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Jason Moore loves dogs.

In fact, he has three of them: a Chihuahua named Belle, a Lab and s hepherd mix named Maggie and a stray mutt named Wufus, whom his grandbaby named.

So when the Rockingham County Animal Shelter asked that his band, Mountain Heart, perform at Saturday's benefit concert, Moore didn't hesitate to say yes.

The proceeds from the show will go to help build a proposed $1.6 million facility, scheduled to open in 2010. The new 10,000-square-foot facility will have four times its current capacity and will include new adoption reception and bonding areas, a training and education area and HEPA filtered isolation and quarantine units to reduce the spread of disease.

Based in Nashville, Tenn., Mountain Heart is a six member acoustic country/rock band. Members are Moore (bass), Josh Shilling (vocals, piano, guitar), Jim Van Cleve (fiddle), Barry Abernathy (banjo), Clay Hess (guitar), and Aaron Ramsey (mandolin).

"We are not a bluegrass band," Moore said. "We are more like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Our music leans that way because we are an in your face rock and a rock 'n' roll kind of show.

"If you sit still you are missing the whole thing. Music is a groove. If you ain't groovin' you ain't got music. AC/DC is proof of that."
Moore lives in Ruffin, a small town near Reidsville, while the other members are spread out from Virginia to Georgia. Despite their distance from each other, they get together once a year to practice for two weeks, and then they part ways.

Since Mountain Heart formed in 1999, the band and individual band members have been nominated for honors: multiple Grammys, ACM (Academy of Country Music), CMA (Country Music Association) and IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) awards.

They have played the Grand Ole Opry more than 100 times and have opened for big country names such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Montgomery Gentry, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes, Yonder Mountain String Band and Patty Loveless. They have also crossed the Atlantic and taken their bluegrass rock to Switzerland and next year to England.

"People haven't even heard of our kind of music in Europe," Moore said. "Their response is so different."

Brittany Smith is a freelance contributor. Contact her at smith.brit22@gmail.com.

 

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