Philapdelphia PBS television station WHYY featured Mountain Heart in a recent episode of their On Canvas program. The show features lengthy bits of live video from the band’s February 1 performance at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, interspersed with interview clips with Mountain Heart fiddler Jim VanCleve.
Jim’s narration offers a nice history of the band, from a contemporary bluegrass group that split off from Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver in 1999, to their current iteration as a more experimental outfit that blends traditional bluegrass instruments with aspects of blues, rock and old time music into their grassified sound.
This was filmed prior to VanCleve contracting dengue hemorrhagic fever in March, from which he is only now emerging. Jim has returned to touring with Mountain Heart after several weeks of recovery, but is still suffering from bouts of fatigue. A medical fund has been established to assist his family with non-insured expenses and loss of income during his hospitalization and recuperation.
