Published: November 19, 2006 11:00 pm         

Mountain Stage radio

Beckley couple plays for show at Tamarack

Dreams sometimes do come true.

That was the case for Beckley native Doug Harper, as he and his wife Shelley stepped on stage as performers on the famous Mountain Stage radio show at Tamarack Sunday night.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do for many years,” said Harper, who said probably 30 friends and family members were in the audience for the show.

The guitar player and singer, whose wife Shelley provides backing vocals, was just one of six acts who took the stage to tape the radio show which is broadcast on radio stations across the country.

Harper was not the only one whose dreams were fulfilled Sunday night, as Mountain Stage producer Andy Ridenour, says several members of the Alaska-based bluegrass quartet Bearfoot had also long aspired to be part of the show.

“They said they grew up listening to it,” Ridenour said, adding a radio rigged to a car battery enabled the musicians to tune in.

Sunday’s show marked the fourth time Mountain Stage, now in its 20th year of broadcast, has visited Tamarack.

Cindy Whitlock, marketing director for Tamarack, says Mountain Stage always gets a great response when the show visits town.

“It’s the perfect match for Tamarack,” she said, adding the show has sold out each year. “We’re both selling the best of West Virginia so it’s a perfect partnership.”

In addition to the Harpers and Bearfoot, Sunday night’s show also included performances by Jim Lauderdale, Klezmatics, Parkersburg native Todd Burge and Abigail Washington with The Sparrow Quartet featuring Ben Solee, Casey Driessen and Bela Fleck.

The music performed on Mountain Stage ranges from traditional roots and country music to avant garde rock and jazz, and Mountain Stage house band leader Ron Sowell says it’s the eclectic mix of performers, which have included Norah Jones and Mary Chapin Carpenter, that make the show a success.

“It’s something you can’t really get anywhere else,” Sowell said. “It’s music that kind of slips between the cracks. It’s all different kinds of music.”

That mix of music is exactly what brought Athens resident Scott Ash to Tamarack Sunday.

“That’s the thing about Mountain Stage,” Ash, who says he and his wife attend a live show two to three times per year, said. “It’s not just this ‘one type’ of music. It’s all sorts of music. It’s fantastic.”

Ridenour says Sunday night’s show will air locally on 91.7 WVPB-FM on Jan. 19 at 3 p.m.

— E-mail:

mjames@register-herald.com