Tag: music journalism
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Getting Over: The Disgraced W.Va. Gospel Music Promoter Who Found Redemption in Indie Wrestling
This story was published on 100 Days in Appalachia on July 30, 2019. The sound of twanging electric guitars fills the Madison Civic Center, a small gymnasium in the heart of southern West Virginia’s coalfields. It’s “Ride Stallion Ride,” the entrance music for WWE Hall of Fame inductee Cowboy Bob Orton. The 300 fans seated […]
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The making of Robert C. Byrd’s “Mountain Fiddler”
This story originally appeared in the July 6, 2010 edition of the Charleston Daily Mail. In all of the obituaries written about the late Sen. Robert Byrd over the last week, there’s one detail nearly everyone made sure to include alongside his political victories and infamous missteps—his love of traditional mountain music. A longtime fiddler […]
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Carnival of Soles
This story originally appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail on Wednesday, May 7, 2012. Jina Jordan has held several jobs in her life. She owned a cleaning business and then worked as a pizza dough maker at Gino’s Pizza in Sissonville. She drives cars for the St. Albans Auction and repairs purses and leather jackets at […]
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How Gillian Welch Created an Americana Touchstone in ‘Revival’
This is an excerpt of a story that first appeared online at Rolling Stone Country on November 10, 2016. Read the rest of the story here. Early afternoons were pretty quiet at the Lyric Springs Country Inn. The previous night’s guests usually left in the morning, headed for home or into Nashville about 20 miles away. […]
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Making the Stage
This story originally appeared in the summer 2016 issue of WV Living magazine. Arrive late to a show at the Jerry Run Summer Theater and you can hear the music as soon as you open the car door. Low frequencies seep from the uninsulated walls, drawing you along the worn grass path toward the green front doors. Inside, after you’ve paid the $5 […]
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Singer Todd Snider feels at home on ‘Mountain Stage’
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014. My conversation with songwriter Todd Snider started off pretty normal. Normal, at least, considering Snider’s confessed love of psychedelic drugs. We talked about Snider’s upcoming appearance on this Sunday’s “Mountain Stage.” It’s his 15th time on the show, and he […]
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Roots Town Radio goes silent after internal struggles
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Oct. 28, 2014. A little more than six weeks after it went on the air, Charleston’s first community radio station is nothing but static. The community radio station collapsed in a heap of dysfunction. Burr Beard, 95.7 FM WXDB’s vice-president and station manager, moved […]
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Farnsworth, a band born under a bad sign
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. “Live it” has become a mantra for Charleston blues-rock duo Farnsworth. It’s the name of group’s first full-length album, which will be released this Saturday. But “Live it” is also what guitarist Chris Vance and drummer Jason Reese tell one […]
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Friends keep jazz musician’s memory alive with nonprofit group
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on June 19, 2014. Bryan Boyd remembers everything about the last gig he played with Derick Kirk. Boyd had booked a gig at Soho’s at the Capitol Market and asked Kirk to come along and play keyboards. He showed up looking white as a sheet, […]