this is american music

Proceeds from each download will go to the Ohio Citizen Action and Kentuckians For Commonwealth to fight against Mountaintop Removal.

www.ohiocitizen.org
www.kftc.org

Music for the Mountains is a compilation album and live concert created to call attention to (and raise funds to fight against) mountaintop removal, a form of mining in which explosives are used to blast the tops off of mountains so that coal companies can access strips of coal, which eventually gets converted into energy for everyone’s households. Mountaintop removal is employed in the hills of Kentucky, West Virginia and east Tennessee. It permanently destroys the landscape, and it pollutes the environment, including the drinking water for the local residents.

To date more than 500 Appalachian mountains have been dynamited and nearly 2,000 miles of rivers and streams have been choked by mountaintop removal coal mining. The Appalachians are the only mountain range in the country where this practice is allowed.

The CD, a compilation album of music by artists from Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Alabama, features a combination of songs specially written or covered for this project and other previously-unreleased tracks not available on any other album. NONE OF THE MUSIC ON THE CD IS AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE. It was released in conjunction with a "whole-house" benefit concert at the historic Southgate House in Newport, KY on Saturday, February 12, 2011. (By "whole-house", we mean that we secured all three stages within the venue - lounge, parlour, and ballroom - to feature musicians devoting their time and talents to this project). Featured artists included a veritable who's-who of the regional roots music scene, with artists like The Tillers, The Hiders, Kim Taylor, Magnolia Mountain, Shiny and the Spoon, Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker of Wussy, Joey Kneiser and Kelly Kneiser of Glossary, Ed Cunningham, Ma Crow, David Rhodes Brown, Frontier Folk Nebraska, The Rabbit Hash String Band and more all pitching in to aid the cause. The concert also featured author Jeff Biggers (Reckoning at Eagle Creek), filmmaker Mari-Lynn Evans (Coal Country, Low Coal), and other speakers on the subject of mountaintop removal coal mining, as well as informational and sign-up tables for people who were interested in getting involved in the ongoing fight against this obscenity.

This project was spearheaded by Mark Utley of the Cincinnati-based Americana band Magnolia Mountain. Sponsors for the event were 89.7 WNKU-FM, CityBeat, Shake It Records, Neltner Creative, Goodsleeve Screenprinting, and Novena Designworks.