Mountain Man

Formed in Vermont, the indie folk trio Mountain Man unites the voices of Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Amelia Randall Meath. Their largely a cappella material draws its melodic shapes and rural imagery from the well of traditional Appalachian folk. The group surfaced in 2010 with the widely praised debut Made the Harbor, after which the members pursued separate projects for several years before returning in 2018 with the long-awaited follow-up Magic Ship.

The three singers first crossed paths as students at Bennington College, a modest liberal-arts campus tucked into southwestern Vermont. Informal porch gatherings at their shared house quickly revealed an instinctive vocal rapport, nurtured by their individual singing histories and a common appetite for sounds ranging from the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir to Celine Dion. After issuing a few self-released recordings in 2009, they attracted the interest of Partisan Records, which brought out Made the Harbor the next year. Captured inside a turn-of-the-century ice-cream parlor, the album merged the rustic textures of Revival-era Gillian Welch, the early Watersons, and the late-1950s Greenwich Village sibling act the Kossoy Sisters.

For the next eight years the trio followed separate routes, Sarlé and Sauser-Monnig each launching solo work while Meath joined Nick Sanborn in the electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso. When circumstances eventually placed all three in North Carolina, their renewed closeness prompted a Mountain Man revival. A 2017 appearance at Wisconsin’s Eaux Claires festival signaled fresh material, and in 2018 the group delivered Magic Ship, an eleven-song collection of originals augmented by three covers—the traditional “Bright Morning Stars,” Michael Hurley’s “Blue Mountain,” and Ted Lucas’ “Baby Where You Are.”