Bluegrass Mondays at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge have become a favorite weekly event for music lovers—and musicians—in the Nashville areas. After a six-year residency, East Nash Grass has taken a break while touring, with other local musicians filling the slot. On Monday this week, Jana and Stephen Mougin took to the stage. Stephen, guitarist for Sam Bush Band, has made his mark with his Dark Shadow recording label, just celebrating its fifteenth anniversary.
Originally from Slovakia, Jana discovered bluegrass when she was fifteen. Since she didn’t speak English, she learned the lyrics phonetically. She first began touring in the US in 2002 with the band Fragment, spending four or five months each year traveling by van, navigating with a Rand-McNally map, and staying in national parks. After Jana and Stephen married, she took time off from a full-time music career to focus on raising their son Sammy, at fifteen a talented musician as well.
During that time, Jana has sung background vocals on Dark Shadow projects and maintains publicity, radio, and social media for the label. Now the time seems right for her to take a more active role. In 2023, she released her first single “If I Didn’t Love You,” a bluegrass version of a country song recorded in the 90s by Steve Wariner. As a duo, the Mougins recently released “Like I Used to Do.”
Joined by Casey Campbell on mandolin and Kyle Triplett on banjo, the Mougins played a mix of their own songs, bluegrass standards, and “bluegrass-ified” versions of songs from country music and other genres.
They featured some Monroe tunes, such as “Can’t You Hear Me Calling” and “Little Cabin Home on the Hill,” and other bluegrass standards—“Dark Hollow” and “I Don’t Care (Just as Long as You Love Me).” Jana said she searches for songs to suit their style, particularly duets such as the Don Williams classic “If I Needed You,” as well as “Roses in the Snow” from the Emmylou Harris album of that title, and “Home from the Forest,” recorded by Gordon Lightfoot and Tony Rice.
The guest musicians had time to shine, trading breaks throughout the evening and featured on instrumental tunes. Stephen’s guitar breaks serve as a reminder why he has been a part of Sam Bush Band for so long, and Jana held her on with the bass guitar. With a nod to fellow musicians in the audience, they acknowledged others who would be right at home on the Dee’s stage.
Their performances of the two recent singles leave their fans hopeful that Jana will have an album project in the near future. The Mougins closed the night with “New Beginnings” from Stephen’s Ordinary Soul album, released during Covid, without the opportunity to “play out.” Their set at Dee’s is proof they need to take their own music to the live stage more often.