Mountain Heart veers off bluegrass's well-worn path

While firmly planted in its bluegrass roots, Mountain Heart likes to veer off the beaten path

by walter tunis Contributing Music Writer

The latest Mountain Heart lineup features Aaron Ramsey, left, Barry Abernathy, Josh Shilling, Clay Jones, Jason Moore and Jim VanCleve.

Mountain Heart

7 p.m. Jan. 9 at Meadowgreen Park Music Hall, 303 Bluegrass Lane, Clay City. $15. (606) 663-9008. www.kyfriends.com.
During the past decade, we have come to know Mountain Heart as an industrious bluegrass brigade full of familiar faces (including longtime Renfro Valley singer Steve Gulley and one-time Alison Krauss mandolinist Adam Steffey, both of whom have left the band), a feverish sense of traditionalism and a willingness to veer into uncharted musical territory.
So imagine the sense of surprise that came from viewing a 2009 performance clip on YouTube of today's Mountain Heart lineup, which adds — dare we say it — keyboards to its string band sound for a cover of Stevie Wonder's Superstition.
A sellout? Not by what the video revealed, although the true test won't come until we see a full performance of Mountain Heart's unexpected stylistic expansion. And son of a gun, we're in luck. The band plays this weekend as part of the Meadowgreen Park Music Hall's annual autumn-to-spring concert series in Clay City.
Actually, if you've heard Mountain Heart's fine 2007 concert album, Road That Never Ends, the stylistic leaps between the traditional and the contemporary seem natural. Cut after singer/guitarist/keyboardist Josh Shilling replaced Gulley but before Jason Moore took over for Steffey, Road That Never Ends cements Mountain Heart's tireless picking ingenuity on the warp speed Devil's Courthouse, a tune originally penned by fiddler Jim Van Cleve for his splendid 2006 solo recording, No Apologies. Ditto for the jubilant vocal inspirations propelling the a cappella Gospel Train.

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