Fred Tackett & Scott Sharrard (from Little Feat) on Mountain Stage
About this Event
We are celebrating 43 years of Mountain Stage! Join us as we celebrate over four decades of live performance radio from the Mountain State of West Virginia.
GUEST ARTISTS: Fred Tackett & Scott Sharrard (from Little Feat), Edie Carey, Colby T. Helms & The Virginia Creepers, and more TBA (click each artist name to learn more)
Tickets: $30-$35
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.
Watch the livestream!
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, December 6, 2026 – at 7 PM ET at mountainstage.org.
Click here to learn more about Mountain Stage and the live show experience!
Fred Tackett and Scott Sharrard are stepping out from the electric swamp boogie of Little Feat and hitting the road with a couple acoustic guitars, along with some great songs and stories. They’ll be pulling material from Little Feat, their own songwriting catalogues, and their own history that include stints with everyone from Bob Dylan to The Gregg Allman Band.
Fred Tackett is an American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter best known for his work with Little Feat. Hailing from Little Rock, AR, Tackett began his musical journey at a young age beginning with trumpet, drums, and guitar before expanding to mandolin, vocals, and other instruments.
Before joining Little Feat, Tackett was a prolific session musician, contributing to recordings by artists such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Jimmy Webb, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Rogers, Jackson Browne, Boz Scaggs, Tom Waits, and countless others.
His association with Little Feat dates back to the 1970s, when he collaborated as a sideman on several of their albums, including Dixie Chicken and Time Loves a Hero. He became an official member of the band in 1988 when they released the legendary album Let It Roll. Tackett's multifaceted musicianship and extensive career have solidified his reputation as a distinguished figure in the American music scene.
American music courses through Scott Sharrard’s heart and soul. Since 2019, Sharrard has been the lead singer and guitarist for Little Feat, preserving the magic of the group’s beloved guiding light, the late Lowell George, and reimagining that energy with his own mojo. He’s recorded on their Grammy-Nominated album, Sam’s Place. He performed, wrote and co-produced songs for their 2025 album, Strike Up The Band. As a guitarist, he has shared the stage with Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Tommy Emmanuel, Robert Randolph, Charlie Starr, and Hubert Sumlin.
Prior to Little Feat, Sharrard served as Gregg Allman’s music director, band leader and producer for many years. Their partnership culminated in the Grammy-Nominated album, Southern Blood. “My Only True Friend,” an indelible song which Sharrard and Allman wrote for the album, also received a Grammy Nomination for Americana Song of the Year.
Sharrard has made six solo albums, including Saving Grace, which was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals with members of the Swampers and the HI Records Rhythm Section, and also features Gregg Allman’s last original song (co-written with Sharrard), “Everything a Good Man Needs” which features vocals by Taj Mahal. His most recent solo album, Rustbelt, features special guests Bill Payne, Charlie Drayton, Catherine Russell and Amy Helm. He has lived in his adopted home of New York City for almost 30 years, where he produces records at his studio in Harlem and at Chelsea Studios.
Edie Carey
Colorado-based singer-songwriter Edie Carey is known for her unmistakable, soulful voice, her intelligent, heart-grabbing songs, but perhaps most especially for her warm, engaging presence on – and off – stage. As much a part of her show as the music itself, Carey’s wry and often self-mocking humor makes audiences feel as though they have just spent an evening with a very close friend. “Bare of self-pity and full of down-to-earth revelation... a little country, a little adult-contemporary, and a lot of fine music.”
- Harp Magazine
Carey has been singing at festivals, colleges, and listening rooms across the US, Canada and Europe since 1999, performing alongside Sara Bareilles, Brandi Carlile, and Shawn Colvin. Her co-writes have been recorded by #1 artists Shawn Mullins and Chely Wright. She’s also been a featured artist on PRI’s Mountain Stage. She's appeared at the country's most prestigious folk festivals including Telluride Bluegrass, Rocky Mountain Folks, Newport Folk, 30A Songwriters, and Cayamo. Her duo lullabies project with Sarah Sample garnered several children's music awards, including Best Children’s Album in the 2015 Independent Music Awards, and she was a featured vocalist on Joanie Leeds’ Grammy-Winning Ensemble Album All the Ladies in 2020. Americana Highways called her 2022 album The Veil “one of the best of 2022," and her second duo project with Sarah Sample, Lantern In The Dark: Songs of Comfort and Lullabies, was released October 18th, 2024
Colby T. Helms & The Virginia Creepers
Every town has them.
