As their name might lend you to believe, Mountain Heart is a band that embraces bluegrass in the traditional sense. However, on this first album in half a decade, the outfit have added country, R&B, folk-pop, and a healthy dose of singer-songwriter balladry. With a new lineup of musicians to accompany frontman Josh Shilling and Aaron Ramsey, it’s no wonder that Mountain Heart moves into different directions here. <\/p>\n
The album leads with the title track \u201cBlue Skies,\u201d which is a soulful, acoustic feel-good song with positive themes and playful violins and guitars. \u201cMiss Me When I’m Gone\u201d follows and is more keys-based and introspective, where sweeping mandolins set the mood well. \u201cMaggie’s Farm,\u201d originally a Bob Dylan tune, picks the pace up into a bluegrass barnyard romper that could easily incite an impromptu dance-off amid a slew of farm animals. <\/p>\n
The middle of the album brings us the soft, graceful balladry of \u201cNo One To Listen\u201d before the fuller, yearning and powerful \u201cShe’ll Come Back To Me.\u201d \u201cAddicted\u201d is a lush, freewheelin’ album highlight, and \u201cThe Bad Grounds,\u201d which is entirely instrumental, showcases the string acrobatics of the talented players involved. <\/p>\n
The end of the album offers \u201cHave You Heard About The Old Hometown,\u201d which hints at the classic sounds of Whiskeytown. The listen exits on the gentlest offering here, the soft keys and calm melodies of \u201cHurting,\u201d but not before the frisky, upbeat, shuffling of \u201cI Can’t Get Over You.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recorded and produced by the band in the studio sans any overdubs or studio magic, Blue Skies<\/i> is filled with rich instrumentation, forthright song craft, and vulnerable moments amid sounds that could soundtrack a backyard party. While this particular collage of Americana, alt-country, and indie jam band sounds is certainly more prevalent than ever in 2017, Mountain Heart is definitely a stand out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10026],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45018","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mountain-heart","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45018"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}