Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the lead vocalist. The band is known for their musical improvisation and jams during their concert performances and for their devoted fan following.
Charleston is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of West Virginia and the seat of Kanawha County. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charleston metropolitan area had 210,605 residents in 2020.
Barenaked Ladies (BNL) is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reached mainstream success in Canada when their debut with Reprise Records, Gordon, featuring the singles "If I Had $1000000" and "Brian Wilson", was released in 1992. The band's popularity subsequently spread into the US, beginning with versions of "Brian Wilson" and "The Old Apartment" off their 1996 live album Rock Spectacle, followed by their fourth studio album Stunt, their breakout success in 1998. The album featured their highest-charting hit, "One Week", as well as "It's All Been Done" and "Call and Answer". Their fifth album, Maroon, featuring the lead single "Pinch Me", also charted highly. In the 2010s the band became well-known for creating and performing the theme song for the sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Hoist (stylized as (HOIST)) is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Phish, released on March 29, 1994, by Elektra Records. At the time of its release, Hoist was Phish's best selling album to date, peaking at No. 34 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on August 19, 1996, and remains the band's best-selling studio release, outsold in their discography only by the platinum-certified A Live One.
Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello. He has released more than ten studio albums, in addition to charting a duet with Kathy Mattea entitled "The Battle Hymn of Love", a No. 9 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1990. In November 2013 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) is the public television and radio state network serving the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is owned by the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Authority, an agency of the state government that holds the licenses for all Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) member stations licensed in West Virginia. It is headquartered in Charleston with studios in Morgantown and Beckley.
Ralph Pierre LaCock, better known by his stage name Peter Marshall, is an American former game show host, television, radio personality, singer, and actor. He was the original host of The Hollywood Squares from 1966 to 1981 and has almost fifty television, movie, and Broadway credits.
Kathleen Alice Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reached No. 1: "Goin' Gone", "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", "Come from the Heart", and "Burnin' Old Memories", plus 12 more that charted within the top ten. She has released 14 studio albums, two Christmas albums, and one greatest hits album. Most of her material was recorded for Universal Music Group Nashville's Mercury Records Nashville 8division between 1984 and 2000, with later albums being issued on Narada Productions, her own Captain Potato label, and Sugar Hill Records. Among her albums, she has received five gold certifications and one platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has collaborated with Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Tim O'Brien, and her husband, Jon Vezner. Mattea is also a two-time Grammy Award winner: in 1990 for "Where've You Been", and in 1993 for her Christmas album Good News. Her style is defined by traditional country, bluegrass, folk, and Celtic music influences.
King Malachi "Mel" Street was an American country music singer who had 13 top-20 hits on the Billboard country charts.
Larry Groce is an American singer-songwriter and radio host. From 1983 until 2021, Groce served as the host and artistic director of Mountain Stage, a two-hour live music radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed by NPR. He first entered the national spotlight in 1976 when his novelty song "Junk Food Junkie" became a Top Ten hit. After that, Groce's voice became well known by children and parents alike as a result of his Platinum recordings of children's folk songs for Walt Disney Records Children's Favorites four-volume series: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and Volume 4.
The Bryant Park Project was a short-lived morning radio newsmagazine from National Public Radio that ran for 10 months in 2007 and 2008. The show's name was derived from Bryant Park in Manhattan, which NPR's New York studios overlook. While the Bryant Park Project was originally a working title, the show debuted with the name intact on October 1, 2007. The multi-platform show was broadcast live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday and, at its height, was carried by 13 NPR member stations, mostly in small markets. The Sirius Satellite Radio station NPR Now repeated the show from 10 a.m. to noon Eastern, 7 to 9 a.m. Pacific.
Thomas Papa Jr. is an American comedian, actor, and radio host. He hosts the Sirius XM Satellite Radio show Come to Papa and, in July 2019, he and Fortune Feimster started hosting the Sirius XM show What a Joke with Papa and Fortune. Papa hosted the show Baked on the Food Network and was the head writer and a performer on the radio variety show Live from Here, hosted by Chris Thile, where he delivered the "Out In America" segment.
NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music discovery. NPR Music offers current and archival podcasts, live concert webcasts, reviews, music lists, news, studio sessions, and interviews to listen to from NPR and partner public radio stations across the country, as well as an index of public radio music stations streaming live on the Internet. There have been two blogs: "Monitor Mix" by Sleater-Kinney musician Carrie Brownstein and the All Songs Considered Blog by Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton.
Red Wanting Blue is a rock and roll band led by Scott Terry that formed in Athens, Ohio in 1996. In 1999, the band relocated its headquarters to Columbus, Ohio, the city Red Wanting Blue now calls home. RWB has been touring for nearly two decades playing around 200 live shows a year. Red Wanting Blue is known as an explosive live act to follow, with Terry being compared to some of the most entertaining frontmen in the industry.
West Virginia MetroNews is a radio network heard on many radio stations throughout the State of West Virginia. The network is owned by the West Virginia Radio Corporation. West Virginia MetroNews offers a mix of news and talk. It held the rights to live play-by-play coverage of West Virginia University Mountaineers sports games, which it marketed under the DBA name "Mountaineer Sports Network", but lost these rights following the end of the 2012/13 basketball season. The network also provides coverage of select high school football and basketball games that happen in West Virginia.
Earwolf is an American comedy podcasting network founded by Scott Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich in August 2010. In 2011, they announced a partnership with Funny Or Die. It merged with podcast advertising network The Mid Roll in 2014, a separate company founded by Ullrich, to form Midroll Media. Midroll was acquired by the E. W. Scripps Company in 2015. In July 2020, Sirius XM acquired Midroll Media, which includes Stitcher Radio and Earwolf, for $325 million.
Mollie O'Brien is an Americana, bluegrass, R&B, and folk singer from Wheeling, West Virginia. She has released a number of Americana albums with her brother, Grammy-winner Tim O'Brien. She has also released five positively received solo albums. She is currently based in Denver, and regularly tours and performs with her husband, guitarist Rich Moore, as a duo. Together they have released one studio album, Saints and Sinners and a live CD, 900 Baseline. She has regularly appeared on shows such as A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and contributed vocals to the Grammy-winning album True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe. She is known for her interpretations of classic songs by artists such as Tom Waits, Memphis Minnie, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Si Kahn, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Kate MacLeod.
Josh Gaffin is an American radio personality. He is the host and producer of The Afternoon Show on WTSQ-LP 88.1FM Charleston, West Virginia.
The nonprofit West Virginia Music Hall of Fame was established in 2005, to honor the legacies of the state's performing artists in multiple music genres. This hall of fame is the brainchild of its founder, musician Michael Lipton, who was inspired by a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. The first exhibit was records from his personal collection.
Ethel Caffie-Austin is an American gospel musician. Known for her skills as a pianist and vocalist, she is dubbed the "First Lady of West Virginia Gospel Music." In 2020, she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
