Who: Six nature-loving mountain men from Portland, Oregon, who play roots folk with a contemporary twist.

Sounds Like: Sunbaked lyrics about mountains and rivers merged with ramshackle guitar grooves and cheap keyboards.

Three Things You Should Know:
1. The band got their big break when the Hold Steady asked Blitzen to open for them in May.
2. Music runs in frontman Eric Earley’s family. His grandfather was a traveling harmonica virtuoso from the Ozarks. “Family reunions were all about banjos and bluegrass,” Earley recalls.
3. Earley recorded most of the band’s third record, Wild Mountain Nation, himself in a makeshift studio that used to be a telegraph station using vintage Casios, an old piano and a four-track recorder.

Get It: They’re always available on their official Web page, and you can check out “Wild Mountain Nation” right here.

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Video produced by FOTG Films