Artist: Town Mountain
Hometown: Asheville, NC
Song: "Big River"
Album: The Dead Session
Release Date: November 13
In Their Words: "The Grateful Dead have always had a knack for taking other artists' material and making it their own. All throughout their career, they dipped into country music hits, and the music always seamlessly sounded like Grateful Dead songs. 'Big River' is no exception to that. Johnny Cash sang it with conviction and Bob Weir followed suit. However, Bob seemed to sing it with a bit more playfulness. We took that idea and plugged it into the Town Mountain sound.
Town Mountain has always loved JD Crowe and the New South, especially the early stuff and specifically an album titled Bluegrass Evolution. He recorded some material with drums and pedal steel trying to bridge the gap between bluegrass and country. We immediately saw the potential for 'Big River' to have that same element. We got some of our good friends — Evan Martin (drums) and Jack Deveraux (pedal steel) — to come into the studio and lay their parts down. The final recording fits right into our wheelhouse: the country side of bluegrass." — Jesse Langlais
Artwork: Taylor Swope
