of the music.” NPR Music calls her “fiercely expressive.” She has sung with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, James Cotton and opened for The Rolling Stones.

Bridget Kearney

Over the past 12 years, Bridget Kearney has toured the world as the bassist of the soul pop sensation Lake Street Dive. An incredibly versatile musician, Kearney has always been voraciously collaborative, dabbling in chamber pop with the Brooklyn group Cuddle Magic, bluegrass with the now defunct Boston outfit Joy Kills Sorrow, and Ghanian music as part of a duo with fellow songwriter Benjamin Lazar Davis. A past winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, this year Kearney steps into the spotlight with her first solo effort, a wry, big-hearted pop album titled Won’t Let You Down, scheduled for release in March.

T Sisters

The T Sisters, born and raised in California and now based in the creative hub of Oakland, embody harmony. It’s in their blood, bones, and history. Erika, Rachel and Chloe have been singing and writing music together since childhood. Their sound represents a continuum of music, from traditional to pop influences, moments of breathtaking a cappella to swells of energetic indie Americana. The T Sisters have appeared at Merlefest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Music City Roots, and Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, among others.

Stay tuned as more artists will be announced in the coming weeks. Mountain Stage is produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed by NPR Music. The event will be recorded for broadcast later this year via 200 NPR stations nationwide.