In the podcast, article and slideshow links below, Budget Tapes and Records’ John Nelson dishes on some of Charleston greatest/most notorious concerts. What are yours? Best replies will be featured in a mid-January cover story in print gazz. Add them by clicking on  ‘Comments.’ Or e-mail gazz@wvgazette.com with subject line “My Concert History.” Or fax 348-1233. Might want to bounce off  John’s memories first.

VIEW “MY WEST VIRGINIA, No. 5: “Still Havin’ Fun” audio slideshow on John Nelson, manager and music buyer at Budget Tapes and Records: (4 min).

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LISTEN TO MP3 interview featuring “My Rock Concert History of Charleston” by John Nelson (10 minutes). Listen or download mp3 (right click this text and choose ‘Save Link As’ )

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READ COMPANION ARTICLE on Nelson in the Dec. 21, 2008 Sunday Gazette-Mail (reprinted in the gazz section)

– By Douglas Imbrogno

Photos by Douglas Imbrogno (2008). Click to enlarge.

Empty, gaunt buildings are always a fascination. The many ghosts of a building’s past lives flutter about in the wind-whipped spaces. This old Carbide building in South Charleston has been stripped to the bricks before its upcoming demolition later this month.  Meanwhile, a visitor can get several angles on the building’s last stand in its final days.

Photo by Douglas Imbrogno (2008). Click to enlarge.

A line of lights that line the main road through Snowshoe Resort recede into a far longer line of the West Virginia hills in Pocahontas County. The view from atop Snowshoe Mountain is surely one of the grandest vistas in the state.

Photos by Douglas Imbrogno (2008). Click to enlarge.

The puzzle pieces of the new interstate 64 bridge near Dunbar have not yet been locked together yet. The result, seen at night from below, looks like some deep-sea monster about to gobble the gibbous moon for a snack. And if you think you have a tough job with lots of responsibility, imagine the project manager and crew responsible for: 1) making sure these monstrous pieces of concrete fit together seamlessly once they reach each other; and 2) stand up for decades carrying you and yours — and tens of thousands of other cars and trucks –  across the cold waters of the Kanawha River far below.

Photo by Douglas Imbrogno (2008). Click to enlarge

I was driving home one warm night in December, heading toward Dunbar on Route 25. And the door was open to Lee’s Studio of Dance, the building bedecked for the holidays. All these dancers were pirouhetting and shimmying in the brightly lit interior. Quite surreal. So I quick-snapped a shot out the window.

Photo by Douglas Imbrogno, 2008. Click to enlarge.

I’ve recently begun to gather up volume 2 of a new collection of photos of West Virginia skies. For years, I’d see McDonald’s signs (like this one at the Milton U.S. Route 60 East turn-off to Interstate 64) and not realize that these are not just golden arches but were supposed to be, um… an  ‘M.’ Oh. OK, I was, like 26 years old before I realized this.

In the podcast, article and slideshow links in the post below, Budget Tapes and Records’ John Nelson dishes on some of Charleston greatest/most notorious concerts. What are yours? Best replies will be featured in a mid-January cover story in print gazz. Add them to the post below (or this one) by clicking on  ‘Comments.’ Or e-mail gazz@wvgazette.com with subject line “My Concert History.” Or fax 348-1233. Might want to bounce off  John’s memories first.

Julian Hintz of Electric Junkyard Gamelan mans the “clayrimba” at Culturefest 2008 at the Appalachian Folk Life Center. Photos by Douglas Imbrogno.

SHOWDATE:  Electric Junkyard Gamelan performs 8 p.m., Friday. Dec. 5 at The Room Upstairs, 869 Mercer St., Princeton, W.Va. For directions, click here.

I saw Electric Junkyard Gamelan perform at Culturefest 2008 in September and highly recommend them, not only because they rock but because they feature some of the most unusual instrumentation of any band you’re likely to see. I included shots of them in my Culturefest slideshow (described in the post below), but have pulled some photos out for further study. The show will be a double treat as it takes place in one of West Virginia’s sweetest listening rooms, The Room Upstairs, in downtown Princeton. Some musical compatriots run the joint, Lori McKinney and Robert Blankenship, and the big, cozy room features overstuffed sofas, chairs and futons, a hip, well-stocked stage and a relaxed vibe. And free raisins. Now, if only we could get the tolls taken off Interstate 79, so you didn’t have to run a gauntlet to get there from C-town. But this will still be a worthy musical roadtrip (and you can hit the Starbucks near Tamarack for a fuel injection).

Here is more on EJG from their press materials, described by Global Rhythms Magazine as a group that “makes music so original they had to create their own instruments to play it.” Click the photo at right to see a utensil most people use for making cornbread turned into a kick drum. Read the rest of this entry »

The three-day, 26-band Culturefest took place in mid-September 2008 on one of the coolest outdoor stages in West Virginia. This audio slideshow, set to the music of one of the bands, Option 22, will give a feel for the multifaceted, multi-genre happening. The stage sits perched on the lip of a ridge at the Appalachian South Folklife Center, a few minutes down the road from Pipestem Resort.  Among the Folklife Center’s other claims to fame is that for years it was home to Appalachian poet, coal mine labor activist and political radical Don West, who established the Folklife Center. His daughter, Heddy West, wrote the song “500 Miles” there.

The floor is now open for other nominations for other excellent outdoor stages in the great open-air state of West Virginia.

John Nelson pauses (not for long, though) in the midst of tending to the many needs of customers at Budget Tapes and Records. Photo by Douglas Imbrogno

Here is a shot from a forthcoming “My West Virginia” audio slideshow profile of John Nelson, of Budget Tapes and Records in Kanawha City. He recounts his personal history of attending some of the finest rock concerts ever held in Charleston.