Search - Mountain Heart :: Wide Open

Propelled by a star producer and a legion of Nashville's most awarded songwriters, Mountain Heart speeds into 2006 with Wide Open, the band's third album from Skaggs Family Records. Looking to maintain its edge as one of the most adventurous and exciting young acts in acoustic country music, Mountain Heart turned to producer Mark Bright, the studio mentor to such multiplatinum acts as Rascal Flatts, Blackhawk, Carrie Underwood, Sara Evans, and Jo Dee Messina. It was a perfect match. "I idolize these guys and their musicianship", Bright declares.Central to Mountain Hearts appeal is its great sense of song, a talent that became evident in 1999 when the International Bluegrass Music Association proclaimed the band its Emerging Artist of the Year before the guys even had a recording contract.For Wide Open, Mountain Heart tapped into songwriters whose works routinely inhabit the top of charts. Among these are Harley Allen, Jeffrey Steele, Wendy Waldman, Jim Rushing, Ronnie Bowman, and Mac McAnally, whose combined roster of country and bluegrass hits includes "Me and John and Paul," "The Cowboy in Me," "Fishing in the Dark," "Little Mountain Church House," "It's Getting Better All the Time," and "Old Flames." Steve Gulley, Mountain Heart's lead singer and guitarist, and fiddler Jim VanCleve contributed three songs.Once established, Mountain Heart was quickly embraced by the country and bluegrass community. It has appeared regularly on the Grand Ole Opry (in excess of 70 times) and, apart from its own headlining appearances, it has opened larger concerts for such luminaries as George Jones, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs, Brad Paisley, and LeAnn Rimes.Mountain Heart's other Skaggs Family albums are No Other Way (2002) and Force of Nature (2004).