Mount Moriah

North Carolina-based alt-Americana outfit Mount Moriah fuse the Low Anthem’s neo-traditional indie folk with Sixteen Horsepower’s fire-and-brimstone intensity. Heather McEntire and Jenks Miller launched the project in the late 2000s after years spent far from folk traditions—McEntire in the post-punk band Bellafea and Miller in the psych-metal outfit Horseback—yet their enduring friendship and mutual passion for American folk music drew them together. Rooted in the shadowy Appalachian folklore of their North Carolina upbringing and colored by the distorted twang of their earlier work, the duo issued The Letting Go in 2010 and followed it with a self-titled album in 2011 that showcased contributions from regional standouts, among them musicians from St. Vincent and Megafaun. In late 2012 the group inked a deal with the storied indie imprint Merge, which reissued the 2011 LP on limited-edition vinyl that October. Miracle Temple, their next studio effort, arrived in February 2013. Casey Toll joined on bass and keyboards in 2015, expanding Mount Moriah to a trio whose third album, How to Dance, emerged in February 2016.