When we caught up with Summer McMahan of Mountain Faith, the bluegrass band that captivated the eyes and ears of "America's Got Talent" viewers with its fresh, unlikely takes on some of the most popular songs of the day, she and her bandmates were en route to the Grand Ole Opry.
The group - which includes Summer's father, Sam, and brother, Brayden - was traveling to the iconic Opry not to play, but to see another act perform. But as Mountain Faith's profile continues to rise, the image of the band on its way to the Grand Ole Opry, a revered country shrine, is a fitting one.
"The funny thing is, at the beginning of the year we set four goals on Jan. 1," Summer told Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "Goal number one was to broaden our audience, goal number two was to have a number one song, goal number three was to get nominated for a Bluegrass Award and number four was to play the Grand Ole Opry. And two weeks to the day later we auditioned for 'America's Got Talent' and made it through, so that obviously broadened our audience, and then the day we came home from 'America's Got Talent,' we found out that we had our first number one song. And a couple weeks earlier, we found out that we were nominated for Emerging Artist Of The Year at the Bluegrass Awards. So Grand Ole Opry is the last thing on the list, so we'll see what happens."
In addition to the McMahans - Summer (fiddle, lead and harmony vocals), Sam (bass) and Brayden (banjo, harmony vocals) - Mountain Faith features Luke Dotson (guitar, lead and harmony vocals) and Cory Piatt (mandolin). The group's story is a slice of Americana seemingly ripped from yesteryear, a group in Sylva, N.C. that rehearses its Appalachian bluegrass music between customers at the family tire shop.
With a new album, "That Which Matters," released Oct. 16, Summer chatted with us about the journey from the tire shop to Radio City Music Hall, the group's surprising versions of songs like The Weeeknd's "I Can't Feel My Face" and The Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" and how the family that works, travels and performs together keeps from driving each other crazy.
Mountain Faith might seem like an overnight sensation to many people because of "AGT" and your accomplishment of making it to the semifinals of Season 10, but the band has actually been together since 2000. How did the group get started?
Our family, from generations back, has been very musical. Everybody played something, all the family gatherings were always a big jam, everybody would bring their instruments and play. I was probably 6 years old and my brother would have been 5, and we went to a festival in our town and heard the Fiddling Dills Sisters who were a family band from our area, and we fell in love with it. We bothered my dad to death, so he took us to the pawn shop and he bought us some instruments, and we started taking lessons, and a year later, when I was 7 and my brother was 6, we started a band to play locally, at churches around town and stuff, and the more we played, the busier we would get; somebody from this festival would be at that festival and have us, and we didn't become full-time until about six years ago.
When I was in high school we were a full-time band, so I actually missed a lot of school, and I would just take [school work] on the road with me, all of us did. When we started we just wanted to play locally and have a good time, and we never in a million years expected to have the year that we had this year.
You've put unique twists on many popular songs. How do you go about selecting what songs to play? For example, with songs like "I Can't Feel My Face" or "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" done in this style, are you looking to surprise people?
Absolutely. We definitely want there to be a surprise element. With [OneReplublic's] "Counting Stars," that's a huge, huge song and it had been for a while, so that one was pretty easy and we all knew it. But The Darkness one, there was a lot more research and a lot more planning behind that one. And [Walk The Moon's] "Shut Up And Dance," that's one of my favorite songs, that's a fun song, and the very first time I heard it, I knew it was one that we needed to do; it obviously makes you want to dance. "I Can't Feel My Face," that one is so different and the first time I heard it, we were all kind of skeptical, we were like "there is no way we can do this song." And then once we started playing around with it, it was really cool and it was really different than the other three we had done. So with each song we just wanted there to be obviously a surprise element but also something that people recognized so that they could really enjoy it as well.
What was your initial reaction when you found out your mom sent your video to "AGT" even though the band had voted against it. Did you think she betrayed you guys?
Actually, not at all, because all of us had decided not to do it, but down deep I think we all honestly wanted to but we just didn't think we were something that America would want to hear. So when we found out that they were interested, we were shocked.
When you walked out on the "AGT" stage, how did you feel?
