Mountain Faith has made another personnel change this year, bringing Nick Dauphinais on board to play guitar after the departure of both David and Jimmy Meyer. Nick has been with the band this past few weeks.
He joins modern bluegrass’ current first family, the McMahans of western North Carolina. Sam McMahan plays bass, with daughter Summer up front on fiddle and lead vocals, and son Brayden on banjo. They are joined as well by Cory Piatt on mandolin, and Chris Wright on drums. Yet another McMahan, Sam’s brother Mickey, goes along to play piano on selected shows.
Bluegrass fans will recognize Nick from his work with Mark Kuykendall and Bobby Hicks, and from the terrific independent album he and his brother Lucas released last year as The Dauphinais Brothers, Empty Teardrops.
Dauphinais tells us that he is loving his time on the road with Mountain Faith, and is still able to stay in touch with his other musical pursuits.
“I started playing with them at the end of May and so far it’s been a dream job! They’re great people! We’re doing a lot of traveling, meeting great folks, and we have some exciting things in the works.
I’m still playing with Mark and Bobby, as that outfit plays a couple shows a year. My brother and I have begun to work on the next Dauphinais Brothers album as well which we are really excited about. We hope to have that album ready by winter/spring time.”
Mountain Faith has been having a big year following their star turn last summer on NBC TV’s America’s Got Talent program, where they won the hearts of millions of viewers with their stylized, grassy remakes of pop music hits.
In fact, their most recent music video is a playful cover of Car Wash, the 1976 hit for Rose Royce. Mountain Faith has subtly rewritten it as Tire Shop, with the video capturing the band in their “day jobs” working at Sam and Mickey McMahan’s business, High Country Tire in Sylva, NC. It’s a perfect example of the joyful, boisterous sound that is winning them new fans both in and out of bluegrass.
You can check the Mountain Faith schedule online to catch them in your part of the world.
