How to go
Who: Mountain Heart
Where: Canal Street Tavern, 308 E. First St., Dayton
When: Friday, Nov. 6 at 9:30 p.m.
Cost: $15
More info: (937) 461-9343 or www.canalstreettavern.com
Artist info: www.mountainheart.com
Bluegrass music was the goal when Mountain Heart formed in 1999. However, something changed along the way.
Today, Jim VanCleve (fiddle), Josh Shilling (vocals, guitar), Barry Abernathy (banjo), Jason Moore (bass), Clay Jones (guitar) and Aaron Ramsey (mandolin) are creating a bluegrass fusion that may shock purists.
“It’s definitely not what I set out to do,” VanCleve said. “I had a ‘bluegrass band’ in my eyes when I was starting to get into music in general. Right now, we don’t bother trying to put a label on it because it’s just too many things to stick one on easily enough.
“Eclectic Americana bands seem to be what people want right now,” he said. “They don’t want something so formulaic. I’m kind of in that boat — I’m bored. If nothing else, we’re fighting off boredom.”
One of the keys to Mountain Heart’s recent musical evolution was the addition of lead singer-multi-instrumentalist Josh Shilling in 2007.
“Josh is well versed in a lot of different kinds of music,” VanCleve said. “He brought new things to the situation that we never could have envisioned before. He’s as adept at singing funk, rock ’n’ roll and R&B as anything. All of a sudden we’ve got these six really unique, strong musical identities on stage and they’re all meeting in this place that’s never been found before.
“You hear some stuff and it sounds like somebody threw a bunch of stuff at a wall, but this seems like a complete sound to me,” he said. “When I hear it, it doesn’t sound scattered. Even though it’s so eclectic, somehow or another, what we’re doing right now feels like a complete picture.”
Mountain Heart, which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a star-studded blowout in Nashville in late September, performs at Canal Street Tavern on Friday, Nov. 6.
“Our show has become a party,” VanCleve said. “It’s an intense, in-your-face party. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of crowd interaction, and we feed off their energy. It has definitely gone through a cool metamorphosis here in the last three or four years.”
After a decade together, VanCleve and his band mates have discovered a way to combat the boredom of formulaic music and it’s paying off.
“We may be on a better trajectory right now than we’ve been on ever,” he said. “It’s hard for me to say because I don’t have objectivity at this point. But it feels like it’s going better than it’s gone in a long time, so we’re all excited.”
Contact contributing arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donaldthrasher8@aol.com.
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