Mt. Joy performing during the Drive-in Series at Love & Lightstream in Cedar Park, Texas on October 31, 2020. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
Mt. Joy started off as a rekindling of shared musical ambitions between Philadelphia high school friends Matt Quinn (vocals, guitar) and Sam Cooper (guitar). Reunited in Los Angeles thanks to the ebbs and flows of adult life, the pair met multi-instrumentalist Michael Byrnes through a Craigslist ad. They named themselves Mt. Joy as an ode to a mountain in Valley Forge National Park near Sam’s childhood home, and together, with Byrnes’ roommate Caleb Nelson producing, they recorded three songs and sent them out into the world, hoping for the best. “I knew I still wanted to write songs, but the realities of life made that dream seem pretty impossible,” Quinn says.Mt. Joy was the main act at the Haute Spot with guests Abhi the Nomad and Los Coast. The band continues across the United States with the last stop at the Hinterland Music Festival in Saint Charles, Iowa on August 6, 2021.
Steeped in folk-rock tradition and powered by the intuitive creative connection between Quinn and Cooper, the songs on ‘Mt. Joy’ depict Quinn wrestling with his own conscience, where the mundane and the fantastic collide as he processes tragedy, society, and love.
Opener “I’m Your Wreck” describes “monsters in (the) closet, using up the wi-fi” as it cycles from its desperate, spiraling verses to its swinging, stubbornly optimistic coda, while the loping, plaintive chords of “Younger Days” meditate on a frayed psyche and the fear of choosing the wrong path. “Sheep,” with its collapsing, hoarse-voiced cry of “freedom was paid in blood,” is a post-Trump salvo on the responsibilities of the fortunate to overcome political and social despondency. And on “Silver Lining,” perhaps the album’s brightest moment, Quinn surveys the damage of hard drugs and the vicious cycle of addiction, as the song’s melancholic sentiment kicks into its fervid, defiant chorus, all shout-along vocals and trilling guitars.
Taken together, the self titled ‘Mt. Joy’ LP is a startlingly open document, wracked with the anxieties and fears that come just as life seems to start working out. It’s a natural reaction from a wary band like Mt. Joy, the result of a sort of professional vertigo, as they’ve gone from virtual unknowns to hot young commodity in little over a year. But there’s a sense of hope underlying everything, girded by the fact that the Mt. Joy LP is an impressive, honest portrayal of a young band facing that moment where dreams become reality, and finding beauty in the exhilarating uncertainty of it all.
Love & Lightstream is a wide open-air, socially distant, drive-in concert on 77 acres. Proceeds go to HAAM/Black Fret, artists and production. As the music industry continues to take devastating hits from the COVID-19 pandemic, Love & Lightstream aims to launch a movement to experience live music again and support the local music community in a safe, responsible and beautiful way.
Each concert will be implemented with the utmost in social distancing and safety protocols. Only 200 cars will be admitted on-site each evening and a free live-stream will be available for world-wide viewing on the L&LS website.
Love & Lightstream has teamed up with Werd Productions to bring you the full festival experience; SL festival stage, huge sound system, killer lighting and two huge LED walls with video crew to make sure there’s no bad seat in the house. These companies have put on world-class production for years and are excited to bring their teams to provide you with an unforgettable experience.
Love & Lightstream
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Mt. Joy
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Photos by Ralph Arvesen
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