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| Josh Shilling performs in Nashville |
Josh Shilling performs at Grand Ole Opry. |
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By KATHRIN KLENSHTEYN - Bulletin Staff Writer
A Henry County native sang to a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., recently.
Josh Shilling, who performed at Celebration 2006, the Independence Day celebration at Martinsville Speedway, was at the Opry with the band he has joined, Mountain Heart.
Shilling joined the group at the first of the year, he said, and the performance was his first time on stage with it.
It also was his first time playing at the Opry and the first time in a year he held a guitar.
“It was 10 minutes full of firsts,” he said, adding that it brought on a reaction from the crowd he did not expect.
The first song the group played was called “I’m Just Here To Ride the Train.” The audience applauded, and then Shilling played his own song titled, “Who’s the Fool Now?”
“You could tell the crowd was really feeling my voice,” he said. “At the end of the song, the place went crazy.”
Shilling, who lives in Raleigh, estimated that more than 1,000 people were at the Opry. They gave him a standing ovation as he and the band left the stage.
After they left, Connie Smith, the show’s host, ran back to the band members and told them they had to go back out on stage.
“The management got me with this real stern look,” he said, referring to the demand to return to the stage.
He and the band went back out and played an encore, called “Heart Like a Road Sign.”
Since then, he has received many compliments and been contacted by many songwriters.
“A lot of people in the industry were interested in talking to me,” he said.
In addition, his Web site statistics have gone “through the roof,” he said. Shilling’s site is www.joshshilling.com.
He is excited about reaction to his performance at the Opry because “the Grand Ole Opry is kinda like one of the summits (of the music industry) that you’d want to play.”
Shilling, 23, son of Billy and Kathy Shilling of Henry County and a graduate of Bassett High School, said music has been part of his life as long as he can remember.
Listing first dates, first kisses, bad nights and remembering someone who has died, he said “there’s a song for every event, every memory in your life.”
“Music has kinda engulfed me to the point where it’s like no matter what walk of life or what I’m trying to do in day-to-day life ... it’s a constant everyday thing,” he said. “It’s almost like something I’m married to.”
In the next year, Shilling expects to continue playing and working on an album with Mountain Heart, as well as doing a lot of writing and being featured on several other album projects.
He also is working on a solo album which, he said, does not lend itself to any particular genre. Shilling expects the album to span everything from bluegrass to acoustic jam-band rock to rhythm and blues.
“It’s something I’m working on in my spare time,” he said.
The other members in the band Mountain Heart are Adam Steffey on the mandolin, Jim Van Cleve on the fiddle, Jason Moore on the bass guitar, Barry Abernathy on the banjo and Clay Jones on the guitar.
Shilling said he is not sure at this point whether he will perform at Celebration 2007. |
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