Nefesh Mountain at Stone Church

The latest album from Nefesh Mountain, Beacons emerged from a bold and wholehearted attempt to transform the world around them. Soon after wrapping up a whirlwind tour booked with the mission of spreading their newfound message of radical love, co-founders Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg immersed themselves in the feverish writing of songs that turned their frustrations and fears into irrepressible hope, all while reaching far beyond their bluegrass roots and forging a fiercely joyful sound unbound by genre convention. By the time they’d completed that process of musical alchemy, the New York-based husband-and-wife duo had profoundly refined the band’s vision and voice and arrived at the unfettered radiance of Beacons: an epic double album affirming Nefesh Mountain as a singular musical force—one whose deeply impassioned songwriting awakens us to new ways of navigating an endlessly troubled world.Self-produced and mainly recorded at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, Beacons expands on the soulful intentionality Nefesh Mountain have brought to their music since forming a decade ago...

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The latest album from Nefesh Mountain, Beacons emerged from a bold and wholehearted attempt to transform the world around them. Soon after wrapping up a whirlwind tour booked with the mission of spreading their newfound message of radical love, co-founders Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg immersed themselves in the feverish writing of songs that turned their frustrations and fears into irrepressible hope, all while reaching far beyond their bluegrass roots and forging a fiercely joyful sound unbound by genre convention. By the time they’d completed that process of musical alchemy, the New York-based husband-and-wife duo had profoundly refined the band’s vision and voice and arrived at the unfettered radiance of Beacons: an epic double album affirming Nefesh Mountain as a singular musical force—one whose deeply impassioned songwriting awakens us to new ways of navigating an endlessly troubled world.Self-produced and mainly recorded at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, Beacons expands on the soulful intentionality Nefesh Mountain have brought to their music since forming a decade ago. “We live in such strange and divided times, and while we wanted this album to be a full-on celebration of American music, one of our main goals was to bring love, hope, and positivity into a world that sorely needs it,” says Lindberg. “In the end we made a choice: instead of getting mad, we just made music.” Although much of the album stemmed from their rumination on the political landscape (political polarization and division throughout the U.S., the Israel–Hamas War, and Russo-Ukrainian Wars), its spirit of purposeful optimism is made all the more potent by Nefesh Mountain’s willingness to speak about their most intimate struggles and triumphs, including the birth of their now-three-year-old “miracle baby” Willow and Zasloff’s journey with sobriety. “This is definitely the most personal album we’ve ever made, which was a big leap for us,” says Zasloff. “At some point it became obvious that if we’re going to really open our hearts, we need to talk about things we’ve never shared before, with the hope that it’ll end up helping others.” The result: a selection of lived-in and truly revelatory songs, each providing a beacon-like transmission of uplift and light.The follow-up to Songs for the Sparrows—a 2021 LP praised by Rolling Stone as a “master class in string music”—Nefesh Mountain’s fourth full-length effort encompasses two distinct discs, the first of which blurs the lines between Americana, blues, country, and psych-folk, offering up an electrified sound created with the help of their longtime live band and guest musicians like pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz (Beck, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson). Meanwhile, the second disc to Beacons finds the duo working again with legendary roots musicians Jerry Douglas (on Dobro), Sam Bush (mandolin), and Stuart Duncan (fiddle) and serving up an all-acoustic lineup of songs spotlighting their boundary-pushing form of bluegrass. “Bluegrass has an energy that’s so intense and invigorating, and for this album we wanted to take that even further,” says Zasloff. “There’s a whole ocean of sounds styles that we’ve always loved but denied ourselves for so long,” Lindberg adds. “Finally we decided to throw out the rulebook and play whatever we felt like playing, as long as it’s true to us.”One of the first songs penned for Beacons, “This Is Me” graces the album’s first disc with a wildly galloping, harmony-fueled anthem that captures the pure glory in fully owning your truth. “Over the years I’ve had a lot of people ask me how a Jewish kid from Brooklyn ended up loving bluegrass, but there’s really no answer—you can’t help but be who you are,” says Lindberg. “Because this album is essentially about declaring our bigger purpose, it felt right to start the whole thing off by exclaiming who we are and what we believe in. More so than any religion, we’re about trying to bring people together and find some common ground at a time when there’s so much hate.”Another song celebrating the beauty of carving your own path, “Race To Run” takes the shape of a magnificently rambling piece of country-rock