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Artvoice - August 25, 2010

Magnolia Mountain - Redbird Green
by Donny Kutzbach

It’s no small feat for a band to pull off a balance of artful depth, skill, and un-self-consciousness. It’s even more impressive when we are talking specifically about a band from Cincinnati pulling off genuine country music. Magnolia Mountain does it, proving they’re the real deal. Borrowing from the past and spinning it with refreshing originality, the band has crafted a double album (available as a digital download, compact disc, and 2-LP vinyl) of spirited, refreshingly warm and genuine Americana that dips deep into country waters, treads hilly bluegrass paths, and brushes the back streets of folk traditions.

With a regular lineup of eight but bolstered by a rotating cast of nine extras for this record, Magnolia Mountain is a big band (pedal steel, mandolin, organ, harmony singers) that shows decided restraint and poised power. Led by singer/guitarist Mark Utley—who wrote most of Redbird Green’s 16 tracks, barring just a few like the stripped, meditative, and bluesy cover of Hank Williams’ “Long Gone Lonesome Blues”—the band proffers a brand of country taste with just enough real spirit and rawness tempered by the innate ability to know when to lay back.

Another major strength is Magnolia Mountain’s flawlessl execution of stylistic hairpin turns: Take “Reconsider (Please Don’t Go),” a burner that ably leans on the kind of Stax-style, country-informed, Southern soul that will likely have you swearing it must be a cover from an old 45. Immediately following is the powerful “One Day More (For the Mountains),” which is another original—co-written with West Virginia singer/songwriter/activist Elaine Purkey—that sounds again like an old, dusty record, but this time an old protest ballad. Utley can tell a story, too. The dark themes of rustbelt despair in Redbird Green’s title track sounds like something straight from Springsteen’s The River.

All in all, this is an album that exhibits how great American roots music can be…so long as it isn’t afraid to dig in to all those different roots in the ground. Fans of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Band, Gillian Welch, and Steve Earle will find plenty to love in Magnolia Mountain.

 

 

Unsigned: The Magazine - August 14, 2010

Magnolia Mountain: Tricky DIversity
by Ric Hickey

Exactly how does a hillbilly orchestra stay on the right side of the border between classic and cliché? I don’t know but what I do believe is that God whispers this sacred secret in the dreams of only a chosen few and surely Magnolia Mountain’s Mark Utley is among them. Resounding with echoes of country music’s heyday, Magnolia Mountain’s Redbird Green sounds like it could have been recorded forty years ago.

The album’s lead-off track “Gone” resonates with a comforting familiarity. And the song’s “I’m outta here” sentiment is as tried, true and trustworthy a motif as you are likely to find in country music. Angry resignation may indeed be the fuel of many a country boy’s revenge songs, but here Utley becomes the bitter emotion itself, morphing into an exultant hillbilly phoenix. Brushes on the snare drum flutter soft as dew on the tall grass under a purple pre-dawn sky. The upright bass bounces lazily like a sleeping bull grunting at its shadow in the throes of an unsettling dream.

In the intro to “One Day More (For The Mountains)”, Utley’s ominous banjo dances like a wicked spider up in the rafters of the barn out back. Elsewhere, Bob Lese’s mischievous mandolin dances in and out of the mix, momentarily tugging your rapt attention away from the layers of angelic harmonies provided by Melissa English and Amber Nash.

A large ensemble can be an unwieldy thing. But each member of Magnolia Mountain calmly executes sparse, complimentary lines of simple grace. The musicians display mindful instincts, and perform with a well-grounded wisdom and humble confidence. It is perhaps the only way to craft music like this that’s both subtle and direct, eager but earnest. Always front and center, Utley’s voice is surrounded by sympathetic voices, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, harmonica, fiddle, and the ethereal pedal steel keening of David Rhodes Brown.

Says Utley, “Magnolia Mountain is an unusually large group, but it came together in a very organic fashion and everyone brings something unique to the project. I’m real big on vocal harmonies and we spend a lot of time crafting 2-, 3-, and 4-part harmonies for everything we do. I’m also blessed with a group full of talented but wonderfully unselfish musicians, who know how to listen as well as they play, and that makes a huge difference in what we can pull off.”

In a recent conversation, I asked Utley to expound on the influences that lead directly to the writing of the songs on Redbird Green. Hoping his response would include not just musical influences, but life experiences, signposts, and landmarks along the way that lead him and the band to this point, I was not disappointed.

