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• Who's on Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage is on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, HD-TV, more than 135 radio stations, and is sliced and diced like musical sushi fresh by the artist and song on the Mountain Stage and the National Public Radio Web sites.

Come Sunday, though, you can experience Mountain Stage in its most magical form -- live, in person and on the road inside the historic and opulent Paramount Arts Center in Ashland.

Mountain Stage with founder and host Larry Groce will feature a Sunday night serving of eclectic, original music by hit folk-country songwriter Nanci Griffith; quirky songwriter and frequent visitor to Mountain Stage Todd Snider; as well as fresh splashes of internationally cooked bluegrass and acoustic music by The Greencards; some new tunes by former R.E.M. sideman Peter Holsapple with Chris Stamey; and up-and-coming singer/songwriter, Ashleigh Flynn, who is Kentucky-born and Oregon-based.

Showtime is 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the PAC Box Office at 606-324-3175 or Ticketmaster.

Not unlike last year, Mountain Stage, which tapes 26 new shows a year, will also be making a trip to another Paramount -- The Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, Tenn. -- to record its 700th show on Aug. 16.

Groce, the artistic director, host and co-executive producer with Andy Ridenour, said it's a unique experience to see a live radio show like Mountain Stage in one of these historic theaters.

"Both of these Paramounts at this point are more comfortable because we have done several shows at each," Groce said. "That is great, plus, you feel the history of these buildings and that is always great for the atmosphere and for the kind of show that we do."

The kind of show they do was first brewed up in 1983 when Groce, Ridenour and engineer Francis Fisher, who had been working for NBC Radio in New York City, all got together in unlikely hub of Charleston to birth the unique Mountain Stage, a two-hour radio show that features about five original music acts from around the globe sharing about half a dozen songs each, as well as songs by the Ron Sowell-led Mountain Stage house band, and the show-ending, everybody-on-stage number.

With most of the Mountain Stage crew, like sound engineers, Jeff Bosley of Marshall University, and Ritch Collins, who also runs sound at the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, on staff for years, the show has a family-reunion-esque vibe among musicians who love the laid-back fellowship of the globally-reaching show.

Australian native multi-instrumentalist Kym Warner was on Mountain Stage several years ago with his band The Greencards, which features a Brit and a fellow Aussie throwing down newgrass and funky acoustic originals.

Now based in Nashville, The Greencards, which just played MerleFest this spring and are set to play Chicago's Lollapalooza later this summer, are stoked to share tunes from its Sugar Hill Records release, "Fascination," but equally stoked to check out all the other bands on Mountain Stage.

"It's always a fun thing to do because, well they've got artists with us like Nanci Griffith," said Warner, whose Grammy-nominated band toured with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson last year. "That's a big payback for you. We spend most of the year on the road and it seems in these summer months with festivals, and certainly with Mountain Stage, which is year-round, that's where you get to know and reacquaint yourselves with others bands, and that's how you discover new music that you've never heard before. That's a big attraction to what we do is to get to meet the other bands. There's always a lot of jamming going on backstage."

Groce, who was already an accomplished artist with a Top 10 hit, "Junk Food Junkie," when he began Mountain Stage, said that sense of discovery has always been a big part of Mountain Stage, which has been one of the first places that folks heard such artists as Norah Jones, Ben Harper, Lyle Lovett, Phish, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams, Nickel Creek, Ani DiFranco, Sheryl Crow, Kathy Mattea and many, many others.

"That has traditionally been the most frequent comment -- that I came to see so and so and he was really good but this other person blew me away," said Groce, a Grammy-nominated artist who has sold millions of records for Disney. "It's not that the other person was not that good, they were, but you expect them to be. You didn't expect somebody else to be that good so they seem so much better because you didn't have those expectations. That's one of the most common comments we get."

While most of Mountain Stage show are taped at its home at the West Virginia Culture Center or with bigger shows at The Clay Center in Charleston, Ridenour said it's worthwhile to take the show on the road, which they've done from college towns from Athens, Ohio, to Athens, Ga., to big cities such as Philly and NYC.

Two of Mountain Stage's four August shows are on the road, which requires moving about three tons of gear around to produce and tape the show.

Ridenour said excitement is building too, toward Mountain Stage's 700th show, which will take place in Bristol.

The Ashland show is No. 698.

"There's an excitement for us to take it anywhere and wow an audience that may have not had the opportunity to see us in person," Ridenour said. "From that standpoint, it's worth the effort. We have about three tons of broadcast gear, and the band, and support staff when we go on the road. Even if we have to move it across town or further down the highway it's a tremendous effort and we want to put on a good show. The ticket prices are not very expensive and you always get to see great talent."

Mark Webb/The Herald-Dispatch

Tab Benoit performs during a Mountain Stage taping at the Paramount Arts Center in this Aug. 11, 2007, file photo. Mountain Stage returns to Kentucky on Sunday, bringing Nanci Griffith, Todd Snider and others to the Paramount Arts Center. The show starts at 7 p.m., and doors open at 6:30 p.m.

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