Here’s an advance look and listen to a song from the upcoming Mountain Heart project, an EP expected in early July. The song is That Just Happened, written by Josh Shilling and Jim VanCleve, shot at The Melting Point in Athens, GA on April 24.
The band has been migrating steadily this past few years from a contemporary bluegrass band to a genre-busting format that defies easy description. It’s still banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, bass for the most part, but with an edgier presentation and occasional forays into rock and pop sounds when lead singer Josh Shilling plops down at the keyboard.
Of course these guys can still scald a strictly bluegrass show, and are excited by the recent opportunities they have had to put a bluegrass sound in front of large, non-bluegrass audiences.
Brian Smith, Mountain Heart’s manager, tells us about just such a show this past weekend in Florida.
“We just finished a run that saw us in Live Oak, FL at the Suwannee River Jam. It was a huge and I mean HUGE country/rock festival with John Fogerty, Kansas, Travis Tritt and many more. We were very well received, and had the new band LoCash Cowboys jam with us at midnight. They evidently really admire Mountain Heart, but I didn’t know it until they told us.
We are getting lots of emails from people who had never heard of us until that event, and who are now signing up on the web site to follow our show calendar.”
Brian said they are already in loose talk with LoCash Cowboys about touring and writing together this year.
Mountain Heart is also excited about their upcoming taping of Bluegrass Underground on May 22. This show is being recorded as a potential pilot for a television on PBS, and will also feature Ricky Skaggs, Cherryholmes and 18 South, a new country/Americana outfit that includes Mike Bub on bass and Jon Randall Stewart on guitar and vocals.
We hope to get some video from the Mountain Heart show at the Suwanee River Jam soon.
