Craig Finn & The Band of Forgiveness, and more on Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage

Be a part of the live radio audience as Mountain Stage records a fresh episode for NPR Music with guest host David Mayfield!

Culture Center Theater

<h5>GUEST ARTISTS: <a href="https://craigfinn.net/" title="https://craigfinn.net/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Craig Finn &amp; The Band of Forgiveness</a>, <a href="https://www.nickibluhm.com/" title="https://www.nickibluhm.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Nicki Bluhm</a>, <a href="https://www.eastnashgrass.com/" title="https://www.eastnashgrass.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">East Nash Grass</a>, <a href="https://debtalan.com/" title="https://debtalan.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Deb Talan</a>, and <a href="https://tworunnermusic.com/" title="https://tworunnermusic.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Two Runner</a></h5> <h3>Ticket Information</h3>All tickets to this show are e-tickets and will be emailed to you upon purchase. Open up the pdf and the QR code on your ticket will be scanned at the door. This event will also be offered as a livestream.Artist/Member Pre-sale: Tuesday, May 13 at 10am ET Public On Sale: Friday, May 16 at 10am ET <h3>Watch the livestream!</h3>Mountain Stage livestreams are free, however, there are some incredible folks out there who’d like to show their support through a donation-based, pay-what-you-want “ticket” for the livestream. This is a donation-based “ticket” to show some love for the program and is not a ticket to the live event.You’ll be able to catch the show from the comfort of your home (or wherever you wish) Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025 – at 7 PM ET at mountainstage.org

<h3><a href="https://craigfinn.net/" title="https://craigfinn.net/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Craig Finn &amp; The Band of Forgiveness</a></h3>Craig Finn is a Minnesota-bred singer/songwriter based in New York City, best known as the singer of The Hold Steady. Finn spent the ’90’s leading Minneapolis indie band Lifter Puller, which released 3 albums and an EP. After relocating to New York, he joined with Lifter Puller member Tad Kubler to form The Hold Steady in 2003. The Hold Steady quickly achieved critical acclaim and a worldwide fanbase with their unique pairing of dense lyrical narratives with big rock guitars. The Hold Steady’s ninth album, The Price Of Progress, was released in March 2023, commemorating the band’s 20th Anniversary. Craig Finn releases his 6th solo album Always Been on April 4. Produced by Adam Granduciel (The War On Drugs), the album features musical performances by Granduciel and members of The War on Drugs, Kathleen Edwards, Sam Fender, and more. Always Been tells the story of a man who becomes a clergyman despite a lack of faith. The songs detail his rise, fall, and eventual redemption, while also shining a light to sharply reveal the other characters that populate the world he moves through. A limited edition, 92-page companion book Lousy With Ghosts accompanies the album and features 11 works of fiction by Craig Finn. These stories take place in the same universe as the record, giving deeper looks at the characters within.Finn released his first solo album in 2012 with three additional solo LPs put forth from 2015 - 2019: Faith in the Future, We All Want The Same Things, and 2019’s I Need a New War - which coalesced into a sign-of-the-times musical trilogy. Finn’s fifth album, A Legacy of Rentals was released in 2022 and received universal critical acclaim. That’s How I Remember It is Craig Finn’s podcast series, launched in 2022. Co-produced and distributed by Talkhouse, the podcast series examines the connection between memory and creativity. Each episode features a discussion between Finn and one creator – including musicians, authors, filmmakers, and more – about the role memory plays in their art. These exclusive conversations reveal the different ways each creator synthesizes their remembered life experience to tell stories about themselves and the world we live in. Podcast guests have included George Saunders, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Lucinda Williams, Johnny Marr, Jason Isbell, Duff McKagan, Adam Duritz, Ben Gibbard, and many more.

<h3><a href="https://www.eastnashgrass.com/" title="https://www.eastnashgrass.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">East Nash Grass</a></h3>East Nash Grass is one of the hottest young bands in Bluegrass, picking up this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award for Best New Artist and stacked with IBMA Best Instrumentalist winners: Grand Master Fiddle champion and AMA Instrumentalist of the year nominee Maddie Denton, Cory Walker (banjo), and Harry Clark (mandolin). Put them alongside charismatic frontman James Kee and bassist Jeff Partin (Rhonda Vincent, etc.) and you’ve got a powerhouse leader of the next generation in bluegrass excellence. WSLR in Fogartyville calls them “a balance of undeniably hard-driving bluegrass alongside surprisingly introspective songwriting and earnest narration.”They are far more than a group of impressive instrumental technicians. As a group that came together organically via set after set on Nashville’s East Side, playing tiny stages for the love of it between tours backing bigger acts, they have a hard-forged bond that’s reflected in their stage chemistry. Audiences freak out over how much fun these guys have. As they work on the follow up to 2023’s “Last Chance To Win” — look for a release in the spring of 2025 — they now find themselves one of the most in-demand groups in Americana, fanning out well beyond the traditional bluegrass spots.

<h3><a href="https://debtalan.com/" title="https://debtalan.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Deb Talan</a></h3>I Thought I Saw You, distributed by ONErpm, maps Deb Talan’s journey into new life, love, longing, and letting go. The collection of lush, folk-pop gems is enriched by Iowa musicians Dan Padley (keys, guitar) and Jay Foote (bass). Deb’s voice and writing urge the listener to lean into the whole range of feelings involved in making and accepting big life changes.Deb Talan’s voice has been described as “intoxicating” by NPR, “sugary and sultry” by Paste Magazine, “inimitable” by The Boston Globe. Her songwriting, whether as half of the folk-pop duo The Weepies, or solo, has earned her recognition on multiple “Best Of” lists over the years and numerous placements in movies, tv shows and commercials.

