Post by: Rebecca Burch
Town: Spencer
Website: Carpe You Some Diem!

This is going to sound really odd coming from a middle-aged art teacher and mother of four, probably, but I’m going to post this, anyway.

I love the sound of a hotrod engine.

I know, I know… these cars are gas hogs, unnecessary driving is bad for the environment, and they’re a nuisance driving through your neighborhood … I know. But to me, the sound of a really well-tuned muscle car is a beautiful thing.

My husband, Mike, bought a 1966 Ford Mustang as a kid — yes, before he was old enough to drive it — with money earned from working in his father’s movie theater . Since then, he’s been building and tweaking to get every last little bit of horsepower out of the thing, and now the little red Mustang is a force to be reckoned with. The sound it makes is amazing — when it idles, it has this low growl, and then as it gets ready to take off, it literally roars like some sort of mechanical dragon! It’s not the whine of a modern sportscar; it’s the sound of pure power. You can’t NOT love it. Don’t even ask me engine specs and details — I have no clue. I just love the sound it makes when it’s ready to go, and I know how much work has gone into this thing. SO many hours of tweaking and grinding and doing the math and reworking systems have gone into getting even the most minute time gain at the track.

Well, okay … there are times when I would appreciate a “mute” button on the old ‘Stang … especially when I’ve just put the baby down for a nap and the guys are all working on their cars in the driveway. And after a day at the racetrack, I do welcome the silence of the ride home. This noise does have a downside. As much as I love it, there are times that the noise can be too much. But I’ll take it. I am looking forward to the racing season that is just starting up, and I know we’ll have fun at the track this year. The weather is warm and the hotrodders are already starting to congregate at my house to compare progress made during the cold months and plan trips to the track. The kids are chomping at the bit to go see Daddy race again. And I’m looking forward to spending some time outdoors with my family watching the culmination of all the work my husband and his friends have put into these machines of pure strength and beauty. Putnam County, here we come!

Link to Kanawha Valley Motorsports Park.

WV Hotrod

Bob Coffield, who writes the Health Care Law Blog, has posted an excellent entry for the PWV topic of Sounds. Please visit his excellent blog to learn more about Charleston’s FestivALL.

Also, in response to Moneytastesbad’s previous post on Mountain Stage, Bob pointed out that podcasts for some of the Mountain Stage archives are now available at the Charleston Gazette’s entertainment website, TheGazz.com.

Post by: Moneytastesbad
Town: Morgantown
Website: The 30-Year-Old Freshman

Mountain Stage — WV’s best little secret

REM

Richard Thompson

Regina Spektor

They Might Be Giants

Billy Bragg

Ralph Stanley

Yonder Mountain String Band

I could go on, but I will stop now.

Post by: Susan Chipley
Town: Morgantown
Website: Chez Mama

I’m sure most people reading this have heard of Jesco White, the “Dancing Outlaw.” His father, D. Ray White, was a legendary mountain dancer. Jesco aspired to be the same, and he has been to some extent. Jesco has lived a difficult life, and struggled to overcome poverty and addiction. He has become reasonably famous, as he has been featured on two documentaries made for Public Television. Sometimes I think that many of the Hollywood-types have exploited Jesco and used him to perpetuate the typical West Virginia and Appalachian stereotypes–something that we West Virginians have to continue to fight to overcome.

Cousin Wildweed wrote a song about Jesco, “The Ballad of Jesco White”. Here’s a video of that song, performed by Peckerwood. I’m not sure if it is actually Jesco dancing in the video or not, as the face is a bit blurry. His moves definitely remind me of Jesco, though!

Post by: Bryan Stealey
Town: Morgantown
Website: Reversing the Numbness

I love music, as anyone who ever visits my Friday Music posts will know. (If you’re the same way, consider swinging by RtN and helping make a weekly play list. It’s an open invitation.) While I don’t make it out to see local live music like I used to, I still like thinking about some of the bands I was into in college in the early to mid-’90s. I love when I find traces of this music on the internet.

Here’s a video of the Joint Chiefs from 1995. These guys were hugely popular back in the day and just did a little three-show reunion tour in Morgantown, Charleston, and Huntington (I believe) a few weeks ago.

I was very stoked to find out that Steve Rubin, the guitar player from rock-hip-hoppers Circle 6, has posted all of Circle 6’s recordings online at Eight Track Mind. Go listen! With Steve on guitar and the incomparable Billy Resh on the mic, Circle 6 always put on an awesome show in a similar vein to Rage Against the Machine (but with a little more rap). At one point Steve and I had a big plan to get some guys together and do a show covering both albums of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but we never did get around to it.

Eric Lewis and I did play a lot of Pink Floyd, but it was his gigs with his band Once Hush that I remember the best. He was my roommate and the guys in the band were some of my best college friends, so I probably saw this group a hundred times. I never felt like they got the credit they deserved, because they were all fantastic musicians and they wrote really good pop songs. You can hear some of their stuff on the Once Hush MySpace page. Eric and singer/guitarist Greg Riordan are still making great music.

So many other bands, I can hardly remember them all. Rasta Rafiki. Jolly Gargoyle. The Karl Shuman Band. Lester James and the White Flames. The Recipe. The Groove Tubes. The Tide (featuring Eric Hopper). Todd Burge (who’s still the pride of West Virginia) and his bands 63 Eyes and Triple Shot. Brian Porterfield (also still going strong with his band The Love Me Knots). Sandra Black.

That’s just the beginning of the massive collection of quality bands that graced Morgantown in the early to mid-’90s. Dozens — probably hundreds — of bands have come and gone through this town since, and I missed out on most of them. I think I got to see The Argument once before they broke up, and the same goes for The Emergency, though I think they’re still together. I’ve seen one-man punk band J. Marinelli a couple of times, and Billy Matheney and the Frustrations as well. I’m sure there are excellent bands in this town I don’t even know about.

I’ll end with one more Youtube video of one Morgantown’s most world-renowned bands, Karma to Burn. They’re no longer together, but their legacy of instrumental rock lives on in fans across the globe.