Birthplace of Country Music Brings Mountain Stage Back to Bristol

The Robert Cray Band, The Flatlanders, Robin and Linda Williams, Riley Baugus, and Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson are featured artists when the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance brings Mountain Stage back to historic downtown Bristol on Sunday, August 16 at The Paramount Center for the Arts to record its weekly radio program.

“We are excited about the line‐up that Birthplace of Country Music Alliance and Mountain Stage have put together for this show in Bristol,” noted Bill Hartley, Executive Director of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance. The performers for the August 16 show display a diversity of styles and talents, ranging from contemporary to traditional and points in between, which represent the roots and branches of the region’s musical heritage.  “The addition of Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson demonstrate the international reach of our region’s musical heritage,” noted Hartley.

This show is sponsored by Alpha Natural Resources, City of Bristol Tennessee, Dent K. Burk Associates PC, Bristol Herald Courier, WCYB, WETS, and WXBQ.  Additional support is provided by Courtyard Marriott Bristol, Virginia Commission for the Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, and National Endowment for the Arts.

The radio show taping will be held on Sunday, August 16 at the Paramount Center for the Arts at 7:00 pm.  Ticket prices for the evening are $25 and are available at the Paramount Center for the Arts box office at 423.274.8920 or visit www.theparamountcenter.com or www.e‐tix.com  The $25 ticket price is a reduction over past Mountain Stage tapings in consideration of today’s economic climate. Now in its 26th year, this will be the 700th show produced by Mountain Stage, a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.  A two‐hour radio show recorded before a live audience, Mountain Stage has established a long tradition of featuring national and international acts in almost every style of music.  Mountain Stage can be heard weekly on over 100 National Public Radio affiliates throughout the United States, Voice of America, and XM satellite radio. The television program has been carried on over 200 PBS stations nationwide.  Since coming to Bristol ‐just 4 years ago ‐Mountain Stage has produced 4 radio shows and 6 HDTV releases that originated from Bristol and the Paramount Theatre, reaching millions of listeners and viewers across the nation and throughout the world.

Artists include: 

Robert Cray Band ‐ For thirty‐plus years Robert Cray has laid down track after track of good‐ time, uptown, low‐down blues.  He's won five Grammys and been nominated for 11 more, inspired critics to praise his soulful vocal and instrumental artistry, earned respect from his peers, and sent young guitarists running back to the woodshed.  He played the bassist in the fictional band Otis Day and the Knights in 1978’s movie Animal House.  His latest album, The Robert Cray Band: Live From Across The Pond, is his first full‐length concert CD.

The Flatlanders ‐ Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock have been friends for almost 40 years, and members of that not‐really‐a‐band, life‐of‐its‐own musical entity known as The Flatlanders for nearly as long.  Thirty‐seven years after their first recording project together The Flatlanders have released Hills And Valleys.  Blending their own unique styles, the album’s general theme is “the ups and downs, emotionally, of peoples’ lives these days.” 

Robin & Linda Williams ‐ Robin and Linda Williams are like your next‐door neighbors ‐ assuming your neighbors are the salt‐of‐the‐earth and top‐flight performers to boot.  You feel right at home at a Robin and Linda concert, and their music stays with you like an old friend.  Favorites of fans and promoters alike, they have crisscrossed the continent (and beyond) for more than three decades, performing the tunes they love and a hearty blend of bluegrass, folk, old‐time and acoustic country.  They are first‐class instrumentalists and superb songwriters, able to, as The Washington Post put it, "sum up a life in a few details with moving completeness."

Riley Baugus - Riley Baugus represents the best of old time American banjo and song.  His powerful singing voice and his expert musicianship place him squarely in the next generation of the quality American roots tradition.  Riley was part of the  Academy Award-winning film “Cold Mountain,” and a contributor to the 2008 Grammy award winning Album of the Year, “Raising Sand”, the multimillion selling album by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant  His 2006 recording, “Long Steel Rail” (Sugar Hill Records), produced by Tim O’Brien and Dirk Powell, appeared to critical acclaim. Riley has taught at camps and festivals around the world and makes his home near Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Kasey Chambers ‐ is an Australian alternative country singer‐songwriter, daughter of steel guitar player Bill Chambers, sister of musician and producer Nash Chambers.  Joining her is husband Australian singer‐songwriter Shane Nicholson.  Chambers has won many awards over the years with the most recent being a nomination for she and Nicholson by CMAA as Group or Duo of the Year in 2009.  In 2009 the duo won single of the year for Rattlin’ Bones (CMAA), video clip of the year for Rattlin’ Bones (CMAA), and highest selling album of the year for Rattlin’ Bones (CMAA).

The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance is a non‐profit organization dedicated to telling the story of the living musical heritage of the Appalachian mountains and the cultural traditions that sustain it.  The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance is funded in part by grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  For more information, call (276) 645‐0111 or visit online at www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org