Tri-State Living • May/June 2026

THE ISSUE MUSIC

Four regional bands shaping the local music scene:

Sasha Colette and the Magnolias

Laid Back Country Picker

Kindred Valley Torches From Above

PUBLISHER

Joe Imel

EDITORIAL

Heath Harrison, Editor

Mark Shaffer, Staff Writer

Amanda Larch Hinchman, Contributor briefs@irontontribune.com

ADVERTISING

Christie Coleman, Sales Consultant christie.coleman@irontontribune.com

PRODUCTION

Kandi Thompson, Design

PHOTOGRAPHY

Josh Lykins - Impact Media, Contributor

Hunter Way - Impact Media, Contributor

Erin Bowling, Contributor

Shane M. Finster - Armstrong Neighborhood Channel, Contributor

SilverSnaps Photographic Art, Contributor

Michael Paul aka Most Exalted, Contributor

from the editor

An appreciation of music

This issue of Tri-State Living is a special one — our first-ever music issue, and one we hope to repeat annually.

For this publication, we consulted with a few people around the Tri-State and were recommended bands that are ones to watch or those with an interesting story behind them.

You will note doubt hear of them playing festivals, events and appearing on media outlets in the near future, if you have not already.

We tried to cover a range of genres for this one and we hope to repeat this experiment again next year. So, if there is a musician you think should be featured and showcased, let us know.

And, with summer arriving while this issue is on the stands, there is a good lineup of live music events coming your way in coming months:

• The Tuesday Night Concert series, set at the Ironton Farmers Market, begins on June 12 and runs each week at 6 p.m. The series will feature a diverse lineup of artists throughout until August.

• Foremost is the Nelsonville Music Festival, taking place at Snow Fork Event Center in Nelsonville, Ohio from June 18-20.

Celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, organizers have put together an amazing lineup, which includes among its bigger names Geese, Wednesday, Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Marcus King Band and the legendary Mavis Staples. ( https:// nelsonvillefest.org)

• Healing Appalachia 2026 is set for Sept. 10-12 at the Boyd County Fairgrounds outside Ashland, Kentucky. The event, which benefits opioid addiction recovery efforts, was founded by Tyler Childers, who has fronted its lineup each year and draws both established arts and rising stars from throughout Appalachia. ( https://www. healingappalachia.org)

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LAID BACK COUNTRY PICKER

Laid Back Country Picker

TO THE WORLD FROM THE HOLLER

Laid Back Country Picker got his start from a crazy photo and an old country song

t all started with a T-shirt.

Dave Prince aka the Laid Back Country Picker, a self-described hillbilly, has played in a number of bands while being a high school teacher.

Prince said the persona of the Laid Back Country Picker was there before the music

Prince, who sports some spectacular muttonchops, was playing at a Texas music festival on the Fourth of July with Rob McNurlin’s band, from Ashland, Kentucky.

“Things were winding down and people were crazy and shooting fireworks. And in the mix of all that, (his wife) Teresa took my photograph,” Prince said. “We looked at the photos the next day and I looked pretty bizarre. We said “That guy is the Laid Back Country Picker’ after the Waylon Jennings song. Then it became a running joke.”

About a year later, his daughter suggested that they slap that picture on a T-shirt because it looked cool. So, they went to a shop in Ashland and had about 10 shirts made.

“And it did look cool,” he said.

Teresa and her band, the Mountain Jets, opened up for

Tyler Childers in Whitesburg, Kentucky, back when he was a just another regional musician trying to be noticed.

“Tyler got one of the shirts, and then tons of people were buying the shirts because Tyler had worn it,”

Laid Back Country Picker said. And since people were interested in the character, the Princes decided to create the band based on Picker, who plays guitar and wears a cowboy shirt with a Motorhead logo on it. Teresa became Honey, the drummer who wears a pink night coat, curlers and sunglasses. They recorded some songs that David had already written and put out an EP called “The Laid Back Country Picker.”

“And the rest is history, here we still are,” Laid Back Country Picker said.

Prince was a teacher at Lawrence County High School in Louisa, Kentucky and taught classes on government, civics and economics.

