Biography
Following a ten-year absence from recording, the cult singer/songwriter David Berman resurfaced through Purple Mountains, a venture that expanded and sharpened the incisive, thoughtful country-rock sound previously developed with his band the Silver Jews. The 2019 album Purple Mountains integrated his private setbacks into compositions rooted in longstanding country traditions, yielding some of the most straightforward yet distinctive work across any of his projects.
Berman entered the world in Williamsburg, Virginia, and remained in Reston until his parents split when he reached age seven. Once his mother relocated to her native Wooster, Ohio, and his father took up lobbying duties in Dallas, Berman completed high school in the adjacent town of Addison. He launched the Silver Jews in 1989 alongside guitarist/singer Stephen Malkmus and drummer Bob Nastanovich, two University of Virginia alumni who had previously joined him in the group Ectoslavia while still students. Post-graduation the trio relocated to New York, where they shared living quarters and performed noisy, frequently spontaneous pieces captured on acquaintances' answering machines. Upon inking a deal with Drag City, the Silver Jews maintained their extremely lo-fi approach and cut their initial label releases using a Walkman. Berman and his collaborators began polishing their word-rich, lyric-driven rock that drew from country and noise sources on 1994's Starlite Walker, tracked at Memphis's historic 24-track Easley-McCain studios. Subsequent releases such as 1998's American Water and 2001's Bright Flight, the latter including several tracks with contributions from Berman's wife Cassie, allowed the Silver Jews' sound to grow more polished and placed Berman's poetic lyrics alongside his introspective vocals at the forefront. After pausing to address depression and substance issues, Berman and the Silver Jews returned in 2005 with Tanglewood Numbers, an album the group backed with its inaugural tour. Three years afterward the Silver Jews delivered the comparatively buoyant Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.
During January 2009 Berman announced on Drag City's message board both his withdrawal from music and the fact that his father was Richard Berman, a lobbyist representing alcohol and firearms sectors. Once the Silver Jews concluded their last performance at Tennessee's Cumberland Caverns, Berman tried composing a book centered on his father; when HBO expressed interest in turning the manuscript into an hour-long series, he abandoned the effort.
Over the ensuing years Berman gradually resumed music-making, beginning with his 2012 collaboration alongside the Avalanches on the single "A Cowboy Overflow of the Heart" and the track "Saturday Night Inside Out" from their 2016 album Wildflower, followed by co-production work on Yonatan Gat's 2018 release Universalists. Triggered by his mother's passing in 2016, Berman recommenced songwriting with renewed focus, folding personal particulars into a more conventional compositional method. After linking up with Woods' Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere, Berman joined the full Woods lineup plus their associate, singer/songwriter Anna St. Louis, to capture the material across several days at Chicago's Jamdek studio. He chose the Purple Mountains moniker for the undertaking, and the self-titled debut surfaced in July 2019. The album marked Berman's last musical utterance; he passed away on August 7, 2019.
Berman entered the world in Williamsburg, Virginia, and remained in Reston until his parents split when he reached age seven. Once his mother relocated to her native Wooster, Ohio, and his father took up lobbying duties in Dallas, Berman completed high school in the adjacent town of Addison. He launched the Silver Jews in 1989 alongside guitarist/singer Stephen Malkmus and drummer Bob Nastanovich, two University of Virginia alumni who had previously joined him in the group Ectoslavia while still students. Post-graduation the trio relocated to New York, where they shared living quarters and performed noisy, frequently spontaneous pieces captured on acquaintances' answering machines. Upon inking a deal with Drag City, the Silver Jews maintained their extremely lo-fi approach and cut their initial label releases using a Walkman. Berman and his collaborators began polishing their word-rich, lyric-driven rock that drew from country and noise sources on 1994's Starlite Walker, tracked at Memphis's historic 24-track Easley-McCain studios. Subsequent releases such as 1998's American Water and 2001's Bright Flight, the latter including several tracks with contributions from Berman's wife Cassie, allowed the Silver Jews' sound to grow more polished and placed Berman's poetic lyrics alongside his introspective vocals at the forefront. After pausing to address depression and substance issues, Berman and the Silver Jews returned in 2005 with Tanglewood Numbers, an album the group backed with its inaugural tour. Three years afterward the Silver Jews delivered the comparatively buoyant Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.
During January 2009 Berman announced on Drag City's message board both his withdrawal from music and the fact that his father was Richard Berman, a lobbyist representing alcohol and firearms sectors. Once the Silver Jews concluded their last performance at Tennessee's Cumberland Caverns, Berman tried composing a book centered on his father; when HBO expressed interest in turning the manuscript into an hour-long series, he abandoned the effort.
Over the ensuing years Berman gradually resumed music-making, beginning with his 2012 collaboration alongside the Avalanches on the single "A Cowboy Overflow of the Heart" and the track "Saturday Night Inside Out" from their 2016 album Wildflower, followed by co-production work on Yonatan Gat's 2018 release Universalists. Triggered by his mother's passing in 2016, Berman recommenced songwriting with renewed focus, folding personal particulars into a more conventional compositional method. After linking up with Woods' Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere, Berman joined the full Woods lineup plus their associate, singer/songwriter Anna St. Louis, to capture the material across several days at Chicago's Jamdek studio. He chose the Purple Mountains moniker for the undertaking, and the self-titled debut surfaced in July 2019. The album marked Berman's last musical utterance; he passed away on August 7, 2019.
Albums
Singles