“I think the thing that’s allowed so much of Magnolia Mountain to fall so easily in place for me as a songwriter”, he says, “is that I finally got to a place where writing and playing and singing music felt natural again. Maybe I also just got more comfortable in my own skin. Who I was, who I wasn’t, where I came from, being old enough to have some perspective on where I’d been, where I am, and where I’m going. Being okay with being a blue-collar kid from Indiana, one generation removed from being a farmer, and everything that that history brought with it.”

“I started playing acoustically for the first time and really enjoyed the warmth and humanity of it, and how a group of people playing acoustically together draws listeners in a different way than playing electric does. I was struck by how so many divergent types of people all responded to these older tunes and spent a lot of time thinking about why that was, and how I could incorporate some of that into the songs I was writing.”

A Cincinnati-based band, Magnolia Mountain has a Midwestern twang that draws from the Ohio River Valley and the tri-state confluence of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Produced by former Afghan Whigs bassist John Curley, their Redbird Green is a Southern Gothic mood piece collage, a pastiche of down home imagery both romantic (“Ma Belle Marie”) and bleak (“Long Gone Lonesome Blues”). In its own peculiar way, the album can almost be seen as a journey through country music’s storied past, with important side trips to visit its crucial cousins the blues (“Medicine Man”) and gospel (“I Do Believe”). Lazy, lilting evening shadows fall for “Emma Claire”, a beautiful ballad with a heavenly steel guitar and fiddle break. The song’s calm, cool instrumental segment is a study in rock solid restraint, courtesy of the slow burning rhythm section of bassist Bob Donisi and drummer Matt Frazer. “Reconsider (Please Don’t Go)” is a classic last call slow dance waltz. It’s the perfect soundtrack for holding your partner close for one last dance, or sitting alone at the bar to cry in your beer.

About his youthful dalliances with other genres, Utley confides, “I played in punk, goth, and alt-rock bands for years but pretty much walked away from it during a transition period when I started having kids and wanted to do right by them, which essentially meant getting a straight job, at least for a while. I made a few musical stabs at things occasionally, but it always felt like I was trying on clothes from my youth that didn’t quite fit anymore.”

“I never stopped listening to music or loving music, though, and over the years continued something I’ve always done, which is to trace the music I love backwards, to see who my favorite artists were influenced by, where that music came from, and so on. This search, together with a newfound interest in tracing my family genealogy, led me to a lot of country, folk, mountain, and old-time string band music, back toward the Irish, Scots-Irish and British roots from which much of this music (and all my ancestors) sprang from. I’ve also always had a deep fascination with the American South and all of its social, racial, and musical history. I started to see how intertwined all these different strains of American music were, realizing more than ever what an amazing melting pot American music has always been.”

Country music recordings adopted a more direct and punchier production in the early 60s, employing a few of early rock and roll’s conventions, in particular a little more drums in the mix. Some consider this era a low ebb in country music’s history, a time when it was rarely heard outside of the south.  But the music’s popularity  exploded again late in the 60s and into the early 70s with what became known as the “Countrypolitan” sound, due to the layers of sophisticated string sections and a large choir of vocalists in the chorus of many tunes. An uncommonly strong collection of songs, Magnolia Mountain’s Redbird Green cleverly walks the line between those two phases in country music history. Incorporating a large dose of bittersweet bluegrass, it has the feel of a long lost obscure country record one might discover in their grandparents’ collection. (Appropriately, the disc is also available as a double-vinyl LP.)

In an industry where even country music has been shamelessly carved up and re-shaped into any number of ridiculous and dubious sub-genres it’s not just refreshing as hell to hear classic country sounds as genuine and sincere and bone-deep, heartfelt real as Redbird Green, it feels like a Godsend.

Among his vast array of musical influences, Utley’s favorites are Hank Williams, X, Gillian Welch, The Band, The Faces, Woody Guthrie, The Everly Brothers, and Ola Belle Reed. “As a songwriter”, he says, “this band frees me up to pretty much try anything, and the confidence I get from having such amazing musicians play and sing with me has really helped to open up the floodgates, so to speak, and allow just a ridiculous amount of songs and music to flow out.”

“The ‘curse’ that comes with all these blessings is that we can be so stylistically diverse that it’s hard to know how to describe ourselves to people. That can be a little tricky in terms of booking shows sometimes, because we can be seen as too country or too traditional by some, and not country or traditional enough by others. But all in all, I think it’s a good problem to have.”

