Introducing: Mountain Man

Name: Mountain Man
From: Bennington, Vermont
Story: Though merely months old, their music sounds ancient
Sound: Sweet honey harmonies

There's an elemental power in hearing human voices sing in harmony, something that taps into some deep, primal part of our naked-ape brain. That's something known all too well by the three ladies who wail away under the misleading moniker Mountain Man.

Amelia Meath, Molly Sarle, and Alex Sauser-Monnig are three young dames from the great state of Vermont, who only started singing together in Spring of this year. Though they're mere months into their existence, the music they make seems positively ancient.

Drawing from Appalachian folk, the trio carol and caterwaul, letting their voices ring out proud and true over most minimal musical accompaniment. Sometimes there's a guitar, sometimes there's not. It's all about the voices.

On their self-titled, self-released debut EP —which you can stream in full and/or purchase via the Mountain Man Bandcamp page— the band build a shrine to the glories of communal singing; hitting harmonies that summon both rural landscapes and mythical idylls.

Though they're still very much budding, you get the feeling that special, mystical things could be coming, in the future, from these ladies of Mountain Man. They've already been covered by Real Estate side-project Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, are shaping as one of the highlights of SXSW, and head into 2010 bursting with promise like a ripened fig.