Come closer don’t be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by…

It felt nearly voyeuristic, gazing at Amelia Meath as she stood alone stage left, singing Tom Waits’ “Green Grass” to Off Broadway’s high ceiling, floating that sweet-sad song above the heads of the mostly seated crowd last Thursday. Her voice – and the other two voices that comprise Mountain Man – wove in and out of us, establishing then maintaining subtle, warm energy in the room.

[l to r] Molly Sarle, Alex Sauser-Monnig, and Amelia Meath of Mountain Man performing at Off Broadway in St. Louis.

Any Hipsteresque Pretension-based agoraphobia that I’d developed leading up to the evening evaporated quickly as the diverse and polite crowd filed in. Friendly, pot-scented kiddos sat on the floor. Folks who dressed and behaved as the young ones’ more traditionally successful older siblings stood in the back or leaned on the bar. There were plenty of fixies out front; there was also some nice guy in a full suit presumably purchased from a retailer that wasn’t “dad’s old boxes of clothes in the basement”.

It seems that Mountain Man rightfully attracts (and enchants) all kinds. Their harmonic music is accessible, maybe familiar. It’s welcoming, but calling MM cute would be a grave mistake. When the three stood together in line across the stage and sang, ‘Give me back my bones / And maybe we can talk,’ as they did on “Dog Song” (incidentally Sarle’s creation and the catalyst for the formation of the group), it became clear that these women, beautiful in their art and otherwise, require both candor and austerity.

But perhaps the defining moment in a night of moments occurred just before that paralyzing Waits cover by Meath. July 21st is MM’s Alex Sauser-Monnig’s birthday and prior to the show, her father emailed venue owner Steve Pohlman, who went out and purchased a cake to celebrate the occasion. I watched Pohlman stand just inside the entrance of OB, fumbling with the arrangement of candles (they spelled ‘Happy Birthday’, mostly), and then stride onstage to cheerfully tower over Alex as Molly and Amelia led us all in song. Monnig hugged and smiled and thanked Pohlman with wet eyes.

Steve Pohlman, owner of Off Broadway, surprises MM’s Alex on stage with a birthday cake.

This is where we’d do well to remember that musical artists, of whom we take photographs, from whom we purchase records and t-shirts, and about whom we write and talk often mercilessly, have dads who email other dads when their kid’s adventuring in a foreign land (Missouri) and is worried that her twenty-somethingith birthday will go unacknowledged. Mountain Man molds the type of music that’s more Sunday supper than birthday cake, and it possesses a similar memorability and backbone.

Notes:
— Apologies to fans, friends, and Mountain Man for the tardiness of this post. I had things.
— There’s a full set of photos (all shot from one spot…I was too mesmerized to move, whatever) on our Flickr.
— Friends of IWTAS also covered last week’s show. Visit Louis Kwok’s blog, Music Vs Man, or Kate McDaniel’s piece on the KDHX blog for most excellent photos of MM along with established locals The Blind Nils and standout newcomer Sleep in Sundays.
— In late 2010, Mountain Man played the Pageant in support of Jonsi and Diana B. delivered this neat review of their set for RFT.