If you are looking for a nostalgic way to listen to music, tune into the “Mountain Stage” radio show. On April 2, the radio show based out of West Virginia performed at the D.P. Culp University Center auditorium.
The lineup for the night included a variety of music ranging from New Orleans style jazz to hard-driving Bluegrass.
The bands that performed were Band of Ruhks, Bumper Jacksons, The Claire Lynch Band, Otis Gibbs and ETSU’s own Bluegrass Pride Band.
Audience member Marat Moore said she had listened to “Mountain Stage” before the night’s performance.
“I like that it brings forth artists that you are not aware of and you hear music that you want to hear later,” Moore said. “The other thing I love is that it’s from West Virginia. It’s done a lot for West Virginia, and it’s really brought the state into the national spotlight.”
While the radio show offered a good variety of music, the audience enjoyed the ETSU Pride Band.
“I had heard about ‘Mountain Stage’ years and years ago,” Pride Band’s fiddle player Aynsley Porchak said. “I’d always wanted to play on it. What an honor it is to play on it with other acts that I’ve listened to for years.”
The ETSU Pride Band has played in many different venues but none like a live radio show.
“I haven’t really done a show quite the same as this, one that had such live broadcasting,” Porchak said. “This is a totally different opportunity.”
Though the Pride Band was playing on campus, it took a lot of work to get on “Mountain Stage.”
Dan Boner, the director of the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music studies, said the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts requested that the Pride Band play on the broadcast.
“Of course we had to send in our current material, press release, and bios so that way they could review it,” Boner said. “It wasn’t just that we are here and that they’re going to let us play.”
Overall, the audience enjoyed the laid back and home-style feeling of the “Mountain Stage” radio show.
“I enjoyed the astonishing variety,” Marat said. “I learned a lot about some of these groups. I enjoyed The Bumper Jacksons as well as the ETSU Pride Band … That’s the first time I’d seen them live!”
