Since 2005, NPR’s Mountain Stage concert series has trekked to Athens, bringing with it some of the best up-and-coming artists.
“People are continuing to seek out sources for good music because there is so much out there,” said Adam Harris, executive producer for Mountain Stage Radio Show. “Over our 30-year history, a lot of people think of Mountain Stage as being a harborer of taste, and a lot of people hold us to that.”
Though concertgoers might be unfamiliar with all the artists on the lineup for Sunday’s concert at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, Harris said that most people walk away having found a new artist they enjoy.
This year’s lineup features Doug Paisley, Lucero, Rodney Crowell, The Lost Brothers and Sara Watkins — a longtime friend of the program going back to her days in the band Silver Creek.
Watkins opened for Jackson Browne during the summer with her brother Sean Watkins and joined Browne onstage for backing vocals and fiddle work.
Grammy-winner Rodney Crowell also has a long history of working with legendary artists in the singer-songwriter world. On his newest album, Kin, he works with renowned artists Norah Jones, Vince Gill, Lucinda Williams, LeeAnn Womack, Roseanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Emmylou Harris.
“(Rodney Crowell) writes a lot of songs,” said Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center. “His breath and reach in the singer-songwriter field is pretty big, especially in country, whether he sings them or writes them for other artists.”
Not all the artists coming to Mountain Stage have high accolades, though.
“Something that’s going to blow people away is going to be this band called The Lost Brothers from Ireland,” Harris said. “I look for big things to happen for them, and we’re lucky to have gotten them.”
The Lost Brothers are on their first proper tour of the United States, though it’s only one month long. A duo that sports folky harmonies and meaningful lyrics, The Lost Brothers’ newest album, Passing Of The Night, expresses the band’s recent encounters with death in the members’ lives.
wh092010@ohiou.edu
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Mountain Stage Concert Series
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium
ADMISSION: $25 first 10 rows, $10 remaining rows
