C.D. Singles Club #32 – Golden Shoulders – Mountain

Formed in 2001, the Nevada City, CA collective known as Golden Shoulders has been around long enough to learn a few things about songcrafting. Sure enough, on 2009’s Get Reasonable, we find songwriter Adam Kline and his ever-evolving cast of characters at there most dynamic and conscientious. The album begins with perfection in the form of “The Mountain,” with Kline’s baritone dancing confidently around the simple strumming and key tinkling of the introductory bars (think Britt Daniel trying to sing like Sondre Lerche). As the track develops, Kline tries new things out, both vocally with the addition of a Janis Joplin-in-church female background vocalist and some just-barely-there hoe down out of something The Band or perhaps CSNY would have put on the second half of an album. Things get messy and glorious in the last third, with electric guitars getting growly and distorted, but Kline & company never lost touch with the hook that imbued the song with catchiness from the get-go

Golden Shoulders – Mountain