How many times have we heard this story? Talented bluegrass artist grows up in a family band, traveling all over the country as a youngster, grows up as an accomplished performer, only to step back when marriage and family responsibilities call. Then, a few years later, they return to the stage when they find that it’s such a part of who they are that they can’t let it go.
Heard that one before?
Well, that’s the story of Summer Brooke Morgan, née McMahan, of Mountain Faith. She started out as a precocious teen singer and fiddler with her dad, brother, and cousin beside her when Mountain Faith launched from Sylva, NC in 2000. Her vocal talent quickly won her and the band renown, with record contracts and touring opportunities laid before them.
Their’s made for a perfect small town success story, as Summer, her brother Brayden, and her dad, Sam, all worked during the day at the family’s tire shop and convenience store in Sylva, and they cleaned up and headed out on the weekends to sing bluegrass and bluegrass gospel music.
Then in 2015, an audition for America’s Got Talent on NBC brought them national attention, as did several subsequent weeks on the show, where they played grassed-up arrangements of pop hits. Their obvious musical skills, together with the charm of their story, made them an instant hit, and even after being eliminated from the show, Summer and Mountain Faith found themselves on big stages that had never been open to them before.
There they were performing the national anthem at NFL games; Summer hired on as a sideline reporter with ESPN. Everything was moving fast.
Once COVID shut things down in 2020, the band dissolved and Summer began recording as a solo artist. Then in 2022, she and Chace Morgan were married, and a daughter, Winslie, came in 2025. Touring was off the table for a time.
But Summer is back, as is Mountain Faith, with a new single, one she wrote about the storytelling tradition in her family.
We’ll let her tell the tale.
“After coming off the road in 2020, I never fully felt ‘finished.’ Over the last five years I have found myself dreaming of performing again. I’ve missed it terribly, and am so thankful for the opportunities that have opened up so far!
The latest song I’ve released is called I Come From Storytellers. It’s so special to me. Every word is true.
I was sitting there one day thinking about all of the different storytellers throughout my family history. My grandpa told us stories every night by a lamp in the living room when we would stay with them way up in the mountains. All the women in my family wrote stories that had been passed down, and always wrote sentences on the back of pictures so no one would ever forget where the picture was from/what was going on that day. I had great aunts that also wrote stories on behalf of others and some that even wrote music!
That must be where my storytelling came from, I just tell them in a different way! That’s what that song talks about.
I have more new music to come, and I’ll still be traveling with the Mountain Faith guys!”
It’s a lovely song, full of family reminiscences, so if you’ve enjoyed Summer’s music in the past, this one will grab you as well.
Check it out.
I Come From Storytellers is available now from popular download and streaming services online. Radio programmers may contact Summer via Facebook for an airplay copy.
