Asheville, NC -- Raw, soulful, and with plenty of swagger, Town Mountain, based in Asheville, NC, releases their 5th studio album Southern Crescent on April 1, 2016 through LoHi Records. Produced and engineered by GRAMMY winner Dirk Powell, the album was recorded in Powell’s studio The Cypress House in Breaux Bridge, LA. It was mixed by Mixed by Scott Vestal at Digital Underground in Greenbrier, TN.
With an insatiable musical hunger, the members of Town Mountain (Robert Greer on vocals and guitar, Jesse Langlais on banjo and vocals, Bobby Britt on fiddle, Phil Barker on mandolin and vocals, and Nick DiSebastian on bass) made their way to the little south-central Louisiana town of Breaux Bridge, where they recorded their most cohesive, most satisfying album to date. Adam Chaffins* plays bass in the touring outfit.
Southern Crescent was recorded in a decidedly old-school way, live, with minimal fixes and overdubs, with all the musicians in the same room and no noise-reducing baffling between them. Each of Town Mountain's members contributed songs to Southern Crescent, with Barker, Langlais and Greer the chief writers in the band.
From the boogie-woogie piano of Jerry Lee Lewis that inspired the delightful (and danceable) "Coming Back to You," to Greer's cleverly penned and fast-paced "Tick on a Dog," which offers a taste of another major bluegrass influence, Jimmy Martin, Southern Crescent is tailor-made to keep live audiences on their feet, but it'll also keep those who think they can easily peg Town Mountain on their toes.
That variety is indeed part of what drives Southern Crescent, which opens with Britt's delightfully dizzying fiddle work on "St. Augustine," and showcases Greer's hard-country vocals on "House With No Windows" and on the freewheeling composition "Ain't Gonna Worry Me," (penned by Barker). The group members' palpable chemistry (and individual artistry) are displayed throughout such instantly memorable tracks as "Wildbird," (Barker) and "I Miss the Night," which Langlais penned (with Mark Bumgarner) after experiencing 22 hours of daylight during Alaska's summer solstice.
The new album is being released on the new LoHi Records. Based in Greensboro, NC, the label is a partnership formed by entrepreneur and marketing veteran Jim Brooks with singer/songwriter and record producer Todd Snider, record producer Tim Carbone (who also plays fiddle in newgrass band Railroad Earth) and Chad Staehly from Gold Mountain Entertainment in Nashville.
Go Behind The Scenes with Town Mountain In “The Making of Southern Crescent”
Listen to the world premier of “Comin’ Back to You” at The Bluegrass Situation ? www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/listen-town-mountain-comin-back-you
What Folks Are Saying about Town Mountain and Southern Crescent:
“Produced by Dirk Powell, Southern Crescent is hard-charging, grits-and-gravy authentic, the kind of emotions on the strings of Bill Monroe and Flatts and Scruggs pioneered more than 60 years ago. But Town Mountain is no copy band. With Songs written by each band member, and instrumental and vocal originality, Town Mountain honors the Ancients while bringing a collective and generational identity to their art.” --Raleigh News & Observer, Jack Bernhardt
"Southern Crescent reflects the band’s loose, dance-able music, more reflective of their festival and club sets that a staid performing arts center straight-bluegrass set. I’m not sure if the Southern Crescent still runs from Atlanta to Boston like my relatives talked about taking to go ‘visit culture’ in the Northeast, but I’m fairly sure it still runs down to New Orleans, where a more exhilarating culture has endured — an apt analogy for this album.” --Listen to this podcast interview with Town Mountain about Southern Crescent on Country Fried Rock with Sloane Spencer ? http://countryfriedrock.org/town-mountain-1606/#.Vv09AnBKhaU
“On Southern Crescent, there’s little fuss and pretension, as each track has a lived-in and live feel, with the band members coalescing around the song in an almost preordained way. There is as much outlaw country and Western swing to these songs as bluegrass, despite the instrumentation. As traditional and even-keeled as Town Mountain is, no other band sounds quite the same.” --Mountain Xpress, Kyle Petersen
“I have seen this band many times, and while there are a couple of bigger names out there, this Asheville group is the most exciting bluegrass band to come along in a long time” --No Depression, Amos Perrine
“Southern Crescent is a near-perfect balance of tradition and young, raw energy… They’ll hear a hundred years of southern musical culture bubbling up and finding a common point where North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana meet as old friends. Town Mountain’s style and sonic footprint comes from a foundation of rhythm and groove that comes not from just loving the music (that’s too easy) but from living the music.” --Stream to the Premier of the song “Wildbird” at Bluegrass Today, Brian Swenk
“The record features an expected dose of fast string picking, including the opening fiddle workout ‘St. Augustine,’ but as it unfolds it becomes a well-rounded effort full of front-porch song craft that touches on various shades of roots music. ‘Leroy’s Reel’ has a distinctly Cajun flavor, while ‘Comin’ Back to You’ is a rockabilly dance tune propelled by some boogie-woogie piano.” --Blue Ridge Outdoors, Jedd Ferris
“By the time they arrive at ‘Whiskey With Tears,’ one is ready to recommend them to country radio not because they sound like they belong there, but because you wish radio sounded like Town Mountain.”
