Summer & Bray Archives - Bluegrass Today

Best Friends from Summer Brooke

Mountain Fever Records has a new single for Summer Brooke, i.e., Summer McMahan of Mountain Faith and Summer & Bray, a lovely song written with and about her brother, Brayden.

Titled Best Friends, Summer sings, with Brayden adding harmony, about the two western North Carolina siblings’ lives together, playing and singing, touring the US, appearing on America’s Got Talent, and recording in the studio for many years.

She says that it traces from the time he was born, when she didn’t necessarily approve of his arrival, on through their time performing side by side all over the country.

According to Summer…

“Best Friends was written by my brother and I. It’s more meaningful now that we aren’t singing together anymore. We honestly were best friends and enjoyed every second on the road together! At first, I wasn’t sure about a brother, but I’m so glad God chose Bray to be my sibling.”

It’s a lovely song, and Summer sings it beautifully. Anyone who has enjoyed her music over the last decade will surely find it to their liking. Bray plays banjo, with Seth Taylor on guitar, Bryan McDowell on fiddle, Shaun Richardson on mandolin, Aaron Ramsey on bass, and Nick Faulk on drums.

Have a listen…

Best Friends is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.

Wildlands drops for Summer & Bray

Despite their youth, Summer & Bray have been familiar faces on the bluegrass scene for more than a decade.

Many of us watched siblings Summer and Brayden McMahan grow up in their family band, Mountain Faith, when they were just teenagers. Led by their father, Sam, they started as a Gospel bluegrass group, and gradually moved towards recording and performing secular material as well, working both church and festival shows across the southeast. Television came calling in 2015, and the band appeared several times on America’s Got Talent, where they won over audiences with their clever bluegrass arrangements of pop music hits.

Summer and Bray are now poised and professional young adults, and dad no longer years for the travel life, so the two of them are pursuing a career as a duo, with band accompaniment. Recording for Mountain Fever Records, they saw great success last year with singles Heartbeat and Never Gonna Let You Down.

Now they have a new release, written together, with a new take on their signature positivity called Wildlands. It shows just how these two manage to blend a pop sensibility with their bluegrass roots.

Summer says it also draws from the wild areas near their home in western North Carolina.

“Brayden brought some of the lyrics to this song to me one morning, and I fell in love. He’s an outdoorsy mountain guy, so he’s lived this song! It makes me think of our hometown nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We hope y’all enjoy!”

Summer takes the lead vocal, supported by Bray on banjo and harmony vocals, Bryan McDowell on fiddle, Jeff Partin on reso-guitar, Shaun Richardson on mandolin, Seth Taylor on guitar, Aaron Ramsey on bass, and Nick Falk on percussion. Katie Fortner completes the vocal trio.

Have a listen…

Wildlands is available now from popular download and streaming services online. Radio programmers will find the track at AirPlay Direct.

Track Premiere: Kyrie from Summer & Bray

Summer and Brayden McMahan have dedicated most of their young lives to music. Starting as teens performing with their father and cousins as Mountain Faith, they captivated the bluegrass market with their fresh sound and Summer’s emerging vocal prowess. As the Mountain Faith Band they won acclaim as contestants on America’s Got Talent in 2015, applying bluegrass arrangements to pop favorites. Though they did not ultimately win the competition, Summer wowed audiences around the world and the band latched on to that success and began working to a new segment of the market.

Now, as young adults, it’s Summer & Bray, a brother sister duet team, who continue to record for Mountain Fever Records, with a sound that mixes all their many influences – bluegrass, Gospel, and acoustic country.

Their latest single follows the pattern that served them so well on AGT, converting pop songs into a bluegrass hybrid style. This time out, it’s their version of Kyrie, recorded by American rock group Mister Mister in 1985, and released at Christmastime that year. It became a #1 hit the next spring and found fans rocking out to the words of an ancient Christian prayer. The repeated phrase in the song, Kyrie Eleison, means Lord Have Mercy in Greek, and is the beginning of a prayer used to this day in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox faith. It is also used in other liturgical Christian churches, either in the original Greek or translated into the vernacular.

Written by John Lang, Richard Page, and Steve George, it takes the form of a prayer asking the Lord if He will follow along wherever the narrator might go.

Summer tells us that she and Bray found it to be a perfect fit for their sound.

“We heard the song Kyrie by Mr. Mister while on our way to a family cookout. When we got to the house, we jammed that song a few times on the front porch. We fell SO in love with this song. We always say, ‘we were born in the wrong era,’ because we all love classic rock, so we decided to try it out on the new album! We hope y’all love it!!”

With Summer singing and Bray on banjo, Bryan McDowell plays fiddle, Shaun Richardson is on mandolin, Seth Taylor on guitar, Aaron Ramsey on bass, and Nick Faulk on drum. Brayden and Katie Fortner sing harmony.

Here ’tis…

Kyrie from Summer & Bray will be available tomorrow (July 9) from popular download and streaming sites. Radio programmers can get the track via AirPlay Direct.

Never Gonna Let You Down drops for Summer & Bray

We’ve been following the mega-talented Summer McMahan and her equally talented brother, Brayden, since 2011 when they were teenagers playing in their dad’s bluegrass Gospel group. At that point, they were certain comers in our field, and we watched as they went from Mountain Faith, to the Mountain Faith Band, to Summer Brooke & Mountain Faith, and now to Summer & Bray.

