Mountain Faith appears on NBC
All eyes were on Summer McMahan and company. “We were all so nervous going into the audition,” she said. “But, once we noticed they were liking it, all the nerve went away and we had a blast. We’re so very humbled they liked it and sent us through.”
“They” as in celebrities Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B. and Howie Mandel, panel stars of the hit NBC television show “America’s Got Talent.” Lead singer and fiddle player for Sylva-based Mountain Faith, McMahan and her group (which also features her father Sam and brother Brayden) were invited into millions of households when their live onstage audition was broadcasted across the globe last month.
“We’re so thankful for the opportunity to show America modern bluegrass music,” Summer said. “Bluegrass is awesome, so I hope this broadens the bluegrass audience.”
The immensely popular Simon Cowell-created program brings acts from all realms of entertainment together, to compete in a series of elimination rounds, all in an effort to win the competition, as well as priceless notoriety and publicity from their appearances. For Mountain Faith, their audition tape fell into the hands of AGT producers without the band even knowing.
“Our mom overheard us thinking about auditioning and she sent in a video of us,” Summer said. “[AGT] liked it and called to invite us to come to an open all audition in Missouri. We went there and they liked us, so we moved on to the celebrity auditions, which is when they begin putting the auditions on air.”
As it stands, Mountain Faith is still in the running, with the next round of the show being aired in the coming weeks, all while they continue touring nonstop around the Southeast and Midwest. And with their appearance on AGT, the group’s latest album, “Blue,” is getting national airplay and has broken into the bluegrass charts, gaining steam at No. 28 on the Roots Music Report “Top 50 Bluegrass Albums” amid the likes of other records by Balsam Range and Del McCoury Band.
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“We’re so excited, and really appreciate all the love and support we’ve been show from Western North Carolina — we live in the greatest place on earth,” Summer said.