The underdogs. The people who never quite fit in. The ones who are misunderstood. The ones who strive, stumble, and keep going anyway.
With his second album, One for the Losers, Colby T. Helms tells their stories.
Raised in the Blue Ridge foothills of Southwest Virginia, Helms launched his career as a teenager, writing raw and ragged songs that drew from the people, places, stories, and struggles that shaped him. If his debut album chronicled his own experience, then One for the Losers widens the frame by looking outward. Across a dozen tracks, Helms shines a light on the overlooked and misunderstood characters who've crossed his path, from troubled friends and fallen mentors to moonshiners, immigrants, and working-class Virginians trying to survive in a world that threatens to leave them behind.
"This is a record for people who don’t feel like they have a voice," he says, speaking with a southern drawl colored not only by his Appalachian roots, but by the years he's spent singing at folk festivals, fiddlers' conventions, campgrounds, and dive bars, too. "I wrote my first album while I was still in high school, then I spent a few years on the road, playing those songs every night. One for the Losers delves into what it's like to be a road musician, as well as the characters and challenges you encounter along the way — and some of the ones waiting for you back home, too."
Country. Bluegrass. Folk. Helms' interpretation of American mountain music bears the fingerprints of them all. Largely recorded in Nashville with producer David "Ferg" Ferguson, the album is as diverse as its influences, balancing electric full-band performances with intimate, stripped-back recordings that place Helms' storytelling front and center. For Helms, that balance feels like an extension of a childhood spent on the borderlines, embracing the grey areas between social groups.
"In high school, you were either an artistic kid who did choir and theater, or you were a redneck in FFA," he remembers. "I did it all. I never fit into any one category, and I think my music is the same way. I play multiple instruments. I play multiple genres. I've got more than a few sides of music in me."
That diversity springs to life on the album's title track, which was inspired by a childhood friend whose struggles with alcohol ended in tragedy. Rather than offering easy answers, Helms uses the song to wrestle with grief, survivor's guilt, and resilience. "Young and Dumb" examines addiction through the eyes of someone losing a battle with it. "Deadhead on the Weekend" tells the true story a troubled former boss whose self-destruction ultimately cost him his job, while acknowledging the lessons he still left behind.
Elsewhere, Helms broadens the album's perspective. "Armed and Dangerous" tells the story of his girlfriend's father, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a child and survived hardships that forced him into a life few Americans could imagine. Built around cinematic imagery and rhythms inspired by Mexican music, the song offers a perspective rarely heard in contemporary country songwriting. Then there's "Ballad of the Bondurant Boys," an epic acoustic narrative inspired by Franklin County's infamous moonshine era. Like many of Helms' best songs, it blurs the line between history lesson and folk tale, preserving a piece of regional culture while emphasizing more universal themes like power, injustice, and survival.
You can take Helms out of Virginia, but you can't take Virginia out of Helms. His songwriting incorporates waltzes, ballads, and old-school rhythms that once formed the backbone of Appalachian dances but have become rare in modern roots music. Songs like "Fool's Gold," "Voices Shot," and "Ballad of the Bondurant Boys" pay tribute to those traditions, while tracks like "Welcome to the Freak Show" serve as a mission statement, reminding us that regardless of background, geography, or circumstance, everyone deserves a seat at the table. "Backwoods or suburbs, you know we are all just the same," he sings, "'cause no matter where you come from, we all got red blood and it’s coursing through all of our veins."
That idea may be the thread connecting every song on One For the Losers. Whether he's singing about a struggling musician, a moonshiner, a man crossing the desert in search of a better life, or a friend lost too soon, Helms approaches each story with compassion. He isn't interested in dividing people into winners and losers. He's more interested in understanding them…and maybe drawing a few connections between them, too.
For Helms, that responsibility carries extra weight because of where he comes from. Appalachia is one of the most misunderstood regions in America, often flattened into stereotypes that ignore its complexity and creativity. As a proud resident of the area, he hopes to offer a fuller picture. "Appalachia isn't represented to its fullest extent," he says. "Artists like me, it's our job to carry that torch and shed some light on that region."
With One for the Losers, Colby T. Helms does more than shine a light on Appalachia. He shines a light on the people living within it: the dreamers, outcasts, survivors, cautionary tales, and everyday souls whose stories rarely make the spotlight, but are just as deserving as everybody else.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 33.80
