Mountain Man (music group)

Mountain Man
Background information
Origin	Bennington, Vermont, U.S.
Genres	Indie, folk, a cappella
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Partisan (N. America) Bella Union (Europe) Spunk (Australia), P-Vine (Japan)
Associated acts	Feist,Bobby, Alt-J, Sylvan Esso
Website	http://mountainman.bandcamp.com/
Members	Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Amelia Randall Meath

Mountain Man is an American singing trio of young women described as indie folk rock with a traditional Appalachian-type folk sound. They are notable for earning critical acclaim from numerous music critics. They often sing a cappella, with a "sparse, haunting, hymnal beauty" sometimes accompanied by soft acoustic guitar, but with their voices "virtually unadorned", according to Guardian critic Paul Lester. The group has been touring with the vocalist Feist, and New York Times music reviewer Ben Ratliff described their performance as creating shifting harmonies which worked perfectly to complement Feist's vocal delivery.

The three members of the group are Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath. They met as students at Bennington College in Vermont and began singing seriously together in 2009. Two come from "singing families" and one got experience singing in a church choir. They were influenced in part by Bulgarian women's choir music, as well as artists such as Celine Dion. According to one report, they would sit on the porch of a shared house in Bennington and harmonize on songs they had written; when they sang as a trio, they realized it was "something special." Self-released recordings were picked up by influential blogs such as Pitchfork in late 2009, and they got a record deal with the label Partisan and others. They've been compared to the musical group The Roches. Amelia Randall Meath is the daughter of television producer and professional Santa Claus Jonathan Meath, and lead singer in the band Sylvan Esso.

While they make decisions as a group, often they divide responsibilities, with Amelia often assuming the "manager role," Molly handling finances, and Alex deciding matters about sound quality in recordings, according to the group in an interview on NPR. They toured the country after graduating from college by riding in a now-defunct car which they named Delores. Their first album is entitled Made the Harbor on the label Partisan Records (North America), Bella Union (Europe), Spunk (Australia), and P-Vine (Japan). They toured with the music group The Decemberists and with Jónsi. They toured in Europe. One of their folk harmony songs was converted into electropop by multi-instrumentalist Paul Duncan of Warm Ghost. In addition, Meath and Sarle contribute their vocal talents to the indie music group BOBBY.

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