Nashville, Tenn. — Once again, Mountain Heart is blazing new trails for bluegrass and acoustic music with the March 5th music video release of the title track from the Road That Never Ends (The Live Album) on Rural Rhythm Records. This is Mountain Heart’s first music video and was produced by Josh Shilling and directed by Scott Hansen from Renown Studio.

AristoMedia will distribute the video to National and Regional music video outlets. Jessica Bilak Porfirio, Manager of Video Marketing & Promotions with the company enthusiastically stated, “We are happy to be working with Rural Rhythm Records and Mountain Heart on this new project. We are looking forward to taking this high energy and well produced music video to our panel of outlets where we anticipate a great response.”

The video was shot in numerous locations around Roanoke, Virginia including the live show performance and bar scenes filmed at the Grey Stone Tavern. Another location included the Virginia Beach area with an interesting story told by Shilling…

“The most memorable part of filming the video for Road That Never Ends has got to be the bone-chilling scene we tried to capture in the rain. We needed a scene to accent the lyrics that portrayed a man begging forgiveness for all that he’d done wrong. It was midnight, around Christmas time, and the temperature had dropped to a painful 15 degrees. We setup lighting in a dark alley and piped a water hose to the scene from a nearby building. We spent twenty minutes filming me falling to my knees with freezing water being sprayed all over the scene from above. After the cameras, our clothes, and the concrete surrounding us began to freeze, we had to call it off. My skin was red and felt numb as we stripped our wet clothes off and huddled around a small space heater in a garage. I’m certain this was the closest you can get to hypothermia without being hospitalized. After we thawed out, reality set in that after all of our efforts, the awesome shot we were going for, simply didn’t exist. It’s something the world would’ve never known about, but hey, I guess it’s all for the love of music!”Josh Shilling - Mountain Heart

“Road That Never Ends” written by band members Josh Shilling and Grammy™ nominated Jim VanCleve, was chosen by Dirty Linen Magazine as part of the Dirty Linen CD Sampler titled, Editor’s Choice. This CD sampler will be distributed to all Dirty Linen subscriber’s as well as future subscribers. The song is also rapidly climbing the Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine Top 30 Singles Chart and hit #1 on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Top 40. The Album reached #4 on BILLBOARD Magazine’s Top 15 Bluegrass Album Chart and made its debut this month on Bluegrass Unlimited’s Top 15 Album Chart.

Mountain Heart is widely known throughout the music industry for constantly redefining the cutting edge. The band has gained legions of fans both as a result of their superlative musicianship, and more notably, their incomparably exciting live performances. This was truly evident at their recent return performance at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This special “homecoming concert” was sold out days in advance.

Mountain Heart band members include: Josh Shilling (lead vocals, guitar, piano); Jim Van Cleve (fiddle, vocals); Barry Abernathy (banjo, vocals); Jason Moore (bass, vocals); Aaron Ramsey (mandolin); and Clay Hess (guitar, vocals).

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Billing itself as “the original pickin’ camp,” the 24th annual Bluegrass Week will be held July 27 through Aug. 2 at the Augusta Heritage Center on the campus of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W. Va.

Some of the genre’s most respected musicians will lead students this year in workshops, demonstrations, special presentations, concerts and picking sessions, according to Bluegrass Week coordinator John Rossbach. This year’s staff is led by special guest artists Tim O’Brien and Stuart Duncan.

Bobby Hicks. Photo by Thomas Stout

Teaching fiddle will be Bobby Hicks, Buddy Spicher and Andrew Van Norstrand. Mandolin will be taught by Herschel Sizemore, Sharon Gilchrist and John Rossbach. Teaching guitar are Russ Barenberg, Leigh Gibson and David McLaughlin.

Banjo will be handled by Terry Baucom, Eric Gibson and Ira Gitlin. Dobro/resonator guitar teachers are Mike Witcher and Jimmy Heffernan. Bass is taught by Mike Bub and Missy Raines.

Vocal instructors are Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum and Chris Stuart and Janet Beazley. Two levels of bluegrass vocal classes are being offered.

Informal picking sessions at all levels will go on into the wee hours all over campus as students get together with old friends and make new ones.

Evening concerts will feature combinations of master bluegrass artists with special guests. Picking time with the teaching staff will be part of the program for all students.

On Friday afternoon, an optional student showcase will give students the opportunity to perform for each other and the staff.

Young people who are able to maintain an adult level of participation are welcome. There will be opportunities to form bands, dance, and socialize with other teenagers at Augusta that week.

The week will run concurrently with the heritage center’s Folk Arts Week and Teen Week.

Information, including registration details, is available at www.augustaheritage.com

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The Seldom Scene play Mar. 28 at the Music Center at Strathmore in Maryland. Photo by Michael Stewart

Bluegrass On the Tuesday Night Opry

The Grascals will play on the 7:30 - 8:00 portion of the Tuesday night Opry tonight, March 11th.

You can also catch the “Idol of American Youth,” Ranger Doug Green and bandmates, Riders in the Sky on the 7:00-7:30 portion. Riders in the Sky are offering a special discount on Opry tickets for all their fans. Check out Riders in the Sky online for more information.

The Grand Ole Opry is broadcast live on WSM 650 AM radio, online at www.WSMonline.com and on XM Satellite Radio (XM 11). All listed times are central time.

Hall of Fame Happenings

Sunday March 23, at 1:00PM the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn. will host a Dobro and Flatpick Guitar Demonstration with Al Goll and Tim May.

The Museum is located at 222 Fifth Ave. S. in downtown Nashville, Tenn. and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.

Bluegrass coming to The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland

Friday, March 28th Washington D.C. based band and 2006 Wammie Award winners, The Seldom Scene and 2006 National Heritage Award winner, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver will present an evening of Bluegrass music. The show starts at 8:00 PM (eastern). For tickets and more information visit the Strathmore online.

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