“Had a pretty good run on that,” he said. He retired in 2025, after 25 years.

“This is my first year we didn’t go back to school in the fall,” Prince said. “I gotta tell ya, it is pretty nice. Retirement is a good thing. There seems to be a demand for what Honey and I were doing. So, we decided it would

be a good time to step away from teaching and capitalize on this music thing. We’ve been really busy ever since.”

Laid Back Country Picker says his music isn’t exactly country music.

“My show is not real country, we are on the edge of ‘70s country guitar rock, but I have an accent when I speak and I think that throws it back into the country mix,” he said.

And it has been a wild ride. Laidback Country Picker has played in Atlanta, with Drivin N Cryin this spring. Last year, they played in Prague, France and the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. They have played Australia twice this year.

While most people think of country music as a very American art form, Prince said other countries aren’t as

hung up on particular categories or genres.

“Here in America, I think you have to fit into something so people can go ‘Oh, I’m going to go see this type of band and this is the type of music I like.’ And that’s not everybody, but we seem to categorize more,” he said. “In Europe, they don’t seem to care. They just show up and it is something they can get into, they are behind it.”

That has led to some interesting shows for the Laid Back Country Picker. In one giant festival in France, they played a concert at an old castle and they were on the bill with rock acts like Slade and Deep Purple.

“And we were thrown right into the mix. The French were very receptive,” he said. “And being a hillbilly from Kentucky, I thought ‘You all don’t even know what I am

saying.’ But it was great.”

Laid Back Country Picker said it was kind of wild because they were sitting backstage eating with bands he had grown up listening to.

And the connection to Tyler Childers is more than just playing a gig or two.

David Prince had him as a student, as well as the rest of the guys in the Food Stamps band.

“Tyler was a freshman in my government class,” Prince said. “He was a wonderful student, a wonderful kid. You knew right away he was a brilliant songwriter. He has talent from day one.”

And Tyler hasn’t forgotten about him either.

Laid Back Country Picker played a gig with Childers in Colorado to around 55,000 people and, as he looked over a field of trucks that haul the equipment for

Laid Back Country Picker

the show, and couldn’t believe what he saw.

“It is a multi-million operation going on here all from a little boy that sat in my class and now he has created all this,” Prince said. “And he employs hundreds of people. It is amazing that he has done so much. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Laid Back Country Picker and Honey performed on the main stage at the Healing Appalachia music festival last year at the Boyd County Fairgrounds near Ashland. It was quite the step up from when Rob McNurlin and Prince played the fair

MUSIC THE ISSUE

about 25 years ago and the band had to stop playing for a bit.

“We were doing our bit to a few people and they stopped us in the middle of our set and told us we had to held on because they were doing goat judging,” Prince said with a laugh.

And back in February, when Tyler Childers won the Best Country Song Grammy for “Biting List,” his band, the Food Stamps, accepted the award and Jesse Wells gave a shout out to David Prince.

“Like Mr. Prince says, we just try to play good country music and treat everybody right,” Wells said in his acceptance speech for the band.

“It was absolutely a shock,” Prince said. “He said some nice things and I was absolutely speechless. I got a bit teary eyed. I didn’t see that one coming at all. I was honored.”

Finding my rhythm

“Why did you move here?”

I get that question a lot when people learn I relocated to Ashland from the New York metro area. My answer is this: the Tri-State is on the verge of becoming a true cultural arts center, and it’s a beautiful place to live, rich with Appalachian history and a community full of heart.

As the son of Italian immigrants, I grew up with a clear path laid out for me: work hard, go to college, find a stable job. But I chose music. After years in a touring band, my wife Jamie and I found success opening School of Rock franchises in 2007. What started as us teaching kids to play music, offering young musicians the chance to play on stages and even tour nationally, benefiting nonprofit causes, expanded into managing multiple locations.

As the organization grew and became more corporate, I began searching for what originally inspired me from the beginning — the mission and passion for teaching music.

