West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage, now in its 40th year as one of the nation’s most cherished and continuing programs in public radio history, descended upon Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif., on August 6. The occasion was to record a live-performance radio broadcast with a diverse, one-of-a-kind lineup that featured the likes of Booker T. Jones, Chris Smither, Karla Bonoff, Steve Poltz, and Amber Rubarth.

Guitarist. Bluesman. Interpreter. Touring musician. “One of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world” (Associated Press). For more than 50 years. Chris Smither is an American original whose genius is both in his effortless, distinctive, rippling guitar (as he tells it, “one-third John Hurt, one-third Lightnin’ Hopkins and one-third me”) and in his reimagining the acoustic blues as a vehicle for rich, philosophically complex lyrics.