--Fervor Coulee, Donald Teplyske
“From the fiddle filled, energetic instrumental opener, ‘St. Augustine’ to the carefree ‘Ain’t Gonna Worry Me’ bluegrass sensibilities merge with roots, rock and country in melodies that will not only make you sit up and listen – they’ll have you getting up and moving as well.” --The Daily Country, Tara Joa
“There are a lot of bluegrass and country bands out there but only a few really have the ability to pull off what Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice pulled off... Town Mountain, a band out of Asheville NC, does though and they prove it song after song. A bit more country here and a bit more bluegrass there makes the music as roots as you can get.”
--Frank Gutch Jr., Bob Segarini Blog
Town Mountain's Southern Crescent Tour 2016:
4/1 Fri - The Grey Eagle - Asheville, NC
4/2 Sat - Newgrass Brewing Company - Shelby, NC
4/5 Tue - Hampton Taphouse - Hampton, VA
4/6 Wed - Gypsy Sally's - Washington, DC
4/7 Thu - Lizard Lounge - Cambridge, MA
4/8 Fri - Hill Country BBQ - New York, NY
4/9 Sat - The Hobo Stage - Fredon, NJ
4/10 Sun - Tin Angel - Philadelphia, PA
4/12 Tue - Haymarket Whiskey Bar - Louisville, KY
4/13 Wed - Cosmic Charlie’s - Lexington, KY
4/14 Thu - The Station Inn - Nashville, TN
4/15 Fri - Barley's - Knoxville, TN
4/16 Sat - Waverly “Old 280” Boogie - Waverly, AL
4/17 Sun - Zydeco - Birmingham, AL
4/28 Thu - Independent Ale House - Greenville, SC
4/30 Sat - UNC - Chapel Hill, NC
5/13 Fri - KSUT Concert Series @ Henry Strater Theatre - Durango, CO
5/14 Sat - Denver Beer Co.’s Sundrenched Music Festival - Denver, CO
5/14 Sat - Ophelia's Electric Soapbox - Denver, CO (After party with Hot Buttered Run)
5/21 Sat - The Pour House - Charleston, SC (with Peter Rowan)
5/22 Sun - Lincoln Theatre - Raleigh, NC (supporting Hard Working Americans)
5/24 Tue - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC (supporting Hard Working Americans)
5/25 Wed - Minglewood Hall - Memphis, TN (supporting Hard Working Americans)
5/27 Fri - White Squirrel Festival - Brevard, NC
5/28 Sat - Rooster Walk - Martinsville, VA
6/1 Wed - Music City Roots - Nashville, TN
6/3 Fri - Bailey Park - Winston-Salem, NC
6/5 Sun - Nelsonville Music Festival
6/11 Sat - Festival of the Bluegrass - Lexington, KY
6/16 Thu - Back Porch Music Series - Durham, NC
6/23 Thu - Rudyfest 16 - Grayson, KY
6/24 Fri - ROMP Fest - Owensboro, KY
7/23 Sat - Homegrown Music Festival - Ozark, AR
8/5 Sat - Pickathon - Happy Valley, OR
For more information, please visit http://TownMountain.net/ https://facebook.com/TownMountain, http://twitter.com/TownMountain, and http://instagram.com/townmountainbluegrass
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