Mountain Heart

In 1998, Mountain Heart formed with Adam Steffey, Steve Gulley, Barry Abernathy, Jimmy Van Cleve and Johnny Dowdle. When Steffey left, Alan Perdue took over mandolin duties. Since their award-winning Gospel album, "The Journey," Steffey returned to the band in 2002. Guitar wizard Clay Jones also joined the band shortly thereafter. Since 2002, Jason Moore has been the band's bass player. What experience and credentials! Guitarist Gulley worked for 15 years at Renfro Valley (a Kentucky music park), and he appears on three albums with Doyle Lawson. Banjo-player Abernathy has picked with Silver Creek, IIIrd Tyme Out, and Doyle Lawson. Fiddler Jimmy Van Cleve has played with Rambler's Choice, Doyle Lawson, Ric-O-Chet, and Lou Reid & Carolina.

In 1999, Mountain Heart released their first album and won IBMA's award for "Emerging Artist of the Year." The group's "No Other Way" album came out on Skaggs Family Records in late 2002. Now, "Force of Nature," continues to showcase their excellent material that is derived from various sources. This is a very professionally presented stellar package of the best in bluegrass music today. It also prominently displays their proficient songwriting abilities. Everyone in the band creatively contributes. Gulley sings "Soldier's Prayer" with convincing emotion, and some pennywhistle in the mix imparts a Celtic flavor to the piece. "Heart Like a Roadsign" is a hustling bluegrass number (about pain, money and sacrifice) that has an intensity that few bluegrass bands can achieve. Abernathy's lead vocal and flashy mountain banjo drive "A Memory Like Mine," a minor-keyed and lonesome tale of the memories left after a dead soldier's return. Steffey sings in a low register and does a decent job with "Twister," as he watches "thirty years of sweat and soil a-dancing through the sky."

Van Cleve wrote the high-geared instrumental, "#6 Barn Dance," and he collaborated with others to pen "Born on the Wind" and "Another Day." Steve Gulley (with Tim Stafford) composed the reflective and nostalgic "Snapshots and Souvenirs" about growing up and life moving on. Mountain Heart also covers Flatt and Scruggs' "The Old Home Town," as well as the contemporary ballad, "Man in the Mirror," about a man trying to come to terms with his lying ways.

Repertoire, arrangements, and musicianship are making Mountain Heart a defining bluegrass voice of our time. Their contemporary stirring sound keeps a foot solidly planted in the traditions of bluegrass while one is pointed to a distinctive sound of the future. The band's goal is to continue the personal bond that they fully embrace. With that cohesion, fans will be rewarded with many more right pert projects like "Force of Nature." (Joe Ross)

MOUNTAIN HEART - Force of Nature
Skaggs Family Records
329 Rockland Road, Hendersonville, TN. 37075
Playing Time - 48:12