Obviously we were very, very nervous. We have been performing for 15 years now but nothing will ever compare to the Radio City Music Hall stage. There was a lot of pressure because we were thinking about all of the people who had been on that stage before. We honestly tried not to think about the 12 million viewers because that was just too much for us to handle. We just tried to focus on the 6,000 people in the room, which was still very nerve-racking. We all said the same thing: we were all nervous until we started playing, and once we realized that people were enjoying it, the nerves go away. ... Had they acted like they weren't interested or weren't enjoying it, we probably would have fainted.
How would you describe the overall "AGT" experience?
It was very exhausting. It's a lot of work and a lot of people don't see how much work it is. We spent hours and hours and days and days preparing songs. We played four songs on TV, but we learned almost 30 songs just trying to find the right one. We all work full-time as well, so we would start practice at 7 o'clock at night and we would practice until 5 or 6 in the morning, then we would sleep for an hour or two and get up and go to work. So it was very exhausting, and during that time the thoughts were going through our heads that we hoped all this work would pay off. And now, looking back, I'm so glad that we pushed through and kept going because it's been so, so worth it. It was the greatest experience, and I'll never forget it.
What impact has being on the show had on the band's popularity? Was it almost an overnight thing, with things you could measure, like followers on your social media pages skyrocketing?
Absolutely. Like you said, Facebook, that was immediate, we could just watch the likes just jump. As for our website, after "I Believe In A Thing Called Love," we had 1.5 million visitors to our website - our website actually kept shutting down because so many people were trying to go to it. That's something that we've never had to deal with. In a way it was kind of overnight, but then in another way there's still a lot of work that we have to do to make sure that the exposure we've had pays off. ... We want to continue to put out music that people love and try to stay out there so we can make a long-lasting career out of it.
One of the really cool things that came from the show was after "Counting Stars" we had a phone call to our office, and it was from an Air Force general, and he just happened to be flipping through [the TV channels] and saw bluegrass and was like, "what is this?" and he watched our segment and immediately called the office and said, "Do you think this family would ever come to the Persian Gulf and play for the troops?" So of course we were like, "yes, yes we will come." So November 12th through the 20th we actually will go to the Persian Gulf and we'll go to five different Air Force Bases and play for the troops. That's such a huge, huge honor because they're so important to us. Because they do what they do, we have the freedom to do what we do. So we're extremely honored.
Are you still all working at the tire shop?
We're not working as much now. Since "America's Got Talent" ended, we've been home maybe four or five days. Our tour schedule has just exploded. So the days that we are home, we actually work basically all day at the tire shop to give my uncle a break, because he runs the shop while we're gone. He's been a little stressed out because we've been gone so much, so if we are home, we try to work 10-, 12-hour shifts just so he can have the day off.
How does your Christian faith influence your music and the way the band operates?
We actually started as an all-gospel band because we were playing in a lot of churches. We actually grew up on Southern gospel music. That's what we knew, and that's what we played. Now that basically every show we play is bluegrass, it's not gospel, so what we try to do is play secular songs but make sure they're more positive. There's a lot of bluegrass songs out there about murder and stuff like that, it's all good stuff, but we try to keep our stuff positive. We want people that come to our shows, we want them to leave uplifted and happy and just kind of forget about any kind of problem they might be facing. We just want them to come and have a really good time.
Even the closest of families can annoy each other. You guys work together, travel together and play in the band together. How do you avoid getting on each other's nerves?
(Laughs) Surprisingly, we all get along really, really well. We've gotten aggravated and stuff like that, but it all works out. We really love what we do so much, and it's honestly, even the two that aren't family members, they're still like my brothers because I'm actually around them more than I am most of my family. It's a really awesome dynamic mainly because we all have the same goals, we all want the same things, and so we just have a really, really good time together. There's definitely times when you're like, "OK, I'm ready to get home and be alone for a minute (laughs)." We definitely have those times, but we do get along really well.
Who are some of your favorite artists?
My absolute favorite is Alison Krauss. I love her. She's probably most of our biggest inspiration. We also really like The Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek, and Lee Ann Womack is a pretty big influence too. But the really cool thing about this band is we all love different kinds of music. I like the older country stuff so I bring that, and Cory likes really progressive acoustic stuff and he brings that, Brayden likes classic rock and he brings that. It's really cool, we have a lot of genres that we try to incorporate.