In 2023, we sold our businesses and moved to Ashland, where Jamie grew up. We found a home overlooking Central Park, began raising our daughter in a slower-paced environment and reconnected with what matters most: making a positive impact in the community. At our home, “Music Manor,” we teach and mentor young musicians each week through Tri-State Rock Academy, empowering the next generation by

at Facebook.com/tristaterockacademy

building something meaningful through performancebased music education.

Last year, our student rockers made their debut on the iconic Paramount Theater stage, where Jamie and I also performed with our band, Fate28. For my wife, who first stepped on that same stage at four years old, it was a full-circle moment. Now, since joining the Paramount Theater team, I have the privilege of helping shape the next chapter of Ashland’s most treasured landmark as it reemerges as a hub for performing arts and culture.

This region is often defined by its past, but I see potential, creativity, and a passionate community ready to grow with a bright future. Ashland’s sign says, “Create With Us,” and we are!

So, when people ask why I moved here, my answer is simple: why wouldn’t I?

Sasha Colette and the Magnolias

Sasha Colette and the Magnolias

Rock ‘n’ Soul

Sasha Colette and the Magnolias are back in business

usician Sasha Colette remembers playing her first paid gig while in elementary school at a family friend’s birthday party, and she’s never looked back.

“They gave me $5, and it’s like that dopamine kicked in,” Colette says.

From Olive Hill, Kentucky, Colette, like many artists, got her start with music in church. Her babysitter taught her how to play piano, but she says learning the guitar is what opened even more doors.

“I was around 12 or 13, which is a turning point in learning who you are, and guitar was something that I could take with me anywhere in private,” she says. “I started writing songs that way.”

She penned her first song, inspired by a magazine with the word ‘willow’ on its front cover.

“I do think it was a terrible

song but, still, a song nonetheless,” Colette says.

Together with a mandolin player, she released her first album, ‘Up From the Roots,’ in high school. Featuring a dozen or so songs, Colette handmade each CD — all 250 copies.

Since about 2010, Colette has been playing with her band the Magnolias. As her life has evolved, so has her music, but the Magnolias, in some form or fashion, have remained the one constant.

“It started as more of an acoustic three piece with an accordion and an upright and has progressed to rock and roll,” she says. “I call it rock and soul.”

While Colette performs solo from time to time, in a singer-songwriter, Carly Simon-esque set — still higher energy than you’ll find at most solo shows, she says — she prefers to play live with her band.

“I do perform solo, depending

on the opportunity that comes up; if I can take my band, I certainly will, because I feel that we’re a great entertainment package,” she says. “I love to perform solo. It’s a whole different vibe for your show, but you can’t always rock and roll so much by yourself and I sure do like the adrenaline rush that comes with the band and my friends.”

Colette finds and takes inspiration in an imaginative and unique way, using anything from ordinary, everyday living to overheard conversations and putting herself in others’ shoes in her songwriting.

“I listen to other people’s music too, but, a lot of times, I just like to hear other people’s stories,” she says. “It’s nice to watch people’s dynamics and relationships and assume things about them, because I do assume a lot about certain situations that I see in order to write a song.”

The Tri-State has greatly supported Colette and serves as an encouragement for her to keep pursuing music. After experiencing some changes in her personal life, it’s the local fans who have kept her returning to music, she says.

“This region has cradled me and taken care of me, not only in my personal life, but in my professional life, with music and my pursuit of that, but at the same time, you’re held accountable by your neighbors, basically,” she says. “If they like your music and support you, you really can’t leave them hanging. I’m happy these days that I’m able to get back at it and play music for the people I love and the people who have loved me.”

Recorded with Eddie Ashworth at the Oxide Shed in Athens, Ohio, Sasha Colette and the Magnolias will release their latest five-song EP, “Back in Business” on May 31, marking Colette’s seventh recorded

and released project.

Leading up to the EP’s release, the band has released two singles and accompanying music videos, “Kiss and Make Up” and “Folklore and Fairytales.”

The EP’s title track is co-written by longtime Magnolias drummer Steve Barker — the first, but perhaps not last, time Colette collaborated with a bandmate to write a tune.

