When we were planning a road trip in early 2020 I realized we'd be passing right near Charleston, West Virginia, and of course that made me think of the radio show, Mountain Stage. This has been around for years and has had some fantastic musical acts. I checked out their page and saw that no, they wouldn't be doing a show when we planned to cruise by there, but I saw that they'd be doing an "on the road" show in Boston in December! I kept checking back for when tickets would go on sale and must have missed it by a significant amount, but I was still able to get tickets to their December 4th show at the Berklee Performance Center, in the middle of the first balcony. In the meantime they announced that Kathy Mattea would be hosting (she's taken over from the long-time host, Larry Groce), and that Roseanne Cash, Loudon Wainwright III, Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, and Ali McGuirk would be performing. We were very excited to say the least.
Unfortunately, Dave had a stomach bug that Sunday, but Sarah and I drove into town right before the show, got a parking space on Boylston in front of the Hynes, and trundled on over on a not-really-cold evening. Found our place in the center of the balcony and gawked at the stage set. This was definitely a radio show, not a concert, and most of the stage was taken up by equipment of various types, most of it dedicated to recording the experience and shaping the radio sound. For instance, the grand piano was draped with a heavy blanket and mikes were sticking underneath the blanket, the drums were almost hidden by a set of wood piers, and there was a table for the hosts with a lamp on it out in the open, where they could signal to the performers.
The crowd was worth commenting on too, it was old! Maybe my inability to get great tickets was because most of the people there seemed to be subscribers who were there to see a Berklee thing, not necessarily Mountain Stage fanboys. The average age was possibly older than me and Sarah, and Dave would have stuck out like a sore thumb. There was plenty of polite applause from the almost-full crowd, and everybody seemed to be familiar with Mattea (whom we've seen at Berklee before) and Cash. But Tuttle and McGuirk were exotic.
Anyway, Kathy opened the show with her executive producer and they read the Mountain Stage intro I've heard a million times, with an excellent piano player rinky-tinkling along behind. Possibly my biggest impression from the show was the talent and professionalism shown by the Mountain Stage band, who hit every cue and played every note beautifully, though their sound was not projected into the hall as would be the case for a concert.
Molly and her band (Bronwyn Keith-Hynes on fiddle, Kyle Tuttle on banjo, Shelby Means on bass, and Dominick Leslie on mandolin) came on first, right as the intro was ending, and proceeded to play an excellent short set of the songs you might expect for a national performance:
- She'll Change
- Sidesaddle
- Castilleja
- Crooked Tree
- Dooley's Farm
- White Freightliner Blues
Molly is just a wonder on guitar. We'd seen them play all these songs before and they did them as smoothly as you might expect, but when Molly takes a break you shut up and listen. Dominick was as slyly excellent as always, and Bronwyn is a pretty impressive musician herself. Shelby duetted with Molly on Sidesaddle of course and gave it a nice country swing. They jammed a bit on the fantastic Castilleja, and the crowd started stirring in their seats. Jamgrass did not seem to be their first language.
Too short a set to my taste, but this was a radio show, and we all behaved and clapped when the "applause" light lit and stopped when it went off. Next up was Kathy, who's a bit of a nervous musician, picking up the guitar and singing Bobby Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe. You could have heard a pin drop on this, the audience was so well behaved and was enjoying it so much.. The stage band really shone on this one as well, highlighted by a great harmonica solo. Kathy exhaled in relief after it was done, she hadn't blown it and in fact she was great!
Loudon Wainwright III was up next and he played solo and was about as entertaining, or not, as I expected. He started on guitar and talked up what a non-mainstream guy he was, then proceeded to prove it with a song with a few f-bombs, at which the crowd tittered on cue. He read an excerpt from his recent book, picked up the banjo and did a very mail-it-in, talking blues thing on the The Swimming Song, and then closed with another short song.
Ali McGuirk was up next and brought an indie vibe with an excellent electric bassist, lead guitar, and drums. The drummer was on that riser hidden way up in the back though, and could barely see the other band members. The interplay between the guitars and the bass was pretty good, but her songs are kind of moody and self-indulgent. She could use a rocker or two.
OK, time for the main act! I could hear one woman nearby complain that the concert was supposed to be over by 9 and here it was 9 and they were still playing. There were plenty of dead air moments that slowed down the production while they changed setups between the bands, trying to squeeze them into the bit of space at the front of the stage they were trying to preserve for the actual talent. I may sound like I'm complaining but actually I was loving it. I was finally seeing the show I'd been listening to for years and was appreciating every awkward minute, as well as the many, many very smooth ones. The show will air on NPR stations in the week of December 16th, they told us.
They had a hard time getting Roseanne's band set up right and Kevin Barry(!), way over on the right, was still fumbling with switches and his stuff all through the set. John Leventhal at far left got his three electrics set up first, but just stuck to the one guitar he knew was sounding right. Kevin had an electric guitar, an acoustic, and a lap steel and managed to excel, I've heard him play with many bands and he's always great. Roseanne was right in the middle shaping the notes with her hands in her charming way, and strumming a few tunes when John gave her a chance. But as when we've seen them before, her name is on the marquee and she's the boss! They also had a drummer way up in back, a very good keyboardist, and a guy on electric bass.
After a nice introduction by Kathy, they opened with A Feather's Not a Bird, covered The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, did some early Roseanne hits including Blue Moon With Heartache (they take winning Grammies very seriously at Berklee), and closed with Seven Year Ache, on which Barry did some great lap steel. What a set, but again too short! She's an American treasure and the crowd really loved her.
They re-shuffled the set for the last song (Will the Circle Be Unbroken) and brought out Larry Groce to sing a verse. Kathy started it off and conducted, making sure that every piece in the Mountain Stage band got a solo and that every one of the headliners (excepting Wainwright, thank Dog) got a verse. You'd think that Ali with her emo-laden sound would have killed the "But I could not hide my sorrow" verse, but she acted like she'd never heard the song before. But things turned around when Kathy called out Molly for the next verse and she sang the "Missed my mother, she was gone" verse like a true bluegrass singer should. No problem projecting her voice through the whole BPC here!
OK, that was the last song and the crowd put on their expensive coats (one guy in front of us was actually wearing a suit) and filed out. That was really a lot of fun, though it was not your normal concert experience. We got back to the Hynes pretty quickly and then navigated through some Sunday-night closures back home. I'd love to do it again, especially if they have acts like Molly and Roseanne.
