Winter Mountain

The conversation that followed revealed a mutual love for vocal harmony, the honesty of live performance and the sounds of the sixties. 

That night, on a train that sent the young musicians hurtling through the darkening Illinois plains, Winter Mountain was born.

A fan of the beat poet movement and inspired by the 60's folk resurgence in greenwich village, Joseph Francis - an acclaimed songwriter from the magical village of St. Agnes in Cornwall had spent a successful month writing and performing in New York City before heading West, stopping for a while in Chicago. 

Marty Smyth from Donegal, Ireland had flown to California in search of sun, sea and the west coast soul that infused his favourite records of the 60's and 70's. After two weeks of exploring California's rich musical heritage he began making his way East. After a 3 day journey he too found himself in Chicago and was soon to find himself sharing a train to Memphis with Joe.

Over the time that followed the two exchanged stories, lyrics, songs and sang together for the first time in the clubs and cafes of the deep south. Recognising the rare magic of their unique vocal blend they hatched together a plan to meet up once they had completed their travels.

A fortnight spent writing in Ireland led to a chance entry in a local Battle of the bands. For their first ever live performance Winter Mountain competed against the best unsigned talent Northern Ireland had to offer, and won. Their prize was two days in a Derry recording studio. The fruits of the session were enough to capture the heart of a local theatre owner who booked them to open for Irish singing luminary Cara Dillon. 

Excited upon hearing Joseph and Marty’s performance Dillon and husband/producer Sam Lakeman immediately signed Winter Mountain to their fledgling label, Charcoal Records. With a view to giving the two an experience that had eluded the couple during their years spent on Warners and Rough Trade Cara and Sam set about assembling a team of musicians who could help realise the vision that Winter Mountain had for their debut album.

With contributions from Robbie McIntosh (guitarist with McCartney, The Pretenders and John Mayer), Audrey Riley (string arranger for Coldplay and Nick Cave) and Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Pulp) the album was recorded in a host of vintage studios, from State of the Ark, Richmond to the legendary Rockfield in Wales, Mark Knopflers British Grove Studios and Sam and Cara’s own studio in rural Somerset.

The final, perhaps most extraordinary touch to the album was made when none other than Mike Crossey (Keane, Ben Howard, The Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg), intrigued upon hearing just a small amount of what Winter Mountain had to offer, stepped up in the midst of his hectic schedule to mix the first few tracks. 

Interest and enthusiasm for Winter Mountain has grown enormously over the past 18 month.. As well as performances at some of the UK and Irelands most prestigious venues and festivals opening for artists such as the Grammy winning Patty Griffin, legendary songwriter Benny Gallagher and country superstar Leann Rhimes, Rosanne Cash herself invited the boys to open for her when she toured the UK in 2012. Later they were chosen by Seth Lakeman to provide support for him on his Autumn 2013 tour of the UK - so impressed was he by the quality of the performances he invited Winter Mountain to contribute vocals to his next release entitled 'Word of mouth'.

While opening for some of Cara Dillon's bigger shows they outsold her on the merchandise stand and, unbelievably, whilst opening for Sara Watkins (Nickle Creek, The Decemberists) they won over audiences so much that they were often invited back for an encore, before the main act had even taken to the stage. 

In 2013 Winter Mountain signed to the song publishing arm of the prestigious Faber and Faber publishing house and to 'Midnight Mango' the southwest's premier booking agent, as well as contributing vocals to Seth Lakemans most recent album 'Word of mouth' and share backing vocal duties alongside Timothy B Schmit from the Eagles on Cara Dillon's 'A Thousand Hearts' album.