Mountain Music Man

Linda Burton posting from Charleston, West Virginia – Larry Groce has been busy this month. On March 11 Larry and Charleston Mayor Danny Jones announced the lineup for this year’s FestivALL 2013; Larry has been Executive Director of the event since 2005. “This is a special year…as we celebrate 150 years as West Virginia; the state’s sesquicentennial on June 20 is followed by 10 days of our FestivALL,” he said. “We have been working closely with state leaders, the Sesquicentennial Commission, and entertainers with connections to West Virginia to make this year’s event a major celebration. It adds up to 10 days, 130 events and 350 performances.” That kind of planning would be enough to keep anyone head over heels, but that’s not all Larry has been doing. Larry is host and artistic director of Mountain Stage – Where Musicians Come To Play, a two-hour live music program produced by West Virginia Public Radio and distributed nationally and internationally by NPR and Voice of America’s satellite radio service. And he’s been doing that for every broadcast since 1983, when he and Andy Ridenour co-founded the show. I’ve been following Mountain Stage for years; it’s recorded before a live audience at venues all over the world, but usually at the Culture Center Theater in downtown Charleston. And that’s where it was broadcasting tonight (how lucky am I?), but it was Rats! and Double Darn when the weatherman said SNOW was coming in; I was too chicken to venture out. Sadly (Rats!) I didn’t see Larry Groce and the Mountain Stage crew in action; but I consoled myself “with the radio on” all afternoon listening to the broadcast of last December’s show with Robert Cray; tonight’s show with Loudoun Wainwright III and Grammy-winner Paula Cole will be broadcast after May 24. » read more