 

 

August 12, 2010

Magnolia Mountain - Redbird Green
by David Kronke, L.A.-based film and music critic

Magnolia Mountain's "Redbird Green" feels something like a master class in Americana, an at-times rousing, at others emotionally resonant roundelay of roots rock, bluegrass, blues and gospel.

Leader and chief songwriter Mark Utley and his sprawling, talented group of musicians and backup singers have created not just a labor of love, but something you'll love, as well, a generous, 17-song recording that mines the well-tilled landscape of its genres and finds beauty anew. Even when they embrace the conventions of the sundry songwriting styles, they still manage make them special and fresh. These songs would have knocked out listeners when this brand of music was in its burgeoning stages and will have the same effect today.

"Redbird Green" opens with "Gone," a prototypical and typically catchy song about the ramblin' urge which manages to make Utley's voice feel lonesome even when buttressed with pretty harmonizing from Melissa English and Amber Nash and boasts deft interplay between its soloists, from Annette Christianson's fiddle to Rockne Riddlebarger's Hawaiian steel guitar to Bob Lese's mandolin. It assures you you're in good, friendly, welcoming hands for the time you spend listening to the album.

Utley and company subsequently offer up sprightly bluegrass ("Ma Belle Marie," "Early Morning Train"), blues ("Medicine Man," "Hellbound Train") and gospel that even an unbeliever can embrace ("I Do Believe").

It's easy to enjoy Jordan Neff's Eagles-esque "Like Any Other" without having to actually like The Eagles, and one can imagine "Reconsider (Please Don't Go)" emanating ceaselessly from '50s jukeboxes. And you'd swear "One Day More (For the Mountains)," which Utley adapted with English from a lyric by activist songwriter Elaine Purkey, came out of Woody Guthrie's songbook. "Long Gone Lonesome Blues" actually does come from Hank Williams' songbook, just in case you haven't figured out where this band is coming from, but Bob Lese's mandolin solo ekes out so much emotion that you practically don't need the lyrics.

"Savannah" is, you know, yet another love song, but boasting a gorgeous melody, and "Emma Claire" is the sort of song of regret that you've heard before but still manages to resonate thanks to the wry, wistful way Magnolia Mountain handles it.

"Home" is both simple and complex – on its face, it's a sweet and joyous celebration of the simple pleasures that life has to offer. But, couched amidst the other, darker songs on the album, it also underscores just how difficult obtaining and appreciating those simple pleasures can be.

My favorite songs on the album, however, come near the end. "Opalene" is the sexiest song on the album, more a song of lust rather than love, with Nash and English's backing vocals more than capably evoking the sultry attitude that'd fill a songwriter with desire. Still, Mark and his collaborators offer a fairly tasteful version of the song. You can imagine a really raunchy version of this song played in some backwoods Southern roadhouse inspiring all sorts of sex (and, no doubt, dozens of unwanted children, but that's another story).

And the final, title track, "Redbird Green," recalls Bruce Springsteen's "The River" in its sad, weary tale of ordinary, working-class folks beleaguered by grim economic injustices. But Springsteen was a superstar trying to imagine the plight of the working man (and, make no mistake, he did it quite well); Utley and his colleagues, working significantly closer to real, hard life, have created something more lived-in, something deeper and more haunting.

I covered the music industry full-time back in the '80s, when major labels were obsessed with the slick and superficial and video-ready, and have covered it intermittently since then, when those labels met the fate their behavior in the '80s suggested they ultimately deserved. In the past, bands like Magnolia Mountain would likely have met with indifference by those major labels, or been outright ruined by them (remember, in the 1980s, Neil Young was sued by his label for not being commercial enough).

Today, with most bands savvy enough to realize that they can pursue their own muse and find audiences without having to concede to major-label pressures, more musicians are able to remain true to their instincts and connect with like-minded fans without having to sell their souls and still eke out a living (or, well, almost).

It's one of the few positive quality-of-life trends of the past decade, to my mind, and Magnolia Mountain, while hardly reaching the heights of, say, Wilco, has under this new world musical order been able to craft lovely and affecting music that they – and their listeners – can genuinely revel in.

