N.C. bluegrass band releases 'Workin' at the tire shop'

SYLVA, N.C. (July 26, 2016) — Mountain Faith, the award-winning bluegrass band with ties to High Country Tire in Sylva, have released a slightly tongue-in-cheek new spin on the 1970s' classic “Car Wash” — “Workin' at the tire shop.”

Mountain Faith — comprising High Country Tire co-owner Sam McMahan (bass), his daughter Summer (fiddle and lead vocals) and son Brayden (banjo) and friends and co-workers Luke Dotson (guitar) and Cory Piatt (mandolin) — gained national exposure last summer as a competitor on NBC-TV's “America's Got Talent.”

The tire shop song and video — a re-working of the Rose Royce title song from the 1976 movie “Car Wash” — features all the band members working various jobs at High Country Tire, a single-outlet, three-bay tire dealership, gas station and convenient store on Highway 23 south of Sylva, a town of about 2,500 in Jackson County in far western North Carolina.

The 3-minute 43-second video concludes with the band performing on a stage in the dealership's parking lot surrounded by customers and a local youth cheerleader squad.

The band made it through three levels of competition last summer on America's Got Talent before coming up short on votes at the Sept. 2 semi-final results show. The group was competing against 35 other variety acts, including at least eight other musical acts, at the semi-final stage.

Together as a band since 2000, Mountain Faith has toured the U.S. and Canada numerous times, playing their “fresh Appalachian take” on bluegrass to audiences in civic centers, auditoriums, arenas, fair grounds, parks, churches, etc. They've had numerous repeat performances at Dollywood Theme Park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., according to the band's website.