Town Mountain, from left, Phil Barker, Jack Devereux, Robert Greer, Zach Smith, and Jesse Langlais
photo by Libby Gamble
Town Mountain will perform at Revelry Room on Friday, Oct. 13, with Dead 27s. The doors open at 8 p.m. and the show is at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door and available at http://revelryroom.co Revelry Room is at 41 Station St. Show is for 18+ and is standing room only.
Review for Town Mountain:
Raw, soulful, and with plenty of swagger, Town Mountain has earned raves for their hard-driving sound, their in-house songwriting and the honky-tonk edge that permeates their exhilarating live performances, whether in a packed club or at a sold-out festival. The hearty base of Town Mountain's music is the bluegrass triumvirate of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. It's what else goes into the mix that brings it all to life both on stage and on record and reflects the group's wide-ranging influences – from the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and the ethereal lyrics of Robert Hunter, to the honest, vintage country of Willie, Waylon and Merle.
Town Mountain features guitarist and vocalist Robert Greer, banjoist Jesse Langlais, mandolinist Phil Barker, fiddler Jack Devereux, and Zach Smith on bass.
They released their 5th studio album, Southern Crescent, on April 1, 2016 on LoHi Records and toured throughout the year with it. Produced and engineered by GRAMMY winner Dirk Powell, Southern Crescent was recorded in Powell’s studio The Cypress House in south-central Louisiana town of Breaux Bridge. Since it’s release the band debuted on the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium stages in 2016 bringing their sound to new audiences. Town Mountain returned to the Grand Ole Opry in July 2017. The critically acclaimed album debuted at #4 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart while staying for 10 weeks on the Americana Music Association's radio chart’s Top 40.
Other efforts include Leave The Bottle (Pinecastle Records 2012), Steady Operator (Pinecastle Records 2011), and Heroes & Heretics (October 2008). They also independently released a LIVE album (2014 from a show at Isis Music Hall in Asheville) as well as a two-song EP (2015) of Grateful Dead tunes called The Dead Sessions. Their debut album (June 2008) is entitled Original Bluegrass and Roots Country.
What has become one of the group’s more memorable live performance songs is their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” which they first recorded in 2008’s Heroes & Heretics, with Greer’s distinctive Southern drawl at the forefront. The track has reached over 2.6 million listens on Spotify and garnered over 1 million views on a YouTube video posted in 2012.
Another fan favorite is their Jimmy Martin-esque original “Lawdog,” penned by Barker in 2012. They recorded a live version of the song at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country Radio in 2013 which has over 110,000 views and continues to be a barn burner to this day with the entire crowd singing along as Barker sings, “I make my livin driving, I’m a bluegrass music man… Chasin the horizon, for another one night stand… I got a lot of miles to travel, and I’m runnin a little late… And a no show gets me nothin, so don’t you get in my way. I got no time for ya lawdog…”