Hometown to welcome Mountain Faith as conquering heroes

Mountain FaithThe Jackson County North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Sylva, and Jackson County Parks and Recreation have come together to schedule a welcome home parade for Mountain Faith as they return from their America’s Got Talent adventure in New York City.

Despite losing out in the semi-final round, folks back home see the band as winners all the same, and invite everyone out at 6:30 p.m. on September 10 to congratulate them for a job well done. The parade will process down Main Street and conclude with a reception at the Bridge Park in Sylva, where all the band members will host a meet and greet with fans.

Bluegrass Today would like to also share our congratulations to Mountain Faith. They took on a very difficult task, working behind enemy lines in hostile territory, so to speak, and won over very large numbers of people across the US who loved their music, and their upbeat, can-do attitude.

We’d like to also address some comments that have been made here on our site, and on our Facebook page suggesting that what they played wasn’t bluegrass, or that they might have done better had they played “regular” bluegrass.

America’s Got Talent, and similar programs, is a celebration of the current pop culture. The only reason Mountain Faith was invited on the show was because of their willingness to play pop covers with bluegrass instruments. It was marvelous to see the New York audiences embrace the band and their sound, but the show is designed to reward singing and music that is far more bombastic and demonstrative than is common in bluegrass.

So perhaps they were fated to be eliminated all along, but the thing to take away is that they demonstrated the joy and beauty of our music to many millions of people, making considerable sacrifices to be available as needed in New York. Fortunately, event producers were understanding as the band had to cancel a few existing obligations to accommodate the show schedule.

Bottom line, in our book… Mountain Faith are bluegrass heroes, and deserving of our praise and admiration.

For those who have only seen them on America’s Got talent, here’s a video of Feelin’ Blue, one of their original songs, which just happens to be the #1 song on our Bluegrass Today Weekly Airplay Chart this week.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.