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.

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

They keep changing our landscape, to put more change in their pockets. Something’s got to change. I think we’ll have to change first.

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My friend Becky Kimmons sings (beautifully) in an a capella group now called BareBones, but formerly known as Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet. (There are only three members. Get it?) She gave me permission to use this amazing recording of “The West Virginia Hills,” off their Stirring It Up album. The photos are used with permission by Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, a group out of Huntington intent on stopping mountain-top removal. Thanks very much to both Becky and Vivian for allowing me to use these materials for this little slideshow. I’m no filmmaker, but I don’t think the stark contrast between this beautiful song and these haunting images needs much work on my part anyway.

Props out to my Clarksburg friend Eric Lewis, who felt inspired by this fledgling blog and decided to record a song of the same name. Check it out here: “Picture West Virginia”

Thanks, Eric! Speaking of music, I’d like to invite everyone over to my personal blog (Reversing the Numbness) for this week’s edition of Friday Music, where my buddy Clash is guest-hosting. Have a band you love telling people about? Or maybe you’re looking for new music? Friday Music is a good spot for both.

Finally, there’s still time to submit posts for the first week’s topic, My Town. Also note the upcoming topics to the left — I hope more of you will participate next week!