Big Thief’s Buck Meek Heads to the Mountains for New Solo Album

From the Swiss Alps to a submerged volcano in the Cyclades, Big Thief’s Buck Meek took to the mountains for his new solo album Haunted Mountain, out August 25.

Meek also accompanied the announcement with the title track, a serene pedal steel stunner he performs with his band in the below video. He co-wrote it with Jolie Holland, who collaborated with him on several of the tracks. “It’s about being humbled by the thing you’re drawing power from, only at which point an actual, fair relationship begins,” Meek said.

Haunted Mountain marks Meek’s third solo LP — following 2021’s Two Saviors — and his first on his new label, 4AD. The album contains themes of love, soul-searching, and more. In a statement, he said that love songs — not breakup songs — are the most difficult to write. “An actual love song written in earnest? That is taboo now,” he said. “Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written.”

“The Rainbow,” the 11th and final track on Haunted Mountain, features unreleased lyrics from Judee Sill, whose recent documentary Meek appeared in. “Her family lent me her journal, which was filled with lyrical sketches and complete songs that she never recorded,” Meek said. “On the final page were the words to an unfinished song she had dedicated to her ex-boyfriend and his daughter, written three weeks before Judee’s death. I tried to honor her, to be a vessel for her and write a melody and harmony that she might have written.”

Meek will tour in support of Haunted Mountain, appearing at festivals overseas through August and Sept. The trek wraps on Oct. 27 at Racket in New York, NY.