Erika Wennerstrom is a genuine force of nature. If you’re hearing her voice for the first time, you quickly realize that it qualifies as a revelation. If you’ve heard her before, you’ve been waiting for an encore. That encore has arrived in the form of the third Heartless Bastards album, The Mountain (Fat Possum Records).

These aren’t your momma’s Heartless Bastards. Things have changed. First, Wennerstrom split up with her boyfriend of 11 years, Mike Lamping, who played bass in the band, and was very much present on its first two albums. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever dealt with,” she told the New York Times. Next she headed to Austin for a fresh start, where she holed up in an apartment for six months until she had written the 11 songs that make up The Mountain. Every song, every syllable on the album is haunted by the ghost of love lost:

Lately I’m feeling so alone
I packed up my bags and I left my home
And now everything’s changed and I’m feeling alone
I got no one to blame cause I had to go

As if all of that wasn’t enough, Wennerstrom and producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead, Patty Griffin) have expanded the band’s sonic palette beyond bass, drums, and Wennerstrom’s electric guitar bashing. Crucial new elements include violin, banjo, and pedal steel. If you’re thinking this is a turn toward country music, forget it, unless you consider a certain Appalachian longing to be a part of the genre. Heartless Bastards remain a powerful indie-rock band at their core. If you’re curious as to what that means these days, listen to “Witchypoo.” (more…)