Folk musician Seth Mountain takes inspiration from… mountains
Seth Mountain performs at Re.pub.lic for HBC Fest on Oct. 19. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
American folk musician Seth Mountain is releasing his fourth album and accompanying book, “Putting the Sky to Sleep: Revisited,” this weekend.
The album comes from an older set of recordings he's rereleasing with a 60-page concept book published by
containing essays, poems, art and lyrics to explore the themes in the songs. It includes screen printed art by his partner Lee Nan-young and artwork, photos and quotes from friends in Korea and the U.S.
He told The Korea Times the songs are more meditative and prettier than his music these days, and contains string arrangements and other orchestration by David Fuller, Mountain's friend and longtime producer back in the U.S.
“Most of the songs are from an album I made just before leaving for Korea in 2011, as a sort of goodbye to my home, and an extended love song to my parents and specifically Mount St. Helens, the famous volcano and my dad's childhood home until it erupted in 1980,” he said. “They are all themed around a sort of remembering and returning to a landscape that represents home.”
Musically he is often compared to Woody Guthrie and Utah Phillips, both legends of U.S. folk music he describes as “truth-telling troubadours” who used music to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
It's clear Mountain, original surname Martin, has a deep and many-layered interest in mountains, which he describes as “serious, philosophical and sometimes plain silly.”
“For one, a mountain is one of the most revered sacred symbols all around the world. It is a sign of enlightenment. But it also is a sign of a struggle, of hardship, of something to overcome as well as something that overcomes and overwhelms us. It is much bigger than us and our dreams, anyways. And there are always more mountains,” he said, citing a Korean expression he plans to use for an upcoming album release.
“And growing up at the base of an active volcano that destroyed my father's home before I was born, then falling in love with the Baekdudaegan mountain range that geographically unites the politically divided Korean Peninsula... well, the connections go on and on and on.”
Much of the music he plays he describes as “mountain music.”
His father was a Southern Baptist pastor, hiker and bluegrass musician, and his mother played piano and accordion, and he grew up around old-time music, modern folk music and hymns. He comes from a large family where he was the oldest of eight children, in a small mountain community of about 700.
“In a way, the folk music I grew up with sort of guided me in a strange kind of full semi-circle back to a place I knew, but reintroduced it to me ― gospel, my rural hometown, traditional music, church, the plight of the poor and suffering in a cold and increasingly divided world, etc. ― in ways I didn't know before,” he said. “I feel very lucky for that.”
Artwork for Seth Mountain's "Putting the Sky to Sleep" / Courtesy of Seth Mountain
When he was around five years old, both his parents visited Korea in the 1980s on a mission trip.
“It was a short visit, but it changed their lives profoundly ― mainly because of the kindness and love they experienced from many Koreans they met,” he recalled.
“After that, our mobile-home in a small nowhere mountain town became a regular stopping point every year during my childhood and early teenage years for touring Korean church singing teams, who would hang out with us, share Korean food, then put on concerts at our church. So from an early age I was in love with Korean food, and ignorant yet really curious about Korean culture, history and music.”
He finally came to Korea himself in 2007 after finishing college, putting in a year.
After he returned to the U.S. in 2008, he intensified his music career, touring across the country and developing his music with more of a class consciousness, “music that in message and sound encouraged participation, was radically anti-oppression, and joyfully promoted anything that mended divides between oneself, one's neighbors, one's natural home and one's relationship with the sacred ― whatever that means to each person.”
On his travels, he collaborated with many musicians across the U.S., coming to refer to this roving loose-knit band as
.
"It has been as large as a dozen or so, and as small as just me and one other musician, but at its core it is as much a concept as a band ― sort of a collective. And there are Menders all over the U.S., so when I tour, the Menders' sound and general identity changes depending on what region I am in, while for the most part the songs stay the same," he said.
He returned to Korea in 2011 with elements of “Putting the Sky to Sleep” already in place, ready to take his music, defined by spiritual, local and traditional themes, in new directions in a new setting. Since 2014 he has released three albums, a poetry book and a travel book journal, while working as a freelance writer, musician and teacher.
He performs a couple “typical” shows every month, but also collaborates with other musicians for various justice-related causes and events, as well as folk gatherings. His performances are engaging and lucid, and he gets audiences ― both Koreans and foreigners ― clapping and singing along.
“I think music is best shared, and it is wonderful and dangerous when we share it together. It also might be one of the last remnants of non-robotized humanity most of have left in our bag of truly human experiences,” he said. “I want to play for and with people, in ways that engage the audience and not only challenge folks to think about music as a political weapon, but also as a collective experience of joy and grief and increasing awareness of the world around us.”
Over the years here, he also fell in love with traditional Korean folk music, especially pungmulnori and minyo, and he was taken with traditional Korean performances at protests.
"When I have seen and heard folk music being performed in the streets ― at cultural events celebrating aspects of Korean tradition, and especially at protests and marches and vigils ― it never fails to leave my neck and arm-hairs raised and my trying not to cry ― it is so intense and beautiful and deep," he said.
He referred to the 2016-17 Candlelit Revolution that led to former President Park Geun-hye's impeachment, where almost
every type of music active in Korea ― except K-pop
― was performed live.
"And it was all awesome," he said. "But, in my opinion, nothing compared ― in emotional and artistic power ― to the large and rowdy pungmul drumming sessions. It felt like the Earth was breaking open. You could imagine the buildings collapsing. The joy, rage, and sheer energy was incredible."
He has continued to team up with local musicians in Korea, just as he did with the Menders in the U.S. In collaborating with Korean musicians and activists, his music has sponged up a great deal of Korean folk and traditional elements. On his wonderful
released earlier this year, he performs alongside Korean musicians including Jun Bum-sun of the band the Yangbans, pansori singer Kim Jung-eun and SMB Mountain School, among others.
“I think the main reason was that it resonated so deeply with me in ways that mostly only the mountain music I grew up with had before,” he said. “It seemed that these ― very different ― folk genres had more in common, and were more powerful, than most newer music around, and that if I could play with Korean friends in a way that showcased both genres together ― something deep and unique could be communicated that made us both proud of our own cultures and histories.”
The
starts 6:30 p.m. this Sunday at the Camarata Listening Room in Seoul's Haebangchon area. Musicians
and
will also perform. Entry costs 10,000 won.
Visit
sethmartinandthemenders.bandcamp.com
to hear Mountain's music.