 

CityBeat - July 27, 2010

"I Shall Be Released" Record Review Column
by Brian Baker

Magnolia Mountain’s debut album, last year’s Nothing As It Was, was a stellar introduction to a band with an almost boundless amount of Americana/Bluegrass/Country potential and it garnered a good deal of deserved acclaim as a result. In the subsequent year and a half since its release, Magnolia Mountain lost a member, gained two more, gigged relentlessly and immediately set to work on their sophomore release. How immediate? At the release show for the debut album, the Cincinnati-based band played five songs that wound up on its incredible sophomore album, Redbird Green.

From sheer amount of music to stylistic shifts to depth and breadth of songs, the Magnolias have amped up every facet of their presentation on Redbird Green. Mark Utley is proving to be a world-class songwriter and Magnolia Mountain is becoming the perfect vehicle for interpreting his work in any and every conceivable musical permutation under the Americana banner. Structured like a four-sided double vinyl album (Redbird Green is also available in the vinyl format), the album starts off with a quartet of diversity on “Side One” — the propulsive done-me-wrong chug of “Gone,” a hybrid of Johnny Cash’s traditional magnificence and Rodney Crowell’s authentic translational skills, the spicy Cajun swing of “Ma Belle Marie,” the field Blues-meets-banjo porch stomp of “Medicine Man” and the plugged/unplugged Americana lilt of “Like Any Other.”

The range exhibited in these four songs would indicate a pretty flexible band, but Magnolia Mountain is far from showing off its endless versatility. They make a credible Gospel outfit on “I Do Believe,” Bluegrass doesn’t come much bluer than “Early Morning Train” and they turn out pure Country and Folk goodness on “Savannah” and “Home,” respectively. And, as Todd Rundgren once rightly noted, still there is more, from the Country Blues ache of “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” and the pure Blues scorch of “Opalene” to the Rockabilly rave-up of “Hellbound Train” and the Neil Young-channels-Bruce Springsteen modern economic Dust Bowl balladry of the title track.

Most bands couldn’t achieve that kind of wide variety on a single release, let alone sustain it over the course of 70 minutes and not have it sound like a muddled genre mish-mash or a forced effort to please too many disparate listeners. That may be Magnolia Mountain’s most valuable asset — they have the rare ability to inhabit any branch of Roots music and still sound unmistakably like Magnolia Mountain.

 

CityBeat - June 23, 2010

 

 

CityBeat - June 16, 2010

Magnolia in Bloom: Magnolia Mountain Goes Lo-Tech and High Class on Ambitious New Album, 'Redbird Green'
by Brian Baker

Gather round, kids. Pappy wants to tell you how it was in the old days. Way back then, we used to get our music on big black dinner plates we put on a revolving platter and then played using an arm with a diamond needle at the end which would run along in a groove and make the music come out of the dinner plate. Then you’d have to get up and turn over the plate to hear the other side.

Hey, don’t look at me like that. Your music comes flying through wires willy-nilly and it’s made of ones and zeros, and if your computer machine crashes you don’t have a single solitary note of music left. Your way doesn’t make any more sense than ours.

The point is that local Americana/Roots outfit Magnolia Mountain remembers the old days and wanted to connect with them in some significant way, so they’re releasing their new ambitiously sized CD, Redbird Green, in a double-album vinyl format. It was clearly a structure Magnolia frontman Mark Utley was working toward; the titles on the back of the CD are separated into four distinct sides.

“I’m a vinyl freak and I wanted to do the first record on vinyl but we didn’t have enough money,” Utley says from the living room of his Price Hill home. “Sitting down with one CD for an hour can be a little exhausting, but the good thing about the record is its broken into logical sections. You can listen to three or four songs at a time and they fit together with themselves as well as they fit as a piece with the whole thing.”

And while the Magnolias are going old-school technology on the vinyl release of Redbird Green, the band’s methodology to raise the funds to finance the pressing and printing of the album was on the cutting edge of Web networking. Utley posted the album on Kickstarter.com, a new fundraising site for musicians, artists, inventors or anyone looking to get a project bankrolled.

“We put it up as a project we were working on and asked for donations,” Utley explains. “We had a goal of $3,500 initially, but when all was said and done we had gotten almost $6,000 in donations. We were just trying to get enough to make a double album, nothing fancy, just a thick sleeve that both records would fit in, but now it’s turned into a gatefold, with a nice Michael Wilson photo of us across the inside, full color everything.”

“Ambitious” is the word for Magnolia Mountain all the way around. The band — Utley on vocals, guitar and banjo, guitarist Jordan Neff, vocalist Melissa English, Bob Lese on mandolin and harmonica, upright bassist Bob Donisi, drummer Matt Frazer — released its debut album, Nothing As It Was, last February to fairly universal acclaim and in the interim lost a member (steel guitarist Rockne Riddlebarger) and added others (vocalist Amber Nash, Neff’s partner from Shiny and the Spoon, and local guitar legend David Rhodes Brown). Most bands would require a period of adjustment to sort that all out, but Utley had different plans for Magnolia Mountain. The first order of business was to keep writing.

“When we did the CD release show for the first one, we did an extra five songs at the end of the show, which turned out to be five of the songs on this record,” Utley says. “We just kind of kept rolling. If there was any problem at all, it was knowing when to stop. What do we not put on this record?” The Magnolias debated the wisdom of including so much material on the album, but eventually they decided to release the CD with 17 tracks at just over 70 minutes. It was clearly the right move: Redbird Green, once again produced by John Curley at Ultrasuede, plays with the breezy pace of a single album.

“There were a lot of discussions about that; I wrote the lion’s share of (the songs) so they’re all kind of like my babies, I don’t want to get rid of any of them,” Utley says with a laugh. “But I also don’t want to be the guy who can’t edit himself, so I was always asking, ‘What should we take off? What should we leave?’ At one point, we had the lucky 13, and of the lucky 13 we chose 17.”

“Reality demanded that we stop,” English says. Much of the album’s appeal lies in the fact that Magnolia Mountain is adept at so many different styles under the Americana umbrella: the straight up Country of “Emma Claire” and “Savannah,” the rousing Rockabilly of “Hellbound Train,” the Gospel-drenched “I Do Believe,” the Cajun spice of “Ma Belle Marie.” It’s a testament to Utley’s creative vision and the amazing execution of the Magnolias that the genre mash-up on Redbird Green doesn’t sound choppy.

“I think the band had gelled more and I know this all sounds like an after-game sports interview, where they say, ‘I just want to help the team,’ but it was a more cohesive unit,” Utley says. “Everybody molded better.”

“With the first one, we had a lot of the arrangements pretty well established,” Neff says.

“Whereas with this one a lot of that stuff was written in the studio.”

As on the first album, studio guests helped expand the Magnolias’ sound on Redbird Green, including The Tillers’ Mike Oberst, Lagniappe’s Jessie Berne, The Kentucky Struts’ Adam Pleiman, the Joneses’ Rashon Murph and The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars’ Ed Cunningham. Utley’s hoping to get most, if not all, of the album’s featured players to drop by for the album release party at the Southgate House this Saturday.

Typically, there’s very little downtime in Magnolia Mountain’s world. Utley is putting together a benefit album to raise funds to halt the mountaintop removal method of mining. So far, Glossary, The Hiders, Ed Cunningham, Katie Laur and Ma Crow have all signed up and more are expected by summer’s end. Neff and Nash will work in some Shiny and the Spoon work, and Rhodes will be splitting his time between 500 Miles to Memphis, Magnolia Mountain and a variety of other projects.

“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” Brown says. That might just be the Magnolia Mountain mantra.

 

Southgate House website - June 15, 2010

Ballroom, Saturday, June 19th

Americana roots act Magnolia Mountain are unquestionably one of the area's most beloved bands, consistently earning CEA nominations, along with critical and fan praise, for their accomplished live show that demonstrates wonderful songwriting with bluegrass-folk accompaniment. This time out, Mark Utley (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo), Jordan Neff (harmony vocals, electric guitar, accordion, banjo, piano), Melissa English (harmony vocals), Amber Nash (harmony vocals), David Rhodes Brown (lap steel, slide guitar), Bob Lese (mandolin, harmonica), Bob Donisi (upright bass), and Matt Frazer (drums, percussion) celebrate the long-awaited release of the self-produced CD/Double-LP sure to take the band to a whole 'nother level; Redbird Green offers both familiar country rambles and beautiful, transcendent moments of songwriter bliss. This incredible lineup also touts bluegrass-folk trio The Tillers (quickly leading the charge of our region's stellar Americana revival), The Hiders (with great '70s-tinged mellow-folk chestnuts) and The High Strange Drifters.

 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - June 13, 2010

Jason and the Scorchers Heat Up Twangfest
by Barry Gilbert

Opening on Saturday was Magnolia Mountain of Cincinnati, an eight-person band featuring singer-songwriter Mark Utley and guitarist David Rhodes Brown. The band's acoustic-based and original amalgamation of country, rock and bluegrass was well played and enthusiastically received. 

 

Metromix Cincinnati - June 4, 2010

Songs from Daniele's iPod: Magnolia Mountain and More: What Our Music Writer is Listening To
by Daniele Pfarr

Artist: Magnolia Mountain
Album: Redbird Green (2010)
Song: "Opalene"
Daniele says: I'm on the seventh listen of this song since this morning. That's not including the many previous listens since I got the album earlier this week. You don't have it yet because it's not released until June 19th (nanny nanny boo boo!), so listen below to hear Mark Utley and his band of talented players that together make up Magnolia Mountain. I asked him why this one is his favorite, and after clarifying that his favorite song depends on the day I ask, today he chose "Opalene" because, "I like the sort of snaky, swampy feel it has, and I love the way Melissa (English) and Amber (Nash) sing it with me. Bob Lese plays some killer blues harp on it too." I like it because of all those things too. English and Nash harmonize in the background while Utley (his voice reminds me of Lyle Lovett!) sings about a woman that he meshes with like fire loves gasoline. But he doesn't care. Opalene is dangerous, and the listener will get that when hearing the honky tonkin', bluesy, country music that emanates from this sexy song. Utley has a friend in Georgia that says he's gonig to name his next illegitimate child "Opalene." Hot damn, that's hot. Seriously, why are you still reading, listen to the track below. Oh, and don't miss the band's celebration of the release of "Redbird Green" at the Southgate House on June 19 with The Tillers, The Hiders and more. I won't be able to tease you about not having the album anymore after that, I suppose. Drats. 

 

Metromix Cincinnati - October 17, 2009

Magnolia Mountain at the Crow's Nest
by Daniele Pfarr

Harmonies, guitars, accordions, banjos, pianos, mandolins, harmonicas, upright basses, oh my! Folk Americana band Magnolia Mountain has such a multitude of talents backing it that it's hard not to be impressed. It released its debut album, "Nothing As It Was", earlier this year, and it also earned a Cincinnati Entertainment Award nomination in the folk/Americana category in 2008. The music has an old-time feel, which is especially appropriate considering that the full band is playing at one of the oldest West Side bars. Order some beer-battered fish and a beer, sit back and enjoy the music.

 

Americana U.K. - July 31, 2009

Magnolia Mountain - Nothing As It Was
Reviewed by Maurice Hope

Music of the Appalachian hills flavoured with a slice or two of urban folk, plus a nod towards their forebears from the other side of the Atlantic

Fronted by lead vocalist Mark Utley, Cincinnati, Ohio based Magnolia Mountain is a seven-piece mainly acoustic band that keep it simple, and at the same time, innovative.

On merging country, folk, Celtic and bluegrass into their music —the entertainment is never finer than when, after a brief acappella beginning they deliver ‘Little Wildflower’. A superb country offering possessing fine electric lead guitar and Dobro, Utley not only shines on lead vocals but the pickers play with a great freedom as they likewise do on the dobro (Rockne Riddlebarger) fired ‘A Little South Of Birmingham’ and ‘Nora Mae’ — that speaks of separated love and how the lure of Dixie holds strong.

‘Irish Maggie’ pretty much speaks for itself, and with mandolin, fiddle (best heard on the soul searching intro), Hammond organ and Dobro put to good use the music transcends America and Ireland. Prompted by a chugging rhythm, Utley and Co are in unstoppable form.

[T]he album regains impetus on ‘Autumn Rose’. Warmed in lead guitar, mandolin and a fine shuffling rhythm, seamless vocal harmonies and a sprinkling banjo it finds MM near their best.

‘Annelise’ takes the listener down into the southern states, Louisiana maybe —such the moody presentation and impressive vocal assists from Melissa English.

Green Man Review - April 2, 2009

Magnolia Mountain - Nothing As It Was
Reviewed by Gary Whitehouse

Mark Utley, a former rocker from Cincinnati, has gone rootsy with his current band, Magnolia Mountain. Their debut disc Nothing As It Was is a warm, likeable collection of Americana that combines country, folk and bluegrass sounds.

This is heartland music at its best, expressed in honest lyrics and solid musicianship. Utley sings the lead vocals in an approachable baritone, and he's backed by a big group of musicians on mostly acoustic instruments, with a touches of electric guitar, Hawaiian steel guitar and organ.

Full disclosure: I'm acquainted with Utley from an online music-related community we both belong to. But I wouldn't say that I liked his music unless I really liked it, and I do.

