The Belly Up Aspen

Blind Pilot:

The first Blind Pilot album in eight years, In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain emerged from a period of artistic crisis and the radical transformation of their creative ecosystem. “I went through a few years where I wasn’t able to write—I tried therapy, I read books on writer’s block, I went on writing trips, but nothing was helping,” says Israel Nebeker, frontman for the Oregon-bred band. After stepping back and reimagining his songwriting approach, Nebeker challenged himself to write an entire album in a month, then brought those songs to his bandmates with a newfound sense of receptivity. “I told myself that whatever songs came through in that month would be for the love of the band and music we make together,” says Nebeker. “Instead of being controlling in the studio, I wanted to let the songs live and breathe with the band as an entity. By the time we finished, it was the most joy we’d ever had in making an album together.”

Produced by Josh Kaufman (The Hold Steady, David Wax Museum), In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain brings a potent new energy to the elegantly composed folk/indie-rock of past LPs like 2016’s And Then Like Lions. In a profound step forward for the band—whose lineup also includes drummer/co-founder Ryan Dobrowski, bassist Luke Ydstie, and multi-instrumentalist Kati Claborn—Blind Pilot’s fourth full-length unfolds with an exquisite fluidity, fully harnessing the undeniable chemistry. “In the past we’ve always been very serious and intentional about the process, but Josh often encouraged us to throw away our preconceived notions of what the songs were supposed to be,” says Nebeker. “So much of the album came from all of us playing live together, listening to each other and trusting our instincts, and really getting to the core of the song,” Dobrowski adds. The result: the most revelatory expression yet of Blind Pilot’s palpable reverence for music as a connective force.

While Blind Pilot intends to tour principally as a quartet in support of the record, the album includes contributions from longtime trumpeter/keyboardist Dave Jorgensen and vibraphonist Ian Krist. In bringing the album to life, the band worked with a rich palette of instrumentation, handling each track with equal parts extraordinary care and unbridled spontaneity. For both Dobrowski and Nebeker—who formed an early iteration of the band as college students in the mid-aughts—those moments of ineffably closeness serve as the lifeblood of Blind Pilot. “For me making this album felt like celebrating being together and still feeling that deep connection that’s been a throughline for our entire adult lives,” Dobrowski says. “One of my very favorite things about music is the way it not only connects us as bandmates, but allows us to connect to an audience—and then within that audience, people end up connecting with each other. It’s this powerful thing that’s unlike anything else, and in a way it’s kind of like magic.”

Nathaniel Riley:

Nathaniel Riley, a folk singer/songwriter from South Dakota, put in his time working the small family farm and recording melancholic melodies in his basement. Treading with years of grief that constructed a cloud full of songs that Nathaniel lugged to Colorado began the process of his debut full length album, “Bird Songs”

Nathaniel’s songscapes lean on your heartstrings, unpacking melodies like a nostalgic lucid dream. Acoustically driven, wistful lyricism and ambient instrumentation provide the bedrock for his contemporary folktales. Compiling miles of desolation, heartache, introspection and memories of the forest and the prairie’s whistle that convey him to persist. Empowering his songs their role, to be a beacon on the hill.

The sound and songs arrived abundantly, easily and honestly. Nathaniel began recording his album “Bird Songs”, with Aaron Youngberg at Swingfingers Recording Studios in Fort Collins, Colorado in September of 2020.

Darren Garvey came on as a producer for the record, bringing a grass-roots perspective and an experimental, contemporary ear.

“I always loved pushing the boundaries of genres and wanted to create something familiar to myself in a couple different ways. One of which was to bring ambient ethereal sounds to the record that may not be commonly found on records claiming to be primarily folk,” says Riley.

“I love the process of recording and the almost immortal aspect it provides,” Riley says. “You will forever hear the person’s skin on the strings, the breath before they sing. Living proof of somebody being alive, and it remains there, like a little memory box of sound forever. Itself, never changing.”