“Break the walls down/Shine your lights/Storm the White House.”
Mountain Holler just played its final shows in Tampa for an “undetermined amount of time,” and announced plans to just hit the road and get out of town. But before Mark Etherington (principal for the folk project) left, he made sure to go out with a bang. A haunting, acoustic, deep bang.
Though recorded in isolation, Etherington decided to take in, and give back, everything he experienced while going out and supporting St. Pete’s Black Lives Matter marches this summer. “Riot Lines” was the end result. A strong five-and-a-half minutes long, Mountain Holler’s possible swan song is full of references to the unnecessary and tragic murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. “Do you know she was in bed/How many more lay there dead,” Etherington cries.
The songwriter describes the song as something he felt was an obligation to get out. “To take a musical snapshot of our country and the world,” he wrote on Bandcamp. Clearly, much of the music from past civil rights movements inspired what might as well be Tampa Bay’s more poignant BLM anthems. And sure enough, one of those songs was included as a second track on the EP.
Fifty years ago, Neil Young wrote his own "Riot Lines. “Ohio”—performed primarily by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young—was inspired by the Kent State University shootings; Mountain Holler found the protest classic ideal for a cover.
Played in a similar key as “Riot Lines,” Etherington’s “Ohio,” circa 2020, is a far darker, slower take on the original 1970 recording—notable considering the fact that Young’s felt a bit too upbeat for its own good (Etherington had no harmonies to back him up either). Just a devastating rendition of a song that unfortunately, has become more and more relevant when put together with current events.
“What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?/How can you run when you know?” Farewell, Mountain Holler. Thanks for the music, and the spooky reminder that change needs to happen.
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This article appears in Oct 8-15, 2020.