In his bio on the Magnolia Mountain Web site Utley says he didn't used to think very highly of his rural roots. "But like many others, age and experience (particularly the experience of raising children) have given me a different vantage point on life. These days I am more interested in who I am than in who I am not. I have actively sought out my roots, from my ancestors in Ireland, Scotland, and England, through their time in Appalachia and out into the farms, towns, and cities of the midwest and the south, and I have found a sense of pride, humility and grounding there."

Those Celtic and Appalachian roots find their expression particularly in the third song here, "Irish Maggie." It kicks off with a sweet fiddle intro, very Irish-Appalachian sounding; some accordion is added and some mandolin, then the tempo picks up a bit, the dobro kicks in and it's a full-blown country song, but still with that Irish lilt as befits the subject matter.

Throughout, the instrumentation, arrangements and tempo fit the subject matter in like manner. "Nora Mae" is a mid-tempo song with brushed snares from Matt Frazer, more dobro from Rockne Riddlebargber, and a touch of electric guitar from Jordan Neff, who elsewhere contributes accordion and other keyboards. "A Little South of Birmingham" is even more up-tempo, with a railroad shuffle beat and lovely harmony vocals from Melissa English.

This kind of music used to be called country & western, and it's songs like "Beautiful Mirage" and "Murder on My Soul" with their Hawaiian steel, harmonica and such that could still be called that. "Little Wildflower" is a bluegrass-style love song with a beautiful multi-part harmony vocal introduction; "Autumn Rose" is a jaunty, bluesy swinging country song; "Out of My Mind" is a slow honky-tonk weeper with piano and fiddle; and "Annelise" tugs at the heart strings with Appalachian-style harmonies before it turns into a country-rocker complete with organ from Neff -- it's one of those "devil woman" songs in which the fellow is telling her to leave him alone but doesn't really mean it.

Mostly these are sweet love songs of the country kind, and they tend toward understatement. Local independent musicians like this deserve all the support we can give them these days. I encourage you to go on over to Magnolia Mountain's Web site and listen to the song samples, then consider purchasing directly from the artist. You'll also find it on iTunes and CDBaby.

 

CityBeat - February 18, 2009

Mountain Songs
BY Mike Breen

Though known for a wide-range of musical styles, Greater Cincinnati has always had an especially strong Americana/ Roots music scene, as evidenced each year by the stacked lineup at the annual Rivertown Breakdown showcase. With the release of Nothing As It Was, Mark Utley and his band Magnolia Mountain should instantly jump to the top of any list of Cincinnati’s best Roots practitioners.

Nothing As It Was — to be released in conjunction with a MM show Saturday at the Southgate House with guests The Tillers and Kim Taylor — is soulful, haunting and pure, taking the best of Country, Folk and Bluegrass and refracting it through a modern prism. It rings incredibly authentic and timeless, an album that could have come out 40, 30 or 20 years ago but is too lively and crafty to stand as some sort of retro-music museum piece.

The “Roots” being spread around on Nothing are widereaching — “Irish Maggie” strides and jigs like a vintage Celtic Folk song, while the highlight, “Out of My Mind,” has the sad, earnest feel of a great George Jones love lament.

Most startling and appealing is when Utley and Co. create something that transcends any genre. “Murder on My Soul,” while perhaps designed with “murder ballad” intent, is a hovering, spooky slice of ethereal soul-searching that recalls the ghostly Indie Folk of artists like Midlake and Fleet Foxes.

Nothing As It Was announces Mark Utley as one of the finest songwriters in the area. He and the amazing band he’s assembled have a knack for crafting something that is both traditional and refreshing. Fans of Roots music old and new will find Magnolia Mountain’s latest one of the more enchanting albums they’ll hear all year.

 

CityBeat - November 18, 2008

2008 CEA Music Nominees

MARK UTLEY AND MAGNOLIA MOUNTAIN: Rock veteran Utley switches gears with Magnolia Mountain, a graceful, skillful Americana powerhouse.

 

BuyCincy.com - September 25, 2008

Magnolia Mountain at Arnold's
We kick off our live MidPoint Music Festival coverage
by Sean Fisher

It's nights like this that make you love Arnold's. Good bluegrass music, a nice fall breeze, and delicious Christian Moerlein.

Magnolia Mountain is up now. I'm really digging their set, which has touches of blues, folk, and a good dash of roots bluegrass. Best of all, they feature both a slide guitar and an accordian. You just can't beat the accordian/slide guitar combo for a chill Thursday night.

