Sally Buice and Molly Rochelson came up together busking in Knoxville, Tennessee. Now based in Cincinnati (a straight shot 250 miles north on I-75) they make country flavored folk music as The Montvales, the twang of Tennessee still deeply imprinted in their voices. They wrote most of the songs on Path of Totality, their third album, on a 2024 cross country tour that coincided with a solar eclipse, and themes like darkness, light and shadow, poverty and living on the margins, and making community where you find it run through these 12 songs.
I gather that Sally’s banjo and Molly’s acoustic guitar have been the main instruments on previous records and especially on tour (you can find some lovely versions of the songs on this album featuring just the two of them and their instruments), but this time out they opted to give their sound the full band treatment. Thus we hear producer Mike Eli LoPinto contributing guitar and banjo himself, Mary Meyer playing fiddle, mandolin, guitar and banjo, and singing harmonies, with Eddy Dunlap on pedal steel guitar, Jesse Noah Wilson on bass and keyboards, and Aaron Goodrich on drums.
The songs are a blend of electric folk rock, twangy country, old-time, and just plain folk here and there. The album’s title comes from a line in the very first verse on the opener “World Of Trouble,” which announces right up front that this album is dealing with current, real-world stuff. “I’ve been a mediocre daughter in a world of trouble,” they sing. “… Desperate measures for desperate times, history don’t repeat itself but it rhymes.”
The Montvales garner some comparisons to recent music from Katie Crutchfield’s band Waxahatchee, and her band Snocap with her twin sister Allison, and that Southern indie folk rock vibe is strong on the defiant feminist anthem “Funeral Singer.” I also hear some connection with fellow Ohioan Lydia Loveless’s early albums that had more of a country element, especially in the fiddle-laden shuffle “Plains of Ohio,” a fictional ballad of a homegrown environmental activist sabotaging an oil pipeline. In a larger sense it’s about the way corporate capitalism rides roughshod over the plans and lives of working people, a theme that lurks behind a lot of these songs.
The political never overshadows the personal, though. “Loud and Clear” is a wistful love song about meeting someone who’s caught up in restrictive religion, and the way music can cut through a lot of issues, “like a radio coming through the darkness loud and clear.” “Carolina” with its deep shuffling groove is a heartfelt homage to the Southeastern states hit by Hurricane Helene, but it can also be read as a metaphor for lives and homes ravaged by current events. “Overtime” is a chunky honky-tonk two step with the album’s best pedal steel solo, its lyrics make losing a job a metaphor for a one-sided relationship.
The old saying about there being “no rest for the wicked” is a backdrop for a plea for respite for those living on the margins, socially and economicallyin “The Wicked.” And the album wraps on “Eastern Bluebird,” a primitive waltz-time anthem celebrating life on the road and finding kindred spirits everywhere.
Path of Totality is a reminder of the value of getting up and making some music to get you out of your rut; and if you can’t do that, go out and support those who’re doing is in your own community. And catch The Montvales if they come through, and they probably will. Find dates on their tour page, including a swing through the West with the quirky trans folksinger Creekbed Carter.
(Free Dirt, 2026)
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