The Steeldrivers

This weeks Grand Ole Opry while short on quanity will feature 2 strong Bluegrass Bands, Mountain Heart and The Steeldrivers.

Mountain Heart will play sets both Friday and Saturday night. Their latest release, “Road That Never Ends” on Rural Rhythm Records is currently at # 11 on Roots Music Report’s Bluegrass charts.

Saturday night, The Steeldrivers will be performing material off of their self-titled debut, on Rounder, that is garnering critical acclaim and has launched the seasoned group of Nashville session musicians and songwriters into an in-demand act for the 2008 festival season.

Friday, May 2

• Mountain Heart — 9:00 - 9:30

Saturday, May 3

• The Steeldrivers — 7:00 - 8:00
• Mountain Heart — 8:30 - 9:00 & 11:00 - 11:30

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.

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1929 Martin 0-18 guitar in for restoration work.

Coming this Monday on BluegrassJournal.com

On Monday, April 7, Rickey Lamb brings us Part 1 of a multi-part feature story on the restoration of a 1929 Martin 0-18 guitar that belongs to his family. The history of the guitar crosses the path of Bill Monroe who once borrowed the guitar from Rickey’s Uncle Pete Hatton.

Marty Lanham of the Nashville Guitar Company is doing the restoration on the guitar and has been kind enough to help us document the restoration of this treasured instrument over the course of the next 2 to 3 months.

Charlie Sizemore Band coming to the Station Inn

Charlie Sizemore and company is scheduled to perform at the Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn. on Saturday April 12. The show will start at 9:00 PM and admission is $10.00.

A native of eastern Kentucky, Sizemore was hired at age 17 to take over for the departing Keith Whitley in Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, with whom he stayed for nine years before leaving to start his own band and attend college. He graduated with honors from the University of Kentucky, and now maintains a successful law practice in addition to his musical endeavors. Over the past 20 years since leaving the employment of Ralph Stanley, Sizemore has garnered a devoted following among fans and performers alike. He’s appeared on two Grammy® nominated albums (Ralph Stanley’s Saturday Night & Sunday Morning and The Stanley Tradition: Tribute to a Bluegrass Legacy) and received a Dove award nomination (for a track from 2002’s The Story Is…The Songs of Tom T. Hall).

The Charlie Sizemore Band is Charlie Sizemore (lead vocals, guitar), Danny Barnes (mandolin, vocals), Matt DeSpain (Dobro), and John Pennell (bass).

Hot off the menu: This month on the WDVX Blue Plate Special

East Tennessee’s Own WDVX will host several great Bluegrass bands on the Blue Plate Special, an hour long program featuring bands playing live on air, during the month of Arpil. Locals are encouraged to be part of the WDVX studio audience weekdays at noon (Eastern Time) for free performances in downtown Knoxville, Tenn. at the WDVX studios and for those who can’t make it down for a show, listen live on-line.

The WDVX studios are located in the Knoxville Visitor’s Center at the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tenn.

• Wed., April 9: Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere / The Gibson Brothers / Ben Soll
• Sat., April 12: at 3PM The Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile
• Thu., April 17: Yu’uns / Carolina Chocolate Drop
• Fri., April 18: Biscuit Burners / Howling Brothers / Jason Rigenberg
• Fri., April 25: Dale Ann Bradley / Charlie Sizemore / Jennings and Keller/ Early Grace Band

Mountain Heart video available on YallWire.com

Yallwire.com has recently added the video for Mountain Hearts’ “Road That Never Ends” to it’s library of music video’s online. You’ll have to watch a short advertisement before the video starts but it gets to the good stuff pretty quick. “The Road That Never Ends” is the title cut from Mountain Heart’s latest release on Rural Rhythm Records.

Mountain Hearts current lineup features Josh Shilling, Jim Van Cleve, Clay Hess, Barry Abernathy, Aaron Ramsey and Jason Moore.

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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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Mountain Heart - Road That Never Ends

Mountain Heart’s newest project, “Road That Never Ends” released today, October 23, on Rural Rhythm Records is the groups first live album and is the first to feature the group’s new frontman, Josh Shilling.

