Grab your harmonica and get down to the Hot Dog Festival

A last-minute reminder to all you harmonica players out there, on Saturday, the West Virginia Harmonica Championship takes place at 5 p.m. at Pullman Square as part of the West Virginia Hot Dog Festival.

Sponsored by the Huntington Harmonica Club, the contest vibes like the club does -- it's open to players of all ages, all styles, all states and all talent levels, and is more about gathering together folks who love the harp than just unearthing the next Charlie Musselwhite.

Although that would be cool, too.

A tip of the hat to Jim Rumbaugh and the club for promoting live music at their weekly gatherings.

Registration for the contest is 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. for the contest. The top players get $200, $100, $50, a trophy and souvenir T-Shirt from the event.

Players get five minutes to do two songs or one song and a beating if you do the West Virginia University fight song.

Just a free WVU joke there.

Harmonica class now in session

The harmonica club barely catches a breath before its next event, which is 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 29, at Route 60 Music where the club welcomes in New York native harmonica expert Adam Gussow, who has produced more than 110 blues harmonica tutorials on his "Dirty-South Blues Harp channel" at YouTube and another 40 archived on his Web site, www.ModernBlues Harmonica.com.

Of late, Gussow has reunited with his long-time music partner Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee with whom he toured as the duo Satan and Adam. Magee and Gus released three albums on the Flying Fish label, including the W. C. Handy Award nominated "Harlem Blues" in 1991.

Admission to the Tuesday workshop is $10.

For more information about the show, call Paula Stewart a.k.a "The Harmonica Lady" at 304- 638-8110 or e-mail at TLCkidz@aol.com.

See it all on the radio

There are a couple of good live-tapings from two of our locally made, internationally heard radio shows.

"Mountain Stage," flying-high after a wonderful FestivALL Charleston show with Jakob Dylan, is set for another big live taping Sunday in Charleston at 7 p.m. at the Cultural Center Theater.

The bill is stacked with folking soul-man Amos Lee, the red-hot string band The SteelDrivers and their whiskey-stained blues-grass, as well as New Orleans funkmeister Papa Mali, Alabama native Peter Bradley Adams and Sharon Little, the Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter who went from working as a waitress to opening 34 shows for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

Tickets are $10.50 in advance or $15 at the door.

Call 800-594-TIXX or go online at www.mountainstage.org.

Check the H-D next week. I've got a story about "Mountain Stage's" recent switch-over to National Public Radio for its distribution.

Check out the Web site www.npr.org and click into music programs and "Mountain Stage" to catch some fresh slices of the eclectic live music being made here in the Mountain State.

Get rhinestoned in Morehead

In Morehead, Ky., tonight, you can catch a live taping of "Americana Crossroads Live" with a big batch of favorite homegrown musicians from East Kentucky including Ritch Collins Three-O, Luna and Rob McNurlin and the Beatnik Cowboys, who will play music from their new CD "Rhinestoned."

Also performing will be the Brooklyn-based group Peaks and Valleys fronted by Annie Crane, whose voice is a cool, crystal clear drink of water on those great dusty-old folk songs.

Showtime is 7 p.m. today at the Morehead Conference Center, located on First Street. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

The series is now heard on 35 radio stations across the United States, Canada and in the Philippines.

Concessions and door prizes will be available. Admission is $5 per person. Children 12 and under are admitted free.

Additional information on "Americana Crossroads Live" is available on MSPR's Web site at www.msuradio.com or by calling MSPR at 606-783-2001 or 800-286-9659.

All Good revisited

If you didn't get to the All Good Festival this year, no worries, there are a few of those groovy jamming bands trucking this way soon.

I just talked with Mike Gordon (Phish bassist) this week, and he's stoked to be heading back to "Mountain Stage" for a third visit on Aug. 10, with his home-grown Vermont-built band.

Also, the V Club in downtown Huntington is starting to stack the back-to-school schedule.

They've got two bands that played All Good rolling in, J.J. Gray and Mofro coming in Sept. 30, and The Bridge, the five-man Baltimore jam-band coming in Friday, Oct. 3.

The Bridge, which played All Good, has got some great gigs this fall including some festival dates with Gordon and an appearance on World Cafe.

Dave Lavender writes about music for The Herald-Dispatch. Contact him at 304-526-6686 or lavender@herald-dispatch.com.