The imagery New Mexico banjoist Johnny Bell throws up on his first fully composed solo banjo album, Mountain States, is often along the lines of slow-moving, sun-scorched skylines, or a scorpion in a desert with its tail quivering. There is an element of unease and an underlying gravity running through this music that is a far cry from a more ambient style of country banjo music, like that of Andrew Tuttle’s Fleeting Adventure, for example; something also reflected in the album artwork in which Daniel McCoy Jr. (Muscogee Creek/Potawatomi) renders New Mexico’s Diablo Canyon in surreal, psychedelic colour, a landscape at once familiar and alien.
A chunk of this is down to co-producer Andrew Weathers’ direction and decision to mic the back of the banjo pot to build an immersive feel around Bell’s often insistent playing. Another key detail in the album’s mood is the embellishments, which are subtle but effective throughout. Take the shruti box underpinning the repetitive banjo part on the long-form piece Secret Cities; Bell’s clawhammer technique is direct and impactful enough by itself, but with the drone note of the box along with ghostly fiddle scrapes, the character is stark and edgy.
There is also a gnarly, lo-fi energy to a lot of the music; the distorted, snarling guitar haunting Bells more traