Spring Creek: Way Up on a Mountain

The musicians of Spring Creek go after an aesthetic that can be summed up as Honest Downhome Folk. You could argue that all bluegrass and old-time country bands are doing this to some degree, but Way Up on a Mountain is that idea calibrated to a kind of exactness. The musicians are smart enough to throw a little hokeyness in with their swing, so the listener never feels that they’re putting themselves on pedestals, and the female singer knows the right amount of sass and twang to use when she tells an ex-lover that if he thinks she’s ever going to trust him again he “might as well try to catch the wind.” “When you come up yonder [ie, die], what will you have to ponder?” they ask in “Slow Down”, and then give you the answer: “It’s your heart, not the things that you have.” The guitar tickles them underneath to keep the surface interesting. Robust, emotional, and deft.