The acclaimed trio Mountain Man's first album in eight years, Magic Ship, is out now on Nonesuch Records (on Bella Union in Europe). The record, their first for Nonesuch, includes eleven original songs written by the trio—Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarlé—as well as interpretations of Ted Lucas' "Baby Where You Are," Michael Hurley's "Blue Mountain," and the traditional hymn "Bright Morning Stars." To pick up a copy of Magic Ship, head to your local independent record store, iTunes, Amazon, the Mountain Man Store, and the Nonesuch Store. Additionally, Nonesuch Store CD and vinyl orders include a limited-edition print signed by the band, while supplies last; bundle options include an exclusive tote bag. Magic Ship can also be heard on Spotify and Apple Music.

Mountain Man marks the release of the album with an in-store performance and signing at Rough Trade in Brooklyn on September 24 and embarks on a fourteen-city US tour—its first in six years—this fall. The tour starts in Washington, DC, on October 22 and runs through November 17, making stops in Brooklyn, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and more. See below for details or visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

The New York Times says the album comprises "intimate, close-harmony songs that tap into an ageless essence of traditional ballads and lullabies as they contemplate companionship, family, love and death."

"There's also a precision to these songs—both in harmony and duration—that lend them a sense of purpose," says NPR. "Magic Ship is most potent when heard in full, from beginning to end, ideally on a back porch or around a smoldering campfire."

"Mountain Man is not only stronger than ever, but they achieve it through songs that are striking in their softness," writes Indy Week's Allison Hussey in a four-and-a-half-star review of the new album. "Throughout the record, finely attuned listening yields the greatest rewards. The singers unite in ringing harmony, but individually, their voices are equally remarkable. The trifecta of talent makes for inimitable rapport." Hussey goes on to say: "Magic Ship is a marvel of intimacy, manifested in the trio's musical chemistry as well as its close focus on its subject matter."

"Mountain Man's hushed music makes you sit still and listen," says the Exclaim! review. "Listeners are able to revel in the intricacies of their entwined voices. Throughout Magic Ship, they emphasize the beauty of the otherwise commonplace ... Mountain Man cling to the ordinary, but are able to make it extraordinary."

Pitchfork said Mountain Man's beloved 2010 debut, Made the Harbor, "feels like a private performance of friends only out to please themselves. But if you promise to sit quietly and listen, you're more than welcome to stay." The trio had formed shortly before its release, during their Vermont college years. "We all have this secret access to each other's feelings, whether or not we're singing. That is what creates the alchemy when we are singing together," says Sarlé.

The three musicians went in different directions after the Made the Harbor tour: Meath moved to Durham, North Carolina and eventually started Sylvan Esso. Sarlé headed for a Zen center in California. Sauser-Monnig first moved to Minnesota, then to a farm in North Carolina. They eventually all ended up in North Carolina, spending time together as old friends.

They reunited as a band last summer at the Eaux Claires music festival, on a tiny, cabin-like stage tucked into a forest, in front of an unusually large audience hanging on every note. Meath says, "When the first Eaux Claires happened, I realized it was the perfect place for Mountain Man to play, if Mountain Man was ever going to play again. Cute boys stood in stinging nettles to hear us. So many people cried. And it felt really good, just like it always did."

Mountain Man reconvened a few months later at Meath's home studio in Durham to begin what would become Magic Ship. Sauser-Monnig explains, "We all got together at Molly's house in the wintertime, on one of the snowy days that rarely happen in North Carolina. We built a fire in the wood stove and shared a handful of songs that felt like they could be right for Mountain Man. It happened really naturally, and all of those songs ended up being on the record."

"It feels amazing when we sing together, and we wanted to see if that was enough to carry a whole record. Could we just sing these songs and record them and make an album? Once we played these songs for each other, we knew the record was going to be great," agrees Sarlé.

MOUNTAIN MAN ON TOUR