Shadow Mountain Band

Shadow Mountain Band Desert Hillbilly Bluegrass, Old-Time Roots Music, played real good

Hailing from Joshua Tree in California, the Shadow Mountain Band
performs classic Bluegrass, country and gospel stylings along with
their own hard-charging original compositions. Steeped in tradition
and blending the old with the new, you're as likely to hear a Stanley
Brothers or Hank Williams song as something by Buffalo Springfield or
Amos Lee, all rich with American acoustic string instruments such as
guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro and upright bass along with their 4-part
harmony vocals.

07/27/2026

Just wanted to share my walk up Rollie's Mountain and a new piece of music this evening with my friends that don't live in Joshua Tree.

LOOKIN' BACK.
05/21/2026

LOOKIN' BACK.

02/26/2026

Long story short…
'Too fat to be a cowboy' was a song from the first Shadow Mountain Band record. I wrote the song in the early 2000s as I got to know some of the regular weekend folks that came in for our set at Pappy & Harriet's. I found that a fair percentage of the weekenders actually had day jobs in the city and came out to Pioneertown on the weekends to be cowboys, cowgirls, and bikers. I gradually developed a great respect for people that could maintain two lives and be more involved in their inner life and identity, than their worldly life…
We never played the song on stage because the recorded arrangement didn't really work as a live song. I had always wanted to do something more with the song, and last summer my brother bought me a bouzouki. That is a Celtic instrument, introduced to us by our friend Chris Thile, that could be called a baritone or octave mandolin, strung like a mandolin, but an octave lower, only with the top pair of strings tuned to a D.
Anyway, long story short, the bouzouki inspired me to work up something different with the song. I don't know if I will use it on a future Shadow Mountain band album since it has electric bass and percussion, which we have never used in our old-time roots music band. Still, I will run it by the Shadow Mountain gang (that’s you) to see what their impressions are.
Note, this is a rough mix. If we decide to put it on the next Shadow Mountain Band album, we will spiff it up a bit.
Feel free to make a comment.

Address

POB 203
Joshua Tree, CA
92252

Telephone

+17603669684

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