<h3><a href="https://www.nickibluhm.com/" title="https://www.nickibluhm.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Nicki Bluhm</a></h3>Calling Tennessee home for 6 years now, Nicki Bluhm possesses a modern, clear-eyed perspective that grabs the heart and keeps you holding on to every word. Bluhm’s music career began in the Cow Hollow area of San Francisco in 2008, where she recorded two solo albums and co-founded Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers. The band went on to record two more albums and toured extensively while posting their “Van Sessions”, covers nostalgic to their childhoods, including their viral YouTube hit, the Hall and Oates classic “I Can’t Go For That.” In 2017, Bluhm made the decision to leave California to forge a career as a solo artist in Nashville. She recorded her album, To Rise You Gotta Fall (2018), produced by Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Calexico) in the legendary Sam Phillips Recording Services in Memphis. The album exhibited a natural blending of Tennessee sound and Bluhm’s West Coast roots and delved the depths of hard goodbyes and hopeful beginnings. Her following album, Avondale Drive (2022) explored what it means to be fully yourself, rather than a vessel for the expectations of others. Recorded in East Nashville with producer Jesse Noah Wilson, and featuring Oliver Wood, Erin Rae, A.J. Croce, Jay Bellerose, and others, Avondale Drive combines nostalgic country-rock with distinctly modern, sharp lyricism—an apt contrast for the process of studying one’s past in order to make a better future.In tandem with recording Avondale Drive back in the doldrums of 2020, Nicki Bluhm and producer Jesse Noah Wilson took advantage of their excessive time off and took a stab at recording songs in the early musical catalog of Cher. “Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from baring your soul and sing someone else’s songs. Selecting those songs, the right ones, can sometimes be as hard as writing one. Interpreting someone else’s words is another nuanced layer to making a cover song resonate as your own.” Predating 1973, Bluhm and Wilson selected some of their favorites; songs penned by Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Albert Hammond, Mike Hazlewood and of course Sonny Bono. They enlisted old friends and new to play and help sing the duets like fellow Grambler Steve Adams, Sam Blasucci of Los Angeles’s Mapache and Nashville neighbor Butch Walker. “I’ve always been one of many admirers of Cher; her sense of fashion and boldness, the many roles she played and won me over with, her deep and sultry voice and most importantly her endless joie de vivre. We had so much fun with these songs, looking back into a history that seemed more romantic and carefree. It was a refreshing way to honor a living legend and some of those who helped her shine along the way.” As an homage, the 8 digitally released singles will make up ‘The Beat Goes On, Nicki Bluhm Sings Cher’. The first single will release June 9, 2023 with a new release every month finalizing in December. Nicki and her band aspire to play a live set in their home of Nashville, TN and beyond Fall 2023. “She is singing like a stronger spirit has found her. There is no doubt Nicki Bluhm is on the way to a wonderful place in her life and her music.” -- BENTLEY’S BANDSTAND (AMERICANA HIGHWAYS) “Bluhm’s prime gift is her incredible voice…An artist equally adept at imparting soothing soulful ballads as she is cutting loose on well-crafted up-tempo tunes.” – LONESOME HIGHWAY “Bluhm is a cashmere chameleon of song, moving smoothly and effortlessly from genre to genre. But no matter the genre, there is always a poignant undertone of soul in her delivery.” – TURNSTYLED JUNKPILED

<h3><a href="https://tworunnermusic.com/" title="https://tworunnermusic.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Two Runner</a></h3>Two Runner is songwriter Paige Anderson and fiddler Emilie Rose from the hills of Northern California. The folk duo emits a ray of unprocessed realness through their well-crafted songs and instrumental skills. Both growing up in a rural mountain town, best friends Paige Anderson and Emilie Rose learned folk music and performance from a young age, and now tour nationally as Two Runner. Through the mediums of clawhammer banjo, vocal harmonies, old-time fiddle, and flatpicking guitar, Two Runner has a sound that is strongly rooted in American folk music combined with Paige’s wistful songwriting. Two Runner self-released their debut album, Modern Cowboy, in the spring of 2023 and have shared the stage with Sierra Ferrell, Watchhouse, Jesse Daniel, Nick Shoulders, Charlie Parr, and many more. Songwriter Paige Anderson grew up touring in her family bluegrass band, Anderson Family Bluegrass, starting at the age of 9. The family of six traveled for about 12 years as Anderson Family Bluegrass and later the sibling band, The Fearless Kin. Paige wrote her first song with Chuck Ragan at 15, which kickstarted her love for songwriting. Transitioning into diverse musical roles, including a stint as bassist for Family of the Year in 2018, Paige has continually evolved her craft, charting new artistic directions for herself and Two Runner. Fiddler Emilie Rose was raised on Celtic fiddle and fiddle camps starting at the age of 9. In her early years, she led Celtic trio, The String Sisters, who played together for 10 years in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Emilie then went on to study at Berklee College of Music and was mentored by the greats such as Bruce Molsky, Natalie Haas, and Darol Anger, where she graduated in 2020. She moved back to Northern California and later in the year met Paige Anderson for the first time, as neighbors and joined Two Runner. Together, the duo has been touring for over 2 years solidly, forging their sound and path through festivals and venues, winding highways and friendship. It’s undeniable that Two Runner brings a rich mix to the folk music world, with their harmonies, banjo pickin', and dirt kickin' duo