Apparently the three woman who make up Mountain Man met at the Vermont college that's reputedly the inspiration behind the fictional college featured in Donna Tartt's The Secret History, the book that made my own first experience of university seem depressingly mundane by comparison.
It's interesting, then, that Mountain Man have made an album that creates a natural world far removed from the bricks and mortar (boards) of college life. High in some imagined Appalachians, three woman share harmonies, a sparingly plucked guitar and an eerie, echoey sound that makes me think that they must have rented the cabin next door to Justin Vernon while he was making Bon Iver's debut For Emma, Forever Ago. Turns out the natural reverb comes from the abandoned (urban) building that Made the Harbor was recorded in, a fact that jarrs against the tales of chickadee birds, herons and buffalo.
These are tales from another age, recalling Harry Smith's folk anthologies, some ancient choir singing wordless melodies to nature and the joy of womanhood. This wasn't something I picked up on at first, but alongside mother nature, there are references to children, mothers and lovers.
It's been a long time since I've heard a capella harmonies sung so beautifully, on what's a beguiling record that takes the listener away to another - calmer - world. Strangely, though, no danger lurks in these woods: these are simple songs evoking a time when oral history was something to be cherished.
One for summer nights on the back porch.
