Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek‘s third album, Haunted Mountain, is his most accomplished yet, made with his core solo band — Mat Davidson of Twain (who also produced it), Adam Brishin, and Austin Vaughn — alongside new bassist Ken Woodward and Buck’s brother Dylan Meek. It also features lyrical contributions from Jolie Holland and the closing song, “The Rainbow,” uses unfinished song lyrics from late folk legend Judee Sill. Read our Notable Releases review, and listen to Haunted Mountain below.
We asked Buck for a list of things that inspired Haunted Mountain, and like previous lists he’s contributed to us, it’s a bit off the beaten path. He talks about Judee Sill and Jolie Holland, but also explains the importance of place, near-death experiences and Dante to these songs and recordings. It’s a great read and you can do so below.
BUCK MEEK – INFLUENCES BEHIND ‘HAUNTED MOUNTAIN’
Trespassing
The Texas hill country doesn’t have much public land, so I spent my youth trespassing to spend time in nature. The best swimming holes are deep in the back acres of giant ranches, in the shade of bald cypress trees and live oaks. I’ve been shot at, chased by dogs, and grilled by a few scary ranch hands, though generally if you hold yourself with a cool and collected air you can get away with it. The same concept applies to sneaking into hotel swimming pools.
Skinny dipping
The nice thing about swimming on private land is that no one is there to yell at you for swimming naked – one of the best feelings in the world – unless you get caught and have to run. Don’t forget your pants!
Driving at night time by moonlight with the headlights off in the country
I love driving at night with a full moon on backroads, cutting the headlights and letting my eyes adjust to the silver glow on the asphalt. Swimming in the ocean at night time shares a similar sensation – feeling instead of seeing to navigate a dynamic environment.
Jolie Holland
Jolie has been one of my songwriting heroes since I was in high school, so it was an honor to write with her for this album. We co-wrote “Paradise”, “Haunted Mountain”, “Lullabies”, “Lagrimas”, and “Where You’re Coming From”, and we both titled our latest albums “Haunted Mountain.”
Necromancy
Jolie sent me the seed for “Lagrimas,” with the lines “Help me catch a bird in the meadow, we’ll hold it so gently as you write, the words I can’t to the one who has vanished or died,” about hiring a necromancer to commune with the dead. I learned a lot about necromancy to finish the song, and would like to find a real one. Please reach out if you know somebody.
Dante
The ‘Divine Comedy’ influenced some elements of the song ‘Paradise,’ such as “tell me about living in the afterlife.” “A home in roses made of light” refers to the Empyrean, where Dante sees the blessed arranged as the petals of a rose, like a hologram cast from light reflected off of the surface of the Primum Mobile.
Judee Sill
The filmmakers behind “Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill” asked me to set some of her unreleased lyrics to music. They lent me one of her journals, which was filled with lyrical sketches and complete songs that she never recorded. On the final page were the words to an unfinished song written three weeks before her death, so I tried to honor her and write a melody and harmony that she might have written. I’ve always felt that Judee has deep control of the nuanced emotional impacts of harmony and melody, which she uses to empower the nuanced emotional content of her lyrics. For instance – a common tool is to use a major key to evoke happiness, and a minor key to evoke sadness – where as Judee will use a major 7 in a melody to enhance a bittersweet lyric, or a major 7 sharp 11 to enhance a lyric about bittersweet regret, or perhaps a major 6th with a lyric about contentedness, etc. After assuming this about her songwriting process for years, when I had the chance to look through her journal, I found a page that mapped out these theories for every interval in the western scale, with corresponding, complex emotional themes. This has been a huge inspiration to me as a songwriter.
Germaine Dunes
I love how Germaine Dunes invents words in her songs, like “wilted rosed people” in “Midnight Game”. “Secret Side” is about her so I invented “holyahwylio” as a nod to her writing.
Martian name generator
I used a Martian name generator to find the names for the spin-the-bottle friends N’mnaven and V’rano in “Undae Dunes”. Backwards Text Generator is another fun one, as well as Location X.
Near death experiences
I heard a George Saunders interview recently where he spoke about how extreme life shifts such as the loss of a loved one or a relationship pull you out of your ego and self centered perspective, temporarily imposing a more universal perspective. While tragic, this can in some ways be refreshing. I’ve always felt that way about near death experiences. This album is full of them, most of them inspired by true events – stories my father told me about getting stuck under the power of a waterfall and narrowly avoiding a motorcycle collision with a herd of elk, my friend Brian Qtn getting struck by lightning three times, falling into a black hole, etc.
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Buck will play NYC’s Racket on October 27 and will tour North America in 2024.
