Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium was filled with fiddles and foot-tapping last night for the second Mountain Stage live radio recording of the quarter.
The show, presented by the Performing Arts Series and WOUB Radio network, featured country great Alison Kraus and Union Station band as well as several other renowned and newer artists.
Grammy award-winning instrumentalist and Ohio native Jerry Douglas and band started the show on his Dobro slide guitar playing songs from his new album, Best Kept Secret, which is no longer our best kept secret
he said. He ended his set with a fast-paced number that bluegrass people can really sink their teeth into.
Singer/songwriter Amy Rigby, who describes her music as real-life lyrics with rock and pop and country got the audience hooting with laughter at her sprightly take on relationships. Though I Don't Want To Talk About Love No More is the first release from Little Fugitive, her fifth album, she has plenty of unique things to say about love. During a song prefaced as a celebration of long-term relationships
she sang: Are we ever gonna have sex again? Screw making love. It's way too ambitious.
You'd be nervous if you were dating her
said Larry Groce, artistic director and host of the show, after her performance.
Rigby, who lives in Cleveland, was doubling her visit to Athens with touring the college for her daughter, a high school senior. Rigby was impressed with the beautiful campus. Forget her
I wanna go here! she said.
Wowing the crowd with her haunting harmonies, songwriter Julie Lee and her Nashville band opened the second hour. Athens resident Missy LeMaster thought Lee's music had a soul twang to it, almost like Billie Holiday, she said.
There's a wonderful spirit about this show and this place
Lee said.
The airy, distinct voice of Allison Kraus, 33, accompanied by her fiddle, was the grand finale of the show, ending with a rendition of Man of Constant Sorrow as the audience clapped along. Kraus and Union Station were then joined by the rest of the cast for a final song, followed by a standing ovation.
Kraus first appeared on a Mountain Stage broadcast in 1991 when she was just a teenager. Since then, she's matured, with 17 Grammy Awards and several Country Music Association Awards on her shelf. Kraus has been featured as an instrumentalist and a vocalist for several artists of different genres and most recently released her 10th studio-recorded album, Lonely Runs Both Ways, which already reached gold status.
Athens resident and bluegrass fan George Cady was first in line to get tickets for the show, which sold out at $25 a piece after six hours of sales. A select few seats in the front row were $40.
Everybody was incredible
Cady said.
Though the show often features big names, it depends on good music, not stars, Groce said.
A second Mountain Stage performance this year was scheduled in order to accommodate the amount of fans Allison Kraus would bring in, said Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Ohio University Office of Public Occasions. The show will be broadcast in a few weeks.
Mountain Stage is a National Public Radio weekly show that airs in 26 states and can be heard every Saturday on WOUB. Mountain Stage, which usually records for a live studio audience in Charleston, W. Va., likes to come to Athens, a great music town
Groce said. They will be returning in the spring with artists yet to be announced.
Hopefully this is a relationship that will continue for many years
Holzaepfel said.
