Here comes Gold Heart – the latest sister act to take bluegrass music by storm.

This trio of young siblings – Analise (19), Jocelyn (16) and Shelby (13) Gold – has been turning heads and pricking up ears this past two years on the festival circuit, starting with appearances near their home in Northern Virginia.

They caused quite a stir at this past fall’s IBMA convention in Nashville, where they requested a meeting with Sam Passamano of Rural Rhythm Records. Passamano was impressed immediately with the band’s originality, poise and musicianship, but also with the aura of professionalism and seriousness from such young and relatively inexperienced performers.

Gold Heart has just signed a record deal with Rural Rhythm, and are currently in Nashville working in Brent Truitt’s studio to complete their first project for their new label. Justin Carbone (of Special Consensus) is producing, as he did for their previous CD, Never Let Go, released in the fall of 2008.

Nine of the twelve songs for this new album were written by Jocelyn Gold, who plays guitar with the group. Sister Analise plays mandolin, and Shelby is on fiddle. All three contribute vocally and are assisted by their dad, Trent Gold on bass, and Owen Piatt on banjo.

Truitt and Carbone are very pleased with the tracking so far, and the band is excited by this opportunity to share their music with a wider audience.

“Gold Heart is thrilled to have recently signed on with Rural Rhythm Records. Less than 4 years ago, we were just dreaming up how cool it would be to ‘be a band’ and knew nothing about the instruments we now love to play. Little did we know that our dream would so soon come true with a record deal to top it off!!”

Their sound is fresh and very much shaped by the “Virginia style” of contemporary bluegrass. I would be very surprised if Gold Heart doesn’t create a buzz as soon as these tracks hit the airwaves and the digital streams later this year.

No release date has been announced, but should be determined soon.