HUNTINGTON -- It takes a conference to raise a creative class, and apparently it doesn't hurt in luring in West Virginia's own world-famous radio show Mountain Stage.

The Create West Virginia Conference rolls Sunday, Oct. 18, through Tuesday, Oct. 20, in downtown Huntington. To celebrate the conference of creative minds, it's all starting with a musical celebration -- a live taping of Mountain Stage, the Charleston-based eclectic live performance show heard weekly around the world on more than 135 radio stations.

Tonight's show is set for 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the public is invited to watch the NPR show hosted by Larry Groce being taped in the historic Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, and featuring Grammy Award-winning, Cross Lanes native country star Kathy Mattea, as well as Everett Lilly's cross-generational bluegrass act, The Songcatchers, The Ahs (armed with banjo and cello), the rock-steady-voice-driven folkies from San Francisco called Or, The Whale (named "Best Americana/Roots Artist" in the 2008 Hollywood Music Awards) and from North Carolina, former Biscuit Burner Shannon Whitworth.

Tickets are $20 at the door.

There's also a free pre-Mountain Stage reception from 5 to 7 p.m. featuring Bluetrane, the Marshall faculty jazz ensemble playing at the lobby of the Frederick Hotel, 940 4th Ave.

The show's host and musical director Larry Groce said this is a special Mountain Stage since they have three acts from West Virginia -- Kathy Mattea, Everett Lilly Jr.'s multi-generational-group The Songcatchers, and the Ahs (banjo and cello).

Playing with a purpose

Groce said the rare booking of three Mountain State acts on one show is in part due to the show kicking off the conference, which is drawing in hundreds of creative types from every corner of West Virginia.

"It's in concert with their purpose," Groce said of the show. "We're featuring West Virginia talent both old and new, and Create West Virginia, one of their points is that West Virginia needs to take its own traditions and its own way of doing things and to transplant that to a very contemporary economic approach, and so what we are looking at gave us an opportunity to spotlight some more West Virginia talent."

Cross Lanes native Kathy Mattea, whose latest CD, "Coal," was nominated for a Grammy, and whose grandfathers were coal miners, said her latest project has woven an even deeper and stronger tie to the Mountain State.

Mattea, who just performed a couple weekends ago at West Virginia University, is excited to be in Huntington with her old friends at Mountain Stage.

"Making this record and getting to come back and play those songs on Mountain Stage is a deeper layer of connections than I even had before," Mattea said. "It feels very full circle, and I feel like I am just beginning to explore this link in the chain that is musically about where I am from. No one taught me this where I am from, so I feel like I was thirsty for something and not knowing I was thirsty until I got into it and got to do these songs."

Groce, who also oversees FestivALL Charleston each summer, said Mattea was the perfect artist to build the show around.

"She's one of the more familiar talents to come out of the state, and she's gone through an evolution," Groce said of the West Virginia University grad, who became a country superstar in the 1980s with a long string of hits including "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses" and "Walk The Way the Wind Blows" with fellow West Virginian Tim O'Brien. "She is a perfect example of a talent that has matured and continued to create and be relevant by evolving. She knows which way country music has gone, and she has gone another way. Like a lot of people that leave West Virginia they are still attached to it and attached to it emotionally with family and land here themselves. So they're very interested in the state. She has constantly come back because of her family ties and her latest record, 'Coal' was obviously something that was a labor of love. She's not trying to figure out the commercially best thing for her, she's making a statement at this time in her career when it is very appropriate to do that."

Who's on stage

Started in rural New Hampshire, based in Portland, Ore., for a while and now based in Hinton, W.Va., The Ahs are Tony Rogers, a classically trained cellist, and Amy McIntire, singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

"They moved here, and like a lot of people who live here, they certainly have a lot of interest in traditional Appalachian music, and you can tell by the way they sound," Groce said. "With a cello and banjo it's not the usual traditional music but it is today's spin on the old traditional sound."

Based out of Beckley and formed by Everett Lilly Jr., who played with his dad's famous band The Lilly Brothers, this three-generational-band called The Songcatchers began when he started a college level bluegrass course at Mountain State University.

"The Songcatchers are right in the tradition since Everett Lilly Jr., and his family are such a part of this," Groce said. "His father and uncle are two of the most important traditional West Virginia musicians in history. This group is right in the center of what West Virginia has done for 100 years -- a family-based band with a lot of harmony tunes and traditional and church tunes."