Pop (Sam) has taken his leave, leaving the two singing siblings to run the group on their own. Throughout, the McMahans have produced clever original material featuring Summer’s lovely singing voice, in stylistic settings ranging from down home bluegrass to Gospel, Americana to positive acoustic country.

But without regard to the format, it was always sincere, soulful music played with respect for where they had gown up, in Sylva, NC, far from the bright lights of the big city. The group made quite a run on the television series, America’s Got Talent, in 2015, winning them a whole new audience who responded to their acoustic/bluegrass covers of current pop songs.

Now, with Summer a fashionable young lady and Brayden a bearded banjo picker, they are focused on their career as a duo, Summer & Bray. A new album under that name is expected soon from Mountain Fever Records, with a second single released today, Never Gonna Let You Down. The song had appeared on Colbie Caillat’s 2014 album, Gypsy Heart, and was written by Caillat with Bret James, James Reeves, and Kenneth Edmonds.

Summer gives it a fine reinterpretation in an all-acoustic setting, supported by Bray and Katie Fortner on harmony vocals, Bryan McDowell on fiddle, Seth Taylor on guitar, Aaron Ramsey on mandolin and bass, and Jeff Partin on reso-guitar.

Have a listen…

Never Gonna Let You Down is available now wherever you stream or download music online. Radio programmers can get the single via AirPlay Direct.

Track Premiere: Heartbeat from Summer & Bray

Mountain Fever Records is releasing a debut single today from a new project from Summer & Bray. The brother/sister duo features Summer McMahan and her brother Brayden, who had once formed the nucleus of Summer Brooke & the Mountain Faith Band.

They are working a new sound, which retains the bluegrass feel of the original Mountain Faith, with a bit of the pop music flair from their time on America’s Got Talent, blended with the acoustic country edge of this latest effort.

Things came a long way fast for these two young artists from western North Carolina. Forming as a church band with their father, Sam, at the helm on bass, Mountain Faith saw success in the bluegrass world through both their recordings and live appearances at festivals and churches. Earning an invitation in 2015 to audition for America’s Got Talent on NBC, their mix of bluegrass and pop music won the hearts of millions on television.

Mountain Faith worked a new circuit with that popularity, using that bluegrass/pop sound, which has now settled into a format capitalizing of Summer’s captivating voice, and the playful sibling banter between her and her brother.

Heartbeat is the first track to come from their new album, which Summer tells us is the result of a lot of deliberation and hard work.

“We are really excited about the new music. Almost every song on the CD was written by Brayden and I. We poured our hearts and souls into it! We waited so long because we wanted to be absolutely sure of a direction before we made new music. The years since Small Town Life has felt like decades! Haha So excited for people to hear Heartbeat, and hopefully people love it!!”

For this project, they are assisted by Seth Taylor on guitar, Shawn Richardson on mandolin, Bryan McDowell on fiddle, Aaron Ramsey on bass, and Nick Falk on percussion. Summer takes the lead vocal, with Bray on banjo and harmony vocal.

Here’s Heartbeat.

Heartbeat is available today wherever you stream or download music online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.

Can’t wait to hear more from their next record.

Goodbye Mountain Faith – hello Summer & Bray

Summer Brooke & The Mountain Faith Band, originally known simply as Mountain Faith, is rebranding yet again. Without changing their musical direction, this contemporary bluegrass, Gospel, and acoustic country group will henceforth be known as Summer & Bray.

The name change reflects the focus on sibling singers and songwriters Summer and Braydon McMahan, who have been fronting the family band from the start. Summer says that she had always been a bit embarrassed about her name being and front, and is happy to have her brother as a co-headliner.

What started as a traditional bluegrass Gospel group when Summer and Braydon were teens, grew quickly into a force in secular bluegrass as well. They got a huge boost in 2015 when they were chosen as contestants on America’s Got Talent on NBC television, where the young group’s grassy takes on current pop songs won over the studio and television audiences alike. Though they did not win the competition, the notoriety won them a new and much larger following which found them with all new opportunities.

In a first for the band, their next album, Small Town Life, was released first as an all acoustic, bluegrass project, and then a few months later with keyboards and percussion added. The project title was a play on the fact that Summer and Braydon work day jobs at their father’s tire shop in Sylva, NC, and have do so since they were teens as well.

Summer’s delightful singing voice, and the group’s humble, unassuming attitude on stage, makes them an instant hit wherever they go, whether entertaining at a bluegrass festival or singing the National Anthem before an NFL game.

As Summer & Bray, the McMahans will continue their relationship with Mountain Fever Records, and plan on getting back in to the studio there in short order.

Mark Hodges with the label says that nothing will change, sound-wise.

“The music will still be awesome – a mix of bluegrass and country flavored original material, with a few surprise covers here and there.”

The McMahan sibs have also created a couple of new videos for their fans. This first, a look at their life out in the country…

…and a sneak peek at one of their new songs.

Keep an eye out for more news on Summer & Bray later this year. All current shows booked as Mountain Faith will be honored with the new name.