Previous releases from Sasha Colette and the Magnolias, available on streaming services, include two full length albums and two EPs, and she has plans to get back in the studio soon to revisit other songs she’s written over the last decade.

Albums, and their titles, tend to

reflect moments of Colette’s life. 2012’s “Ridin’ Away” was released shortly before Colette got married, whereas 2021’s “Here to Stay” marked her reentrance back into the local music scene.

“The title tracks from my albums have been like messages in a bottle, whether I knew it or not,” Colette says. “Like ‘Ridin’ Away,’ because I did. I put out ‘Here to Stay’ because my music presence had dwindled.

“I had been busy with nursing school and motherhood, but I had found that it’s absolutely part of who I am,” she continued. “It’s here to stay and I’m not going anywhere. This next album is called ‘Back in Business’ because that’s absolutely what’s happening.”

Reinvention and girl power are two forces driving Colette in this next phase of her life, career and music. This attitude is especially important for Colette because of her eight-year-old daughter, who’s also taken an

interest in being the band’s merch girl.

“I can instill in her and other girls who are growing up that you are allowed to be who you want to be,” she says. “Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. I’m trying to associate myself with saying that it’s okay to reinvent yourself, it’s okay to be who you are, and success in your world, whatever that looks like, is success. It’s so wonderful to be able to embrace this part of who I am.”

Working as a nurse for the past five years has enabled Colette to continue to support herself while simultaneously pursuing her musical dreams.

“It’s so interesting and wonderful to be able to support yourself financially and your passions, so I make the joke that I had to get a job to support my habit, talking about music,” she says.

Sasha Colette and the Magnolias will be performing July 17 at the Little Sandy Shakedown festival in Greenup, Kentucky, as well as at the Fly In Festival July 25 in

Sasha Colette and the Magnolias

Huntington. Keep up with Colette and the band and other upcoming concert dates on Facebook, @sashacoletteky.

“I’m excited for this year because it’s me getting back to who I am,” Colette says. “I haven’t been my favorite person over the years, and I’m starting to get back to who that is. It’s beautiful. I told myself I was going to try to start pushing music harder, and things have worked out that I’ve been able to do that.”

KINDRED VALLEY

Kindred Valley

Making a nameHuntington's Kindred Valley builds

indie folk following

eginning as a group of friends in 2020, surviving a name change, adding members and now playing festivals throughout the U.S. and actively releasing new music, Kindred Valley is an indie folk and Americana band based in Huntington, West Virginia.

Blake Lacy, Noah Freeman and Brett McCoy, who met at Marshall University, shared a passion and drive for music and formed Back Row Baptists.

“The name Back Row Baptist wasn’t doing us any favors,” Lacy says. “Churches kept calling us to see if we would play Sunday mornings, and venues in town wouldn’t take us because they thought that we were a Christian or church band, and we weren’t.”

Inspiration struck one day as Lacy came across the Kidron Valley while reading his Bible.

“We needed to switch the name and ended up working on it for about six months,” he says. “I thought Kidron Valley sounded cool, so we tweaked it a bit and came up with Kindred Valley instead. That’s something we could all agree on, so we went with it to end the six month drought.”

They’d put out a few songs under the original band name, though things had started to stall, Lacy says. In the summer of 2021, Lacy’s friend Rachael encouraged her then-boyfriend — now husband — Jadon Hayes, a mixer, producer and engineer, to contact the group about a collaboration.

From there, Kindred Valley recorded their debut song under their new name, “Whistle.”

“He wanted to work with us,” Lacy says. “We do pretty much all of our recording in his basement. Eventually we asked Jadon and Rachael if they wanted to join the band.”

The band has now grown to six, welcoming Jadon and Rachael, as well as bassist Kaden Salmons.

With one self-titled, 12-song album and a sixsong EP, titled “What Was Left,” of original music released, the band is preparing to release another new EP soon. Titled “These Days,” it will include five songs. Kindred Valley’s latest single, “Purgatory,” was released earlier this year.

“If an electric guitar meets a banjo and they have a child, that’s how I think about our music,” Lacy says.

