Mountain Heart has been selected to perform the National Anthem before the NASCAR TUMS Fast Relief 500 race at Martinsville Speedway on October 25. This is a major event is southwestern VA and throughout the racing world, which will be broadcast live on ABC Sports.

The race starts at 1:30 p.m. (EDT), with ABC coverage beginning at 1:00 p.m.

Manager Brian Smith told us that this was an appearance that took a lot of work to secure, and the guys are very excited about the opportunity.

“We are still discussing the arrangement but everyone will appear even if they don’t all sing. It will be a big homecoming for Josh Shilling, who hails from nearby and cut his teeth in that music market.”

This will be a big day for bluegrass music and sports. October 25 will also find Rhonda Vincent singing the anthem before the NFL’s Chiefs-Chargers game in Kansas City.

Way to go Mountain Heart and Rhonda – more please!

Watch the video from Mountain Heart we shot during their special Tuesday night showcase at IBMA. It offers a glimpse of the variety of music they deliver, from traditional bluegrass to a rockin’, hybrid sound. The presentation was powerful, and whether you agree with taking bluegrass in this direction, the impact of the performance was impressive – and unforgettable.

Watch the video here.

Here’s the video we’ve been telling you about from the Mountain Heart showcase the other night. Like John said, they’re intentionally showcasing what they’re doing that isn’t straight up bluegrass.

What do you think?

I wanted to add a few impressions to what Brance posted earlier…

Mountain Heart: I thought that their showcase was brilliant, and was very interested to see how they would approach this “going over to the other side” vibe. When the band launched in 1999 – in another en masse exodus from Doyle Lawson – they were a decidedly bluegrass group, very much in the Quicksilver mode.

Only banjo player and vocalist Barry Abernathy and fiddler Jim VanCleve remain from the original lineup, and with new members coming and going, you expect any band to see an evolution in their sound.

Over these ten years, they have been drifting towards a more modern sound, both in their recordings and in their stage presentation. With the addition last year of Josh Shilling, a very talented vocalist and songwriter whose background is in blues and funk-based music, the guys have been drifting ever farther from a bluegrass-only format. Even the fiddle tunes they perform often rely on harmony that owes as much to rock as bluegrass, and the production of their recent studio albums have strayed from kickoff-verse-chorus-break arrangements.

The whole point of last night’s showcase was to introduce a new stage show that made no attempt to be “a bluegrass band” or a “blues band” or a “rock band.”  The video Brance is editing now will have a lot of comments from Shilling about their newly-refocused approach, where they just let the various stylistic influences in the band be what they are. Bluegrass traditionalists may not care for it, but it struck me that anyone with an open mind towards quality music would have to work hard to dislike it.

Mountain Heart is hosting a mega-jam tonight (9/30) to celebrate their 10th Anniversary, with a stellar list of guests scheduled to appear with them on stage. We will certainly be trying to catch that, tonight at 11:15 p.m. (CDT).

Adam Steffey: I agree with Brance that this was a highlight of the day’s music. All the Mountain Heart guys were there – they headed down to see Adam (a former band mate) after their event had concluded.

His band – essentially The Dan Tyminski Band with Clay Hess on guitar and Randy Kohrs on resonator guitar – was sonic perfection. Ron Stewart shows every time he straps on one why he is among the most admired banjoists in bluegrass. Barry Bales plays bass with the tone and sense of time that the rest seek to emulate, and Justin Moses plays fiddle and sings tenor as well as one could hope. (more…)