My new Americana album, Up on Peters Mountain, recently debuted on all the music streaming services. If you don’t subscribe to one of these — Spotify, Apple Music, etc. — you can watch it on YouTube as well. I built a landing page that takes you to the streaming service of your choosing.
The release represents a departure for me. Jazz has influenced most of my previous seven albums. But I’ve always written music of all sorts. In my college years, I often played acoustic music in bars. Several tunes I wrote way back then made it onto this album, along with others that I wrote more recently.
The album is devoid of drums and piano. Instead, you’ll hear the occasional hammered dulcimer and pan flute. I’m working with some terrific musicians on this album: Eliot Seppa on double bass, Wilson Harwood on banjo, and Connor Vance on fiddle.
I started the project during the pandemic—does that sound familiar? The album would have come out sooner, except it took me a couple of years to raise my mandolin playing to a level where it sounded close to par with the other musicians. I also play all the guitar tracks. Sticklers for authenticity might take issue with the overdubbing required to pull this off. But when I started the project, there was no opportunity to gather everyone in a studio.
Genealogy, another of my passions, informed several of the songs on the album. My great-great-grandmother Annie Maria Boyce figures at the center of “Plant Her a Garden,” a recent composition. A gentle soul raised in Missouri, she raised her children in Butte, Montana, where sulphur fumes from copper smelters ruled the day. Her children tried repeatedly to plant a garden for her to remind her of her Missouri home.
“Yellowstone River” is about a journey engineered by my great-great-grandfather, William Thompson, who led a contingent of 160-odd prospectors returning home with their spoils. The title track, “Up on Peters Mountain,” is about Peter Wright, the legendary mountain man. An entire Appalachian range bears his name. I wrote some other tunes in this vein that I’m saving for a subsequent album.
The inspiration for many of these songs comes from the tunes in my elementary school songbook, particularly Stephen Foster’s work. I would often be the only boy in the class who sang along enthusiastically to “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races.” My mother used to sing these classic tunes to me as a child. There’s something uplifting about the sound.
It seems strange that “Americana” music has come back into vogue, yet few artists explore the roots of its sounds and conventions. It seems to be a catch-all category for acoustic music with a country flavor.
I was nearly finished with a mildly jaded album of jazz-influenced pop recordings, Hit Charade, when I returned to this project. It’s optimism called me back, I guess. It brought me joy to write and play these tunes, and I hope that comes through in the recording. I’m already planning a follow-up.
Fellow musicians have been telling me lately that I’m “prolific.” I guess that’s a compliment, assuming they like what they hear. But the reality is that I’m just getting around to recording the many tunes I’ve written over the years. I started writing them when I was 14 and wrote a ton during high school and college. I managed to continue writing a few tunes a year during my professional years while editing magazines and raising a family. But I never had the time or the money to do professional recordings until about 10 years ago.
I’m lucky to work with some experts in music production. Once again, Tom Bernath of Upfront Audio did most of the mixing. Mike Monseur of Axis Audio did the mastering. Ruth Schilling took my picture. Georgia Shaw designed the jacket. Send me an email at boyce@boycethompson.com if you’d like a CD.
I hope you find a chance to give the album a listen.