James Steinle: The Man From the Mountain
The Man from the Mountain isn’t just unique for James Steinle, it is truly unique. From what I have heard he set out to create a concept album along the lines of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Who’s Tommy or Rush’s 2112. Each song is written to tell a part of the overall story. But what sets this album apart is that while those iconic works are polished full band albums, The Man from the Mountain has an unpolished, rough sound. Most of the tracks are just the singer and a guitar. In some instances, it’s just James reading a poem. All of this lends itself well to the rough frontier nature of the characters depicted in the story. Another interesting aspect of this album is that the story is told in reverse. What is known as “retrospective narrative,” and if you had to look up this concept, you aren’t alone; I just did too. So, you hear the ending first and then you get to follow the road of the characters in the story and how they got to where they ended up.
Artwork by James Steinle
James enlisted the help of his girlfriend, Juliet McConkey, to be the voice of “The Girl from the Valley,” another great singer and songwriter that you should check out, if you haven’t already. Some interesting facts to keep in mind are that the album has eight tracks, two of which are spoken, no music, like a poetry reading, and the entire album is 15 minutes long.
“The Thesis” is the opening track and a poetic, dark recap of the events that had occurred. It starts and ends with two strings on the guitar being plucked, in a way that mimics a bell tolling. It doesn’t make a lot of sense the first time you hear it because it's referencing events that the listener knows nothing about. Which, in my opinion, is bad storytelling, but good art, in that it compels the listener to play the entire work over again. Only in doing this will you begin to understand what the narrator is saying.
“The Man from the Mountain” is where we get introduced to “the man with jagged eyes.” A victim of both circumstance and superstition. He seems to be a trapper who came to town to trade his hides for money. A storm quickly hit the town and the townsfolk blamed the Man from the Mountain for this calamity befalling them. Out of their superstitious beliefs and fear of what they didn't understand, they held him accountable for this evil that he brought upon their town and they executed him for it. It’s a dark piece that implies that the town is full of superstitious people who distrust strangers. Musically, it’s just James and his guitar, which is common throughout this album.
“The Men from the City” is a faster piece. The guitar picking and strum makes you think of running horses. In the song, the narrator tells of a posse that has been sent out to bring justice to a murderer that killed the “valley girl with garden ivy eyes” just for the thrill. Or did he? When they find his cabin, he appears to have just left, but he had set a trap for the riders. This character had never been previously introduced and, for me, caused some confusion. I thought that this may be the man with jagged eyes and that somehow he had not been hung by the townsfolk, but I was wrong. This was a completely different character.
“The Gatekeeper of the West” isn’t a song, but a poem that, on the surface, sounds like some sort of spiritual character - “with gunmetal teeth and a cross on his chest. Head on a swivel and sour meat on his breath.” He appears to see and know all. In another way of looking at this character, he appears to be an angel denying the recently deceased rider entrance into Heaven. Apparently, the gatekeeper could see all that he had done and under what circumstance that he died, or at least, that is how I read it. In reality (and according to James’s YouTube video he put out about this album), acting as an interlude on the album, Steinle uses a poem unrelated to the actual storyline. “The Gatekeeper of the West” was written a few years ago, but the emotion it portrays relates to the story of the Man from the Mountain.
The next track is “The Girl from the Valley (Act 1).” This is where we first hear Juliet McConkey as the Girl from the Valley and the only track where both Juliet and James sing together. This track introduces the Girl from the Valley and how she met the Man from the Mountain. It seemed, mutually, to be love at first sight. This piece is a slower one and opens with a darker tone, yet changes to become more cheerful and optimistic. “I approached, and he spoke, with a simple design. I could see by his grin he was a gentler kind.” Not at all the way he has been described thus far. It makes the listener wonder what else they haven’t been told.
“The Girl from the Valley (Act 2)” starts with the same strum as “The Men from the City” and leads the listener to believe that there is trouble brewing. This is the second piece that Juliet McConkey sings from the perspective of The Girl from the Valley. This track truly is the lynchpin to the entire story in that it ties all the characters together and finally depicts who is good and who is evil. To this end, I am not saying any more about this song, you will have to listen to it yourself.
“The Man from the Mountain (Refrain)” is musically identical to the second track, “The Man from the Mountain.” Only this time, the listener has a greater sense of clarity, being more familiar with the story. Here, James describes the Man from the Mountain and why he lives in the hills, far away from the town. He goes on to say how the Man from the Mountain does not like the superstitious townsfolk or their distrust of the unknown or those who are not from the town. “To see those faces, all cold and plain, turn unbridled evil over something strange. Something they had never seen, to fear the unknown ‘tis a damning thing. To suffer, it is to understand this wandering stranger, the Mountain Man.”
“The Thesis (Re-stated)” track is a poem reading like the 4th track, “The Gatekeeper of the West.” At this point you already know the story, so what is being said makes more sense. “A Girl from the Valley with her mouth full of silence. A man on a peak with his mind numb with violence.”
This was an interesting album that caused me to listen to it multiple times. Not just to write about it, but to pull some understanding from it. James does not write plainly here. He uses a strong dose of allegory throughout this entire work, especially in both the first and last tracks which compels you to listen carefully, draw conclusions and then reexamine those conclusions. It’s like putting a puzzle together. You place a piece in a location only to move it later because it fits better elsewhere. It requires active and attentive listening and that is what makes this album something you will enjoy and return to again and again.
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