Mountain

On the first of March, 2020, John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster, aka the Mountain Goats band, visited legendary studio Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN. Darnielle armed his band with new songs and reunited with producer Matt Ross-Spang who engineered last year’s In League with Dragons.

On the surface, this feel-good full-length is a tribute to Colorado’s crisp mountain air: It was written and recorded in Telluride, where a team of Nashville songwriters took up in a sprawling, ranch-style studio. But these songs are more about reaching inward than gazing out. Inspired by fans he met on the road who shared stories of hope and grit, Bentley casts scaling mountains as a metaphor for persevering, bidding us to explore the great outdoors (“Son of the Sun”), find ourselves (“Burning Man"), and keep on climbing no matter what (“You Can’t Bring Me Down”). “Only a mountain,” he sings on the uplifting title track. “It ain’t hard if you don’t stop.”

Jenny from Thebes began it's life as many albums by The Mountain Goats do, with John Darnielle playing the piano until a lyric emerged. That lyric, "Jenny was a warrior / Jenny was a thief / Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief," became "Jenny III," a song which laid down a challenge he'd never taken up before: writing a sequel to one of his most beloved albums: All Hail West Texas. Recorded at Tulsa, Oklahoma's legendary The Church Studio with Grammy-winning producer/engineer Trina Shoemaker, Jenny from Thebes is a lush collection of showtunes, pushing Darnielle as a vocalist and The Mountain Goats as a band, broadening their sonic palette once again by leaning into influences like Godspell, Jim Steinman, and The Cars.

Before he co-founded the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir spent a summer working and living on a ranch in Wyoming, sparking a lifelong fascination with the stories and songs of the American West. "Blue Mountain", Weir's first solo album in over 10 years, brings his musical journey full circle. Working with producer Josh Kaufman, acclaimed songwriter Josh Ritter, guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner and bassist Scott Devendorf, Blue Mountain is a moody, highly textured modern interpretation of Weir's unforgettable experience.

One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begets another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances. John Darnielle & the Mountain Goats present Bleed Out, a brand new collection arriving on August 19th.

"River Deep – Mountain High" is a single by Ike & Tina Turner released on Philles Records in 1966. It was considered by producer Phil Spector to be his best work.

When Binker Golding and Moses Boyd’s debut album Dem Ones was released in Summer of 2015 it kickstarted a sensational year for the young saxophone and drums duo, who won a string of awards including 2015 MOBO Awards: Best Jazz Act, Jazz FM Awards 2016: UK Jazz Act of the Year and Breakthrough Act of the Year and the 2106 Parliamentary Jazz Awards: Jazz Newcomer of the Year.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is a sprawling double-LP exploring the deepest elements and possibilities of Big Thief.

Once again working with her partner and collaborator Sam Evian at their home studio Flying Cloud, Earthstar Mountain is a keepsake of this last half-decade, as blurred, shimmering memories come into focus to produce a collage of echoes and sonic souvenirs. Featuring contributions from Sufjan Stevens, Clairo and more, Earthstar Mountain is a love letter to the Catskills and in the interconnectedness of all things.