On “Road That Never Ends“, recorded at “The Ark” in Ann Arbor MI, the band covers a lot of ground. Along with the progressive bluegrass sound Mountain Heart has developed since the groups inception, the group brings a rock and roll influenced mentality to the title track, “Road That Never Ends.” The Josh Shilling penned, “It Works Both Ways,” finds the group delivering up a “down in the dumps” blues number. The fretboard burning pace of Jim Van Cleve’s own “Devil’s Courthouse” serves up a healthy dose of bluegrass fiddle and mandolin work along with some classical and jazz flavors thrown in to boot. While “Mountain Man,” featuring Adam Steffey on the vocals, finds the group returning to a more traditionally rooted sound.

Instrumentally, Mountain Heart stays true to form throughout the new project delivering many virtuoso, high energy performances, replete with the intricate melody, unison and harmony lines from the instruments of Adam Steffey, Jim Van Cleve, Barry Abernathy and Clay Jones And, at times, at blisteringly fast tempos.

Mountain Heart

Josh Shilling’s vocals bring a new and very progressive slant to Mountain Heart’s signature sound enabling the band to push the boundary’s of acoustic music even further. Shilling’s vocal delivery is at ease delivering an energetic and heavily rock inspired performance on the title cut that opens the album as he is on the soulful and emotionally charged delivery of “Who’s The Fool Now” that could easily find an audience on top 40 country radio stations.

Mountain Heart also includes their wildly popular “The Gospel Train” on the recording. Previously released on the group’s 2002 release, “The Journey,” (now out of print). This a cappella tour de force showcases the groups tight harmony vocals that are entrenched throughout “Road That Never Ends.”

By Travis Tackett

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Mountain Heart

NASHVILLE, TN — Mountain Heart, one of the most talented, versatile and explosive sextets in the acoustic firmament, will offer a special treat to fans new and old on October 23rd with the release of “Road That Never Ends” (The Live Album) on Rural Rhythm Records. Building on the group’s already recognized strengths, “Road That Never Ends” ups the ante by bringing new elements of rock, blues and jazz to its signature blend of bluegrass, gospel and jamgrass, underlining the sextet’s unique role in the world of acoustic music.

Recorded May 26th, 2007 in the intimacy of The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, “The Road…” represents Mountain Heart’s first live recording, and as their faithful listeners well know, it is in front of a live audience that this award-winning combo is truly in its exuberant, celebratory element. Presenting nearly an hour’s worth of tried-and-true fan favorites along with some choice new additions destined to lock-in even upon first hearing.

The recording also showcases the band’s newest addition, guitarist and primary lead singer Josh Shilling. At only 23 years old but with a wealth of experience and talent, Shilling’s elastic, expressive tenor handles the traditional high lonesome sound with uncanny flair even as his way with ballads (as on his own seductive, heartbreaking “Who’s the Fool Now?”) and soulful, gut-bucket blues (the low-down original “It Works Both Ways” and a scintillating interpretation of the Allman Brothers’ eternal “Whipping Post”) further expand Mountain Heart’s already-enviable stylistic range and command.

Mandolinist Adam Steffy has garnered six consecutive IBMA nominations as best in his field while fiddler, founding member and producer of The Road…, Jim Van Cleve earned a 2006 GRAMMY nomination for ‘Best Country Instrumental’ with his solo disc “No Apologies,” (on Rural Rhythm Records) and the rest of the gang (co-founder/banjo wizard Barry Abernathy, bassist Jason Moore and guitarist Clay Jones) routinely dazzle crowds with their individual prowess, intuitive, extra-sensory group interplay and–always–an uncommon knack for crowd-pleasing showmanship.

The disc features scintillating live versions of fan favorites such as Steve Gulley’s “I’m Just Here to Ride the Train,” a showboating workout on the beloved “Heart Like a Road Sign,” Barry Abernathy’s stellar reading of Pat McLaughlin’s soaring “God and Everybody,” and rollicking, kinetic instrumentals “Devil’s Courthouse” (from Van Cleve’s solo disc) and the lights-out closer “#6 Barn Dance” (which somehow falls just short of setting the Michigan woodlands ablaze).

An extra-special treat is the welcome return of “The Gospel Train.” Mountain Heart’s awe-inspiring rendition of the well-traveled traditional roof-raiser helped them earn an IBMA award for ‘Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year’ in 2002 with the album “The Journey,” but their then-label has since folded, leaving this inspirational evergreen out-of-print until now.

Change…as we all know…can be taxing, particularly when it involves the personnel of a much-loved touring band. But with “Road That Never Ends,” Mountain Heart meets the challenge, keeping the home fires burning even as it strikes out for–and conquers–new musical territory. Their hearts may lie in the mountains, but wherever the road takes them, these acoustic music masters will always make it feel like home.

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