T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Jake Warton, left, and Scott LaRue are pictured in the Ten Strings Tavern Podcast Studio.

MARTINS FERRY — A local podcast aims to bring attention to Ohio Valley talent.

Ten Strings Tavern is a podcast started by Jake Wharton and Scott LaRue in May 2023. Its goal is to showcase entertainers who are native to the Ohio Valley.

The name comes from Wharton being a guitar player — an instrument with six strings — and LaRue playing a four-string bass.

“Originally we were just wanting to stick to musicians because that’s our niche and that’s what we know. But then we kind of just started branching off to anyone that we would be interested in interviewing,” Wharton said.

“Anything with the Ohio Valley,” LaRue interjected while discussing who they are interested in interviewing.

“We’ve been doing music for so long that we already had all the audio equipment, and I had a bar in my house and didn’t have anything to do with it. So basically we had the studio, we had the equipment, all we needed was basically to contact DJ Tirpak and ask him how to make thumbnail images and a logo,” Wharton said of starting the podcast.

The duo plan to continue to build and expand their brand, partly by attending multiple local festivals this summer. They said they eventually intend to hire a reporter to do man-on-the-street style interviews with random people at festivals. Such interviews have gained popularity in recent years on social media due to the work of interviewers such as Andrew Callagan of Channel 5, formerly known as All Gas No Breaks, as well as multiple staff members of Barstool Sports, which was created by Dave Portnoy.

LaRue and Wharton met due to family connections. LaRue’s wife is Wharton’s wife’s mother.

According to LaRue, Wharton brought up the idea of the podcast at a family dinner they had on a Sunday and they had the gear needed delivered by the following Tuesday.

“This is definitely a 98% and 2% split. Jake’s ran with this, and I’m just back here holding onto the coattails along for the ride,” LaRue said.

Ten Strings Tavern has interviewed local musicians, military members, concert promoters, athletes, coaches and social media influencers. New episodes of the podcast are released weekly on all streaming platforms. They also have clips on Tiktok, Youtube Shorts and Facebook shorts.