Mountain Stage w/ Larry Groce is a two-hour live performance radio program, recorded before an audience and heard on over 100 NPR stations in the United States and around the world on the Voice of America Satellite Services. Guest segments are also heard at NPR.org/MountainStage. Now in its 28th season, the show will record episode #735 in Glasgow Scotland as part of the 2011 Celtic Connections Festival.

Mavis Staples - As the daughter of the late Pops Staples and a member of the Staple Singers, one of the greatest family gospel groups of all time, Mavis Staples has a resume second to none - and a voice to back it up. Staples has been recording on her own since the late ‘60s, with an effort produced by Curtis Mayfield and another released on Prince’s Paisley Park label. She was inducted into the “Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame” with The Staple Singers in 1999 and, in 2005, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys. Mavis was a featured performer at the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear” in Washington, DC, last October, and led all the participants (including The Roots, Sheryl Crow, John Legend and Tony Bennett) - and an estimated crowd of 250,000 - in a finale of the Staples Singers hit "I'll Take You There." Her current release, “You Are Not Alone,” was produced by Jeff Tweedy.

Dougie Maclean - Long before people like Kathy Mattea were recording his songs, Scottish singer/songwriter Dougie Maclean was leaving his mark as a member of groups like the Tannahill Weavers and Silly Wizard. As a solo artist, Maclean has scored music for TV, plays and films including “Last Of The Mohicans.” His song “Caledonia” is known as Scotland’s alternative anthem and his “Perthshire Amber-The Dougie MacLean Festival,” now a 10-day event, has become a major attraction. In 2010, Maclean released a DVD titled “Songmaker” and the CD “Resolution,” and performed at the Hollywood Palace for HRH Prince Charles. 

Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore - Comprised of powerhouse singer - and Wheeling native - Mollie O’Brien and guitarist/husband Rich Moore, this is no mere “folk duo.” Their repertoire - and the songs on their debut “Saints and Sinners” - spans the range of American music from ragtime, jazzy blues, gospel to Dixieland, tango and saloon cabaret. The instrumentation includes with tuba, bouzouki, accordion, fiddle, trumpet, trombone, oboe, and steel guitar. Mollie, one of acoustic music’s premiere vocalists, started her career singing with her brother Tim O’Brien. 

Joy Kills Sorrow - Formed in 2005, this Boston-based stringband brings a modern sensibility to an old-world sound with elegant arrangements and well-crafted songs. In 2007, the group won first prize in the Podunk Bluegrass Festival Band Contest. That same year, it was dubbed the “‘poster children’ for the burgeoning Americana format” by Sing Out! magazine. Founding member guitarist Matthew Arcara was the 2006 winner of Winfield’s National Flatpicking Championship while the group’s newest addition, mandolinist Jacob Jolliff, was Berklee’s first full-scholarship mandolin student. The group’s current release is titled “Darkness Sure Becomes This City.” 

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For more information, including hi-res photos, please contact Adam Harris at 304.556.4900.  

This show is scheduled for distribution by NPR, National Public Radio, in April, 2011.