Mount Moriah - Mount Moriah

Breakfast mount

Heather McEntire and Jenks Miller are the core of Mount Moriah, McEntire having begun her musical career in punk band Bellafea. This was a band I didn't know and in reading one review this morning their debut release is described as 'aggressive post-punk, noisy indie rock'. That's precisely what this new incarnation release isn't.

That same review describes the then musical dichotomy of McEntire: Bellafea's loud and raucous live and recorded performances set against her solo, intimate and hushed performances. It is clear that Mount Moriah reflects that latter persona with its plaintive and poetic americana. All the songs are slowly paced and lyrically charged. There is a particularly pretty track Old Gowns with tight vocal harmonies and string accompaniment. Plane and Lament are other early aural attractions, with one more country offering The Reckoning nakedly displaying its pedal steel. It's only a brief flash [though there is a sneaky banjo in We Don't Need Much].