End of the Road 2012, Friday - Mountain Man

Mountain Man opened the Garden Stage on Saturday, but almost didn’t make it – they’d got stuck behind the traffic for a nearby Traction Engine festival (more on this later) and arrived a little discombobulated. Still, they overcame the obstacles – including an unfamiliar guitar “like a Cadillac” (above) – and got on with the business of singing their hearts out. Strange mix, Mountain Man – one minute singing their a cappella songs in the purest, sweetest voices imaginable, and the next explaining how they suffered from the ‘Sultan’s Revenge’ while on tour in Istanbul (actually, the songs on their 2010 debut Made The Harbor are much more complex than they sound – just because they’re beautiful doesn’t mean they’re twee).

There was also a display of the dancing they do while acting as backing singers for Feist. They had the audience in the palm of their hands, the sun shone, and everything was just bliss. A good start to Bella Union’s birthday curation of End of the Road.

If you haven’t bought it already, go buy Made the Harbor here.

Beer note: I drank a pint of Beer! listening to this – that’s the ale made by the Milk Street Brewery in Frome, exclamation mark included. Very nice it was too, wish there’d been more of it.

 jkneale

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