Stephen Mougin wears a lot of hats—and not just the literal one he wears on stage. He has played guitar for Sam Bush Band since 2006, a gig he plans to continue “as long as humanly possible,” and has been recognized by IBMA for a number of roles: 2018 Gospel Performance of the Year, 2016, IMBA Mentor of the Year, and 2015 Recorded Event of the Year.
The Massachusetts native studied vocal music education and started his career as a choral director at a middle and high school in Orange, Massachusetts, but took a leave of absence to pursue an offer to play music full-time in 2002.
“I got down to Nashville and started playing and realized this was something I wanted to do, play at a very high level with musicians that were better than me. That was my goal,” said Mougin, “to make a living playing music.”
Mougin never completely left behind his teaching though. After years of accumulating studio gear, he established Dark Shadow Recording Studio, along with the Dark Shadow record label officially started in 2009 with the release of two bluegrass harmony teaching CDs, still available on the Dark Shadow Recording website. While he has continued to teach, both in person and online, the individual lessons have been limited as his work in the studio and on tour has increased.
“I prefer doing lessons in person,” said Mougin, adding, “I enjoy master class settings, workshops, camps, but in person is really my preference.” While he teaches guitar and mandolin, he says he prefers teaching voice. “In our genre, there’s not a lot of that. There are a million guitar teachers, but [not as many] voice teachers who know, first, how to teach voice, and second, how to address the rules that need to be bent or broken to sound like you’re singing in an authentic style. That’s the thing I enjoy most as far as straight teaching.”
Mougin has also begun band coaching over the last couple of years. He points out that it’s a lot like working with a large ensemble—a band or choir—looking at all the pieces at once and trying to figure out what to fix and how to fix it. He says that’s what he does on a micro-level with a bluegrass band. He has worked with family bands and with pro bands, learning how to give good feedback and sharing best practices—song selection, stage presence, band interaction, even, he says, “how to pick a song apart and create your own arrangement—and why you’d want to do that.”
Not only does his band coaching require pointing out flaws, but also helping bands to find and amplify their strengths and to organize their rehearsals. This is information, he finds, that is not widely available to performers.
In addition to performing and teaching, Mougin began to add artists to the record label. He signed the first group The Rigneys, a family band out of Normandy, Tennessee. Next he signed Becky Buller, who has recorded two full albums on the label and has a third due out in July.
Mougin says for the label he’s looking for music that is fresh, new, and inspiring. He says he wants to work with artists “who work as hard as I do. We can do whatever we want, but it relies on the artist digging in. I make sure I’m surrounding myself with great people. I want to make sure everybody is sharing the same vibe with the music we’re presenting.”
Other artists on the label include Rick Faris, who recently released Breaking in Lonesome, and A Man About a Horse, working on a 2020 release.
Having the studio has made the label possible. Mougin said, “Everything that’s put out is produced by me and recorded at our place. . . . I don’t worry about having a vanilla sound because each artist brings their own color to it. I’m definitely an extra band member, but there’s still a lot of diversity in what we can do.” He said, “I don’t buy records that have already been made and put them out. The fun for me is making the art.”
He says he started the label when he realized that his real thrill is the creative process. “I enjoy making records, and I’m a teacher at heart. I enjoy helping somebody figure out what they’re looking for and delivering something that’s better than they expected.” He said, for example, that Rick Faris hadn’t been writing many songs before starting his recent solo project, but he ended up cutting an album that was all original songs but one.
With the cancellation of shows and festivals as a result of the current COVID-19 virus, Mougin finds himself home finishing up his first solo commercial release as an artist, produced at his studio for his label Dark Shadow Recording and due out on May 8. The first single “I’m Gonna Ride” was released in March, and the album will be called Ordinary Soul.
While Mougin has been behind the scenes on a surprisingly long list of recordings, this is the first on his own. The album has twelve songs, ten of them original. One is a new song by Becky Buller he’s had on hold for over fifteen years. Another is an old Buck Owens tune he’s been playing with the Sam Bush Band for a few years, one they’ve “turned into a kind of bluegrass rumba.” Sam Bush Band plays on five tunes on the CD (featuring Bush on mandolin, Todd Parks on bass, Chris Brown on drums and Ned Luberecki as guest on banjo).
Three songs feature an acoustic county band with Mike Bub on bass, Cory Piatt on mandolin, and Becky Buller and Laura Orshaw on twin fiddles; and three tunes that he calls “straight up bluegrass, a little twisty the way I write,” feature Luberecki on banjo, Alan Bartram on bass, Cory Piatt on mandolin, Laura Orshaw on fiddle, and Mougin on guitar,
Harmony vocals on the album include The Gibson Brothers, Melonie, Cannon, Buddy Cannon, Jana Mougin, Rick Faris, Alan Bartram, and Sam Bush. One song simply features Mougin and his guitar.
He said what excites him most about this record is that it’s the first time he’s stepped out to do his own thing, “taking all the things I’ve learned over the years about producing and assembling tunes and putting it out. Plus,” he says, “it’s ten songs that no one’s heard before.” Mougin pointed out that he writes songs as a hobby but doesn’t pitch his own songs. “It’s something I do for fun so most of the songs I’ve written just go in a drawer somewhere and don’t get heard. But it’s pretty cool that these are going to see the light of day and, hopefully, speak to people on a few different levels.”
Mougin says he’s often asked how he keeps focused on all he does, but he says that the key is doing one thing at a time and focusing on that. “If I’m in a band coaching session, they’re all I’m thinking about. There’s so much involved in each of the things that I do that I’m only able to focus on that one thing for any given moment. If I’m in the studio for a couple of weeks, I’m ready to go out and play on the road. If I’m on the road for a couple of weeks, I’m ready to teach something or to get into the studio.”
He’s been busy enough lately—at least before the “shelter at home” orders changed everything—that he hasn’t been able to work as much with Nedski and Mojo, the duo he plays in the off season with banjo player and Bluegrass Junction on-air personality Ned Luberecki The two started playing together about 2009, when Mougin’s son had just been born and he was “facing a winter season of no income.” The concept seemed easy enough: “two guys would hop in a car, go play some shows, earn a little money, sell some mercy, and come home.”
On their first tour, they played 11 shows in 9 days and on 5 or 6 or those days, they also did workshops, Ned teaching banjo and Steven doing voice or harmony classes in the afternoons before shows. He said house concerts were their favorites. “We were working really hard. We came home real tired, but it was definitely a good way to go about it as long as we could travel—which, of course, is not an option now.”
With concerts and festivals cancelled for a duration still to be determined, Mougin has time to finish mixing and mastering the songs for the CD. While the record launch planned for May 8 at Nashville’s Station Inn may be on hold, music fans can look forward to new music, and once performers can return to the road, they can look forward to live music again too.