In the past, Lacy has been the primary songwriter, but he says moving forward the band’s music is more of a collaborative effort. Kindred Valley is now working on their second album, with the goal of consistently touring and putting out more music.

A good mix of influences, ranging from artists

such as Tyler Childers and Charles Wesley Godwin to local groups like Caamp, based in Athens, Ohio, members of Kindred Valley say Appalachia has inspired their sound as much as anything.

“I think Appalachia on the whole, and definitely West Virginia, specifically, has influenced us toward a more folky sound,” Lacy says. “Growing up hearing and enjoying a lot of bluegrass, a lot of country, on the radio kind of predisposed us toward that sound.”

Taking those influences, Kindred Valley adds a modern approach, Lacy says.

“That’s where the indie folk or the Americana edge of things came in,” he says. “We have a song called

‘1921,’ which is about the mine wars that happened in West Virginia. I think a lot of the culture of what we care about and how we write and perform is formed by being West Virginians.”

Kindred Valley recently returned from a tour in the South, with stops in Decatur, Georgia; Macon and Greenville, Florida; and Greenville, South Carolina — some of which were festival appearances. Their touring season is typically from March through November, Lacy says.

“It’ll be one to two weeks out of the month, anywhere between eight and 15 shows,” he says.

Kindred Valley’s music is available on streaming

Kindred Valley

services like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora, and physical media, from CDs to vinyl records, are for sale at live venues.

One of Lacy’s favorite memories from his time with the band so far is from a concert a couple years ago in Portland, Maine, performing with Tommy Prine.

“That was a beautiful place and somewhere I’d always wanted to visit,” he says. “I’m very thankful that music has been the vehicle to be able to see a lot of beautiful places in America.”

The band’s highlight reel also includes playing Healing Appalachia and the Laurel Cove Music Festival — a blessing and a privilege to be part of, Lacy says — and taking part in a 2023 Mountain Stage concert at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, one of the group’s proudest moments.

“It just felt like, ‘This is real, and we’re doing it,’ he

says. “We got a standing ovation that night, and that was the first time it ever happened. It was only our fourth show, so we were way too young to be there, but it felt like it was confirming that this is what we’re supposed to be doing. I was very proud of all of us that night and very thankful for that opportunity.”

One of their next scheduled shows is at the Rhythm & Roots Festival in Charlestown, Rhode Island, Sept. 4-6. To keep up with the band, follow along on socials @kindredvalley and their website at www.kvband.com.

“We’ve really got to meet a lot of spectacular people that I never would have known even existed if it wasn’t for the music world,” Lacy says.

TORCHES FROM ABOVE

Aggressively eclectic

Huntington’s Torches From Above draws from hardcore, punk, metal influences

wayne Hinkle, of Torches From Above, says his band’s sound, draws from so many influences and they do not fit exactly into one category.

“It’s kind of interesting,” he says. “We’re somewhat unique in the style of music we play. So it’s occasionally a square peg, round hole situation, where we can be playing a metal show today and an alternative show tomorrow or a hardcore show on a random Friday in Pittsburgh.”

As a result, he says their style can be difficult to describe.

“Oftentimes, I hear us called melodic posthardcore,” Hinkle said. “Really, we draw a lot of elements from hardcore punk, we draw a lot of elements from metal and we draw a lot of elements from indie music. We’re kind of

a fairly aggressive style band that also has a lot of melodic music. And our influences range greatly – from European black metal and all the way to Death Cab for Cutie. We’re very much all of the place.”

Torches From Above, based in the Huntington, West Virginia area, features Hinkle on bass and vocals, Daniel Ray on guitar and vocals, Josh Woodard on guitar and vocals and Lukas Beter on drums.

The band’s story begins in 2018, when Hinkle and Ray began working together.

“Daniel and I come from a similar background,” Hinkle said. “We both went through the public education system of playing music, and we were in the high school marching band and all that good stuff. We’ve been playing music for as long

as we can remember and, at one point, I was even a music major at Marshall.”

Hinkle said he had toured in several bands, but had been out of playing music for about eight years when he and Ray began working together.

