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 Town Mountain (from the album New Freedom Blues available on Tone Tree Music) Asheville, North Carolina-based string band, Town Mountain, is stepping outside of their bluegrass box. Not that Town Mountain have ever been defined as steeped in the tradition of Bill Monroe’s bluegrass. The band has always walked a fine line between classic bluegrass and classic country, forging a path for their own brand of good-time roots music, whether ripping through some originals or covering Son Volt or the Grateful Dead. New Freedom Blues finds the band stepping into the acoustic rock and roll game, adding a drummer for certain cuts and inviting Matt Smith of The Honeycutters to lend some pedal steel. New Freedom Blues starts off with its title track, a break-up tune that’s classic Robert Greer, southern-drawl and all… ‘start my morning in the middle of the afternoon; yesterday’s coffee and a little smoke will get me through’. Greer makes a somber and resentful mood sound like the place to be even as he laments on a new found, and perhaps unwanted, freedom. “Life and Debt” is a bit tongue-in-cheek about things you can’t control and it finds the band crossing into rollicking, bouncy, rockabilly territory. Cuts like “Tar Heal” are as bluegrass as they come, a punchy and instrumental dose where Bobby Britt’s fiddle and Phil Barkers mandolin trade off until Jesse Langlais banjo comes kicking in. Caleb Klauder is a fantastic recruit for production, as his solo work and with Foghorn String Band is similar to Town Mountains, with one foot in the past and another stepping into the future of modern acoustic music. By Bryant Liggett Listen and buy the music of Town Mountain from AMAZON https://www.townmountain.net
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