laced with plenty of fiery guitar riffs. “This song came from feeling like we’re all part of this rat race and competing against so much noise out in the world and on social media,” says Lindberg. “It’s about remembering what’s really important for each of us—and once you realize that, you’ve already won.” From there, the first disc to Beacons shifts into the soul-soothing grooves and spellbinding fiddle melodies of “Another Way,” an emphatically hopeful track threaded with Nefesh Mountain’s fable-like yet true-to-life storytelling (from the second verse: “I come from ‘cross the ocean/Lost my earthly goods to the waves/Could’t tell if I was drowning/Or if I was being saved/Good thing the sea ain’t whiskey/And I’m not a diving duck/Those days are long behind me/Thanks to grit and a little luck”). “This album is the first time I’ve ever shared the fact that I’m 20 years sober,” says Zasloff. “It was scary to open up about a moment when I was in real trouble, but it felt like it was finally time to talk about it.”In the process of embracing their most adventurous instincts and charting new sonic terrain, Nefesh Mountain also dreamed up tracks like “Heaven Is Here”—a fast-stomping and free-spirited number that taps into their blues and gospel influences, unfolding in luminous piano lines, exultant harmonies, and a bit of scorching slide-guitar work from Lindberg. “‘Heaven Is Here’ is another beacon song that speaks to the experience of living in this moment and in this world,” says Lindberg. “It’s suggesting that while maybe there’s a heaven or an afterlife, it’s also possible that we have all that we need down here on Earth.”Kicking off the bluegrass half of Beacons, “Regrets In The Rearview” surges forward on dizzying banjo lines and pulse-quickening rhythms as Nefesh Mountain channel the blissful freedom that comes with hitting the road and finding faith in yourself. “‘Regrets In The Rearview’ is also a beacon song, a reminder to stay present and keep moving forward instead of dwelling on the past,” Lindberg notes. Next, on “Better Angels,” Beacons takes on a gripping intensity as the duo present a quietly powerful call for unity and peace (from the final verse: “We can feed the lion and the dove/Be messengers from the mountain top/But if it doesn’t start with love/Who knows when it’ll stop?”). “The initial inspiration behind ‘Better Angels’ was the conflict and crisis in Israel and Gaza and the overall rise in hate we’ve seen over these past few years—it’s incredibly heartbreaking,” says Lindberg. “This song, of course, is also referencing the great quote from Lincoln, which makes it even more poignant for us here in the U.S., a country that’s so divided.” “For me this song is about finding the best parts of ourselves,” Zasloff adds. “We need to somehow figure out how to not hate each other, even if we vote, pray, or see this beautiful world differently.”At every turn on Beacons, Nefesh Mountain showcase their rare gift for transmuting raw emotional outpouring into songs that illuminate the mind and ease the soul. To that end, the bluesy but ebullient “Mother” documents Zasloff’s experience of motherhood with equal parts unflinching clarity and unstoppable joy, arriving at an anthem of indomitability for women everywhere. “Eric and I spent seven years trying to have a baby, which was a very crazy and complicated situation,” says Zasloff, who also has two older children (ages 20 and 18). “It made me feel even more compassionate toward anyone who’s trying to become a parent, so I wanted to write a song about all the different versions of moms out there in the world.” One of the album’s most bittersweet tracks, “Little Longer” brings both tender confession and poetic observation to its heavy-hearted meditation on the relentless passing of time. And on “What Kind Of World,” Beacons achieves a hypnotic grandeur as Nefesh Mountain deliver what Lindberg refers to as “a full-on rant against the darkness of the world.” A shining example of their masterfully expressive musicality, “What Kind Of World” centers on sorrowful strings, rumbling drums, and wistful piano melodies as Nefesh Mountain take stock of the surrounding chaos, ultimately building to a heartrending revelation at its closing lyric: “It’s not for me, it’s for my little girl/’Cause when I look in her eyes I find the pearl/She rides wild horses in her own little world/It’s not for me, it’s for my little girl.”With its tracklist also including standouts like “Man Of Manzanita” (a high-spirited tribute to late bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice, a longtime musical hero for Nefesh Mountain), Beacons radiates so much life-affirming gratitude and wonder even in its most pensive moments—a direct reflection of the deepened sense of purpose they discovered in the late-2023 tour that preceded the album’s creation. “At the time it felt like the whole world was crumbling and we had no idea how to make use of ourselves—all we could think to do was get in the van and try to put some love out into the world,” Zasloff recalls. “Every night it became clearer that we needed to keep being intentionally radical with our acceptance and love, because that’s what brings people together. In a way it might sound soft, but it actually takes a lot of effort to make that choice. This album helped us understand that, and helped us find the strength to keep making that choice again and again.”

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