One of my favorite things about living in Charleston, WV is Mountain Stage. For approximately $15 dollars a ticket and a short 10 minute drive, I can enjoy awesome artists from all over the world. Most shows I go to have someone scheduled that I already know of and like and by the time I leave the show, I've learned several new artists and have had the opportunity to meet them and buy a CD. I usually only buy the CD at the event if I am REALLY into the artist, otherwise, I look up my favorites on itunes and buy a few choice songs.

A couple summers ago I lost both of my granpas and spent most of my mourning time listening to music and searching for some kind of answer. Of those artistis, the top two were Karine Polwart and Antje Duvekot.  Karine is awesome and I suggest you check her out - she is a Scottish songwriter who is more talented than I can describe. You can buy her songs on itunes or check her website out at http://www.karinepolwart.com/ where she has a couple songs you can download for free. I actually emailed Karen on MySpace to tell her how inspirational and helpful her music has been to me and she wrote me back! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see her play on Mountain Stage.

Even though Karine has yet to play here in Appalachia, I was so very excited when I heard Antje Duvekot would be playing with a few other singer songwriters that I also enjoy on their Winterbloom Tour. I felt like a big dork because I was all nervous when talking to Antje, Meg Hutchinson, Natalia Zukerman and Anne Heaton after the show, but they were all really nice. They are all so talented and I already listened to them individually, so it was pretty cool to find out that they are all actually friends and make music together. Needless to say, the whole show was amazing and I especially loved the songs from the Winterbloom album. I've been meaning to write about the show and turn my RAW images into JPG images for some time now - the show was December 18th. I bought their CD and they all signed it and even though Antje only put one R in my name, I am still happy to have had the chance to see them all play together. I actually saw Antje play once in Indiana and she remembered me, so that was pretty nice too.

Thanks Mountain Stage. I already have my (awesome) tickets for the Ani Difranco show and Erin McKeown is going to be there too!

If you live in WV and even have to drive a couple hours to make it, Mountain Stage is definitely a live show you don't want to miss.


Antje!