“Daniel and I had known each other passively, but not personally,” he said. “He posted something on social media about music that caught my attention. and I said ‘Hey, let’s play music together.’”

He said they started writing and playing and “shuffled through a bunch of members and landed on the core lineup we currently have.”

They had planned to play their first show on April 13, 2020, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the prior month.

“Then life kind got in the way — COVID and the

Torches From Above

quarantine, in general, kind of made it hard to be involved in music at all,” Hinkle said. “We all got busy with a lot of things and it sort of fell by the wayside until January 2025.”

However, that hiatus ended in 2025, when Beter’s father, Jason Beter, who owns Orbit’s Record Shop in Barboursville, was putting together a block party for the store’s annual participation in Record Store Day in April.

“He approached us and asked us if we would reunite to play just that show,” Hinkle said. “We decided to do it. And we all got the bug again and decided to keep going.”

That led to their first, self-titled album in November of that year, released on Outer Orbit Records and recorded with engineer Neil Turri at Amish Electric Chair Studios in Athens, Ohio.

“We had a collection of songs,” Hinkle said of them

Torches From Above

going into the studio. “We all have families, jobs and lives, and recording was something we definitely were going to figure out how to do, but the record people ended up making it be fast tracked. Had it not been for that, we may still not have recorded a record.”

He said many of the songs were eight years old, including two that were the first they wrote as a band.

Hinkle describes the album, which premiered with a release party at West Edge Factory in Huntington, as one with “very emotional” subject matter.

“I guess it’s cheaper than therapy, in that it’s me writing about the unexpected loss of my father,” he said. “I think it shows. I don’t shy away from talking about it and I hear from lots of people who have shared experiences.”

He said it also deals with “Struggle with personal beliefs and personal identity crisis.”

“It’s just a lot of things that I would never be able to talk about in conversation that I’m able to write down over top of music,” he said. “Thematically, it’s definitely emotional.”

Torches From Above performed dates in Pittsburgh and Columbus in the spring, with other bands from the region, and they hope to play more of those types of shows. They were also featured as part of the lineup at the Punk Rock Flea Market in April, as well as this year’s block party at Orbit’s. And Ray and Hinkle said they also have plans to play festival dates this summer.

Ray said they also took some time off after April to begin writing again.

Torches From Above

“We’ve got some demos,” Ray said. “We’re going to concentrate on writing some new material. I’m sure we’ll probably be looking to get back with Neil as well.”

Hinkle said they plan to “add some faster elements” to the next songs and draw from more influences.

He said one band that has inspired them is the hardcore band Touché Amoré.

“We’re kind of enamored with that band,” Hinkle said. “And will probably draw some influence from that.”

He said they also plan to take advantage of the input of Woodard.

“Josh is a fantastic musician and fantastic writer,” Hinkle said. “We’ll be kind of letting him stretch his legs a little more. His presence will be felt more on the next go round.”

Ray spoke of the meaning behind the name Torches from Above.

“It wasn’t our first idea,” he said, but said it was the one they stuck with.

“It’s inspired by a song called ‘Torches Together,’ by one of my favorite bands, mewithoutYou.

“I wanted to take that idea and shape it differently,” Ray said. “It’s whatever you want to it to be — I see torches as people. Whenever somebody burns out here, they don’t go away forever. Their energy becomes something else — something above us, burning like points of light, watching us, and protecting. What’s gone isn’t truly gone and it just changes and comes back down.”

MUSIC FINDS A TROVE OF

R.E.M., “Automatic for the People” – first pressing 1992 LP

These are items for sale at Haskins House, located at 534 2nd St. in Portsmouth, Ohio. The business houses record store featuring rare, vintage vinyl, as well as new releases and an art gallery, featuring works by artist Charlie Haskins.

Tri-State Treasures

The vintage music socks, crate diggers tee and book "Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music, by Alice Gerrard," can be found at Kin Ship Goods, an independent brand and studio/ shop, is located at 617 Tennessee

column | Michael Lipton

In search of future inductees and fresh faces

For more than two decades, The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame has been on a mission to let people know about the contributions West Virginians have made to the music of the state, the country and, in many cases, the world.