Arnold's courtyard is one of our favorite places to hear live music and we could think of no better place to kick off what we hope to be a very successful Midpoint weekend.

 

CityBeat - September 25, 2008

MidPoint Music Festival: Thursday Sept. 25
Previews of all the acts, plus CityBeat critics pick the highlights
BY Mike Breen

11 p.m. Magnolia Mountain (Cincinnati)
Americana
Led by singer/songwriter Mark Utley (formerly of AltRock bands like Stop the Car and Pale Halo), Magnolia Mountain came to be when Mark decided to dig back into music with a different, more acoustic-based approach. The result is Magnolia Mountain’s magical Country Folk, delivered with an elegant energy and intimacy and an almost hovering effect.
Dig It: Gram Parsons and Johnny Cash jammin’ on a cloud.

 

CityBeat - November 14, 2007

Locals Only: Mark Utley
Rock veteran unplugs, amplifying roots and heart with Magnolia Mountain
BY C.A. MacConnell

When I arrive, songster/guitarist Mark Utley is M.I.A. Actually, he's upstairs tucking one child in bed. As a rule, youngsters aren't drawn to me. Frequently, when I hold babies, they twitch, then cry. But when they do like me, they really like me, tugging me, hugging me. Such is the case when I meet another of Utley's girls. In the den, she gazes doe-eyed, her smiley face trapped in that famous curious "kid look."

Then Utley appears, giving her a bear hug, sending her on her sleepy way. Sinking into the crimson couch, he explains that he's a family man with four children at home. Laughing, he says, "I'll sleep when I'm dead."

When he talks, smile lines, those telling creases, form on the sides of his eyes. His manner is that of a thoughtful man, and beneath that depth rests an obvious vast knowledge of music. He says, "I was pretty much always writing songs from early on."

Originally from Evansville, Ind., Utley is a Rock veteran. In 1979, he joined the band presently named Matinee Idol. Utley says, "They were alarmingly good ... they played what I would consider the best of the '60s and '70s stuff."

Think of The Who and The Clash.

Perhaps Utley is most well known for his work with Stop the Car, an amazing, progressive "graveyard" Garage band that introduced Alternative music to the scene before the label "Alternative" even existed. Ahead of its time, STC was a largely successful '80s band with a cult following still alive today.

But the rowdy, artistic drive behind STC was something that Utley reconsidered over time.

"Stop the Car was informed by Goth bands and Alternative bands, and there was a certain pretense to it," he says. "That, combined with the theatrics of it, created a divide between us and the audience."

In 1992, Utley moved to Cincinnati, bringing with him the desire for musical change.

"Basically I wanted more of an outlet for songwriting," he says.

By 1994, Utley formed Pale Halo, a band with influences as diverse as early Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Portishead, while still joining STC for yearly reunion gigs.

After the 2005 reunion, Utley says, "I got the bug again. But when I came back, there was no outlet for me to play that loud, electric, amplified music." Through time, he was "struck by the warmth and the human element in acoustic music ... communal thing where people can join in and be a part of it."

His Dad was heavily into Country and Utley absorbed the sound by default. Early on, he disliked the style but later revisited songwriters like Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams Sr. and Johnny Cash. Embracing Roots, Utley studied Celtic, African-American and a stew of historical, culture-thick music.

"In that old music, there's a real humanity, a warmth and the heart that is missing so much from today's music," he says. "It comes from a time when there wasn't a music industry -- it was more of a cultural community or family thing. Songs would mutate over generations; it was the way people kept their stories alive. When you can tap into that, it's pretty exciting."

With that in mind, Magnolia Mountain formed in 2006, including Utley on vocals and acoustic guitar, Rockne Riddlebarger (lap steel), Bob Lese (mandolin, harmonica), Jordan Neff (electric guitar, accordion, piano), Bob Donisi (upright bass) and Matt Frazer (drums, percussion). Creating a sound mix of Folk, Americana and Country, Utley says, "It all came together kind of organically."

He pauses. Peacefully, directly, he says, "It's a big confidence boost as a songwriter that guys that have these kinda chops are interested in playing my songs. It makes me feel like I'm on the right track. It's fun, we enjoy it and it's a great outlet. With that attitude, it grows on its own."

From Alternative Rock to heart, Utley continues his career, and when his oldest daughter enters the room, he leans back on the couch, listening to her voice, tuning in.