The Durham, N.C.-based band Mount Moriah only just released their self-titled debut LP a couple of months ago, preceeded by 2010's Letting Go EP, but guitarist Jenks Miller first started a band under the Biblically-influenced name Mount Moriah around five years ago. After some drastic shifts in sound and line-up, the band's sound has settled into a sweet, melancholy strain of folk music.

Mount Moriah has some ties to heavier end of the rock spectrum—Miller belongs to the dark, Americana-infused heavy metal outfit Horseback, while singer Heather McEntire moonlights in the long-running indie-punk trio Bellafea—and, while you won't find much heavy riffage here, there's a certain unsettling, dark undertone to their sound. McEntire's vocals are especially haunting and poignant, and earned her the praise of the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, who proclaimed, "I think you don't see a stage presence like [hers] more than a few times in your life."

Mount Moriah stopped by The Current studios to chat with Bill DeVille about their background as a band, their new album and more—and, of course, to play a few songs.

Songs performed: "Reckoning," "The Letting Go" and "Lament."

Related

• Official Website