Jesse Langlais

Langlais and Greer started the band in 2005 on a ridge overlooking Asheville, the city Langlais had called home for about twenty years by 2022. Town Mountain began as a five-piece bluegrass band. On Heroes & Heretics (2008) the lineup was Greer on guitar and lead vocals, Langlais on banjo, Phil Barker on mandolin, Barrett Smith on bass and Annie Staninec on fiddle, with Langlais singing harmony.

His songs became a regular part of the band’s records. Steady Operator (Pinecastle, 2011) includes his “Fallin’ Off the Wagon,” “Come Break My Heart” and “Hope Shadows Fear,” and Leave the Bottle (Pinecastle, 2012) its title song and “Away from Home”; by then Bobby Britt was on fiddle. He wrote “House with No Windows” and “Long Time Coming” and co-wrote “I Miss the Night” for Southern Crescent (LoHi, 2016), and among his songs for the band are “Life and Debt,” “Seasons Don’t Change” and “Down Low,” written with Tyler Childers.

After New Freedom Blues (2018), which brought drums into the band, Town Mountain signed with New West Records and released Lines in the Levee in October 2022. Langlais said the band had long wanted to make a record that blurred country and bluegrass; his songs on it dealt with climate change and with keeping things intact for the next generation. He left Town Mountain at the start of 2023, and the band’s next recordings, the Dance Me Down Easy EP of January 2024, were its first without him.