Texas-bred singer/songwriter and Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek has signed to 4AD and announces his new album, Haunted Mountain, out August 25th on 4AD. Additionally, he shares the lead single and title track, “Haunted Mountain,” a song co-written alongside his friend and longtime hero Jolie Holland. Following his beloved 2021 album, Two Saviors, Haunted Mountain marks Meek’s third solo album and first for his new label-home. Haunted Mountain is about love and… something other. Something bigger than love, something that doesn’t challenge love exactly but stands in contrast to it. A soulfulness, or a soul-seeking fullness. Meek says that love songs are the hardest to write. “Not break-up songs, but an actual love song written in earnest? That is taboo now,” he says. “Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written.”
Lead single “Haunted Mountain” is anchored by sweet lyrics penned by Meek and Holland, who is also from Texas and shares co-writing credits on five of Haunted Mountain’s 11 songs. The first two verses and chorus of “Haunted Mountain” were written by Holland as a love song to Mount Shasta in northern California, with the final verse written by Meek, together seeking reciprocity with nature. “It’s about being humbled by the thing you’re drawing power from only at which point an actual, fair relationship begins,” he says. Propelled by the pristine chemistry of his band, “Haunted Mountain” is presented alongside a Riley Engemoen-directed video that captures the group’s in-studio magic.