Top those Mountain State acts off with up and coming Americana singer Shannon Whitworth, who has been on Mountain Stage and at Appalachian Uprising with The Biscuit Burners, as well the vocally-rich folk rockers, Or, The Whale, and Groce said it's going to be a show to see live since it is power packed with great vocals.

Like a radio -- fresh made performances

Andy Ridenour, who is executive producer of the show with Groce and a founder along with engineer Francis Fisher, said the Keith-Albee show is a great chance for area Mountain Stage fans to get that up close and personal look at how a radio show with so many acts, including the Mountain Stage house band, is made.

"It really isn't just a concert, there is that element, but it is a radio show being recorded before a live audience, and so there's a lot of movement," Ridenour said. "We have a great crew that's seasoned and trained and that makes these transitions between six different guests. It can take a few seconds up to a couple minutes and sometimes is complicated with a band or two, but they make it happen quickly and it's like a ballet or an orchestrated movement of troops."

A long awaited return to Huntington

Although most of the 26 new "Mountain Stage" tapings each year are done from the homebase of the Cultural Center Theatre, the "Mountain Stage" crew does go on the road all over the United States with show tapings in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Michigan and all over West Virginia from Snowshoe and Morgantown to Bluefield.

Oddly enough, although Mountain Stage has a rich history in Huntington as it teamed up for several years to host the Jazz-MU-Tazz concerts at Harris Riverfront Park, the live show hasn't been taped in Huntington since September 2005 when it had a blues-themed evening featuring blues legend Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland, Brandi Carlilie and others on Marshall University's campus at the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse.

The last Mountain Stage concert at the Keith-Albee was in October 2004 when k.d. lang and Bruce Cockburn headlined.

Groce said a low draw at the Buddy Guy show -- 1,200 less than came to see him at his last Mountain Stage show in Charleston -- and constant sell-out shows in other regional college cities such as Morgantown and Athens, Ohio, has caused the show to lay-off coming to Huntington in recent years.

That said, he and the show and Mattea are excited to be back in Huntington and especially for this special occasion of seeing Create West Virginia fostering discussions that can shape the future of the state.

"I am thrilled they asked me to be a part of this," Mattea said. "I do think this is a missing piece. For me, an important and often missing piece in this discussion I think we can have is understanding and a civil discourse and not villianizing anyone but trying to understand what it is to be in the other person's shoes. How would I feel if I had one of the few decent jobs in my area and thought it was going away. I would be terrified. So the second component that I think is essential is an economic vision and one that is not based on a mono-economy. This new economy has to make workable solutions real, and so people have to have choices or they are not free."

Creating entertainment

Here's a schedule of entertainment that will be provided in conjunction with the Create West Virginia Conference. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted:

Sunday, Oct. 18

2 to 4 p.m.: Opening reception at Huntington Museum of Art, 2033 McCoy Road. Reception includes Biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition. Visit www.hmoa.org for more information.

4 to 6:30 p.m.: Create West Virginia Conference reception at Big Sandy Superstore Arena. Reception will include displays from Tamarack: The Best of West Virginia. Open to conference registrants only.

5 to 7 p.m.: Pre-Mountain Stage reception in lobby of the Frederick Building, 940 4th Ave. Entertainment provided by Bluetrane, Marshall University's faculty jazz ensemble.

7 to 9 p.m.: Mountain Stage at Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, 925 4th Ave. Kathy Mattea, The Songcatchers, Shannon Whitworth and the Ahs of Summers County. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets $20. For more info, go to www.mountainstage.org.

Monday, Oct. 19

5 to 6 p.m.: Chat 'n' Chew reception, Frederick Building lobby, 940 4th Ave.

5 to 6:30 p.m.: Movement of Poetry: Spoken Word and Dance, Jeslyn Performing Arts Center, 1030 4th Ave.

6 to 6:45 p.m.: "Waiting for Lefty," songs and scenes from the 2009 Theatre Alliance production, presented by the Marshall Department of Theater, Frederick Building, 940 4th Ave.

7 to 9:30 p.m.: Community gallery exhibiting local artists' works, Gallery 842, 842 4th Ave.

7 to 9:30 p.m.: Reception featuring classic and original music by the Marshall Guitar Ensemble, new media animated projections by Marshall graphic design students and music by the 1937 Flood, Morris Building, 845 4th Ave.

8 p.m.: Marshall faculty recital, Room 133 in Smith Hall, located at corner of 3rd Avenue and Hal Greer Boulevard.

Photo courtesy of www.mattea.com

Kathy Mattea will perform in Huntington Sunday night as part of the Mountain Stage performance at the Keith-Albee.