To spread the word, we have produced 10 biennial induction ceremonies - all broadcast on West Virginia Public Broadcasting and available on our YouTube channel.

While there are many, many examples of why West Virginia is known for country, traditional, Gospel and bluegrass, the music that has emanated from the state runs much wider and deeper. From Hazel to Hasil, Withers to Womack, Crumb to P-Funk, and McCoy to Mattea, the music of West Virginia covers more ground than you might think.

Our two museums in The Charleston Town Center draw nearly 15,000 visitors a year. The Music Hall of Fame focuses on our 66 inductees, while the Museum of Music has a fascinating collection of vintage gear and instruments, photos, posters and memorabilia. And no matter if they’re young or old, in- or out-of-staters, a quick “musical tour” of the state leaves them struck by the range and diversity of the music

In addition, we have created outreach programs

for all ages. School students visit the museums for a cultural history study of the State. Our Music Career Counseling Program introduces older students to career opportunities in the music and entertainment industries. Our film series screens films that relate to the culture and music of the Mountain State. Each screening features an introduction and Q&A by the director or someone key to the film, and a related musical performance. The result is a deepened sense of state pride and the realization that perseverance and talent can overcome economic hardships.

By definition, halls of fame induct people who have had long, noteworthy careers. However, we are always looking for the next generations of inductees. Nominations are open year-round and forms are on our website at www.wvmhof.com.

We are also looking for volunteers, interns and paid staff for our office and museums to keep the organization fresh and vital. If you are interested in being part of the WV Music Hall of Fame, contact us at wvmhof@gmail. com. Let us give you a musical tour!

The WV Music Hall of Fame and The WV Museum of Music is located in The Charleston Town Center (2nd floor) and is open from noon-6 p.m., Thursday - Saturday, or by appointment by calling 304-342-4412.

More than just a retail space

love my job.

IMusic has always been important to me. Though I’ve never had the skill or talent to be much of a musician, I’ve found so much joy in listening to and seeking it out over the years that it feels natural to have somehow landed in a record shop.

The past several years have seen massive changes in the way people listen to and enjoy music, with many finding a new love for physical media. Vinyl records, CDs and even cassettes are back in a big way. And while they likely won’t replace the convenience of digital and streaming services, they once again have a very real place in the lives of many music lovers.

For some, it’s an expression of fandom, an extension of supporting an artist through collecting their work. For others, it’s about listening with intent, focusing on the ritual of putting on an album and listening from start to finish, or chasing the highest quality audio experience. Whatever brings them to physical media, one thing they all share is the experience of holding an album in their hands and owning the music they love.

One of the best things about working in a record store is being able to share in and facilitate that experience. From hosting album release parties to throwing an annual block party with live music, to simply enjoying the day-to-day conversations, the shop is more to me than simply a retail space. It’s an extension of the community I love.

We are so blessed to have such a rich and diverse musical culture in the Tri-State. You’ll find incredible artists across every genre here (as you’ve read about in

this very issue) and an amazing history of DIY scenes and communities supporting them. We may not be a major metropolitan area, but we’ve been a crossroads for touring acts on their way to bigger cities. Every generation in the Tri-State has their own bragging rights to legendary performances they managed to catch, even if it was on a weeknight.

There’s so much music here to love and to explore. Whether that’s at a local record shop, a theater venue or nightclub, an outdoor performance or even a house show. Get out and enjoy it!

Cabell Huntington Hospital Among America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2026!

Marshall Health Network – Cabell Huntington Hospital has been named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals by Healthgrades for 2026—the first and only hospital in West Virginia to earn this distinction. This achievement, Healthgrades’ highest honor for clinical excellence, places CHH among the top 1% of hospitals nationwide and reflects its unwavering commitment to exceptional patient care.

As we celebrate 70 years of caring for our region, this recognition honors a legacy rooted in our mission of advancing health, inspiring hope and serving you—made possible by our physicians, nurses and care teams working together to deliver exceptional care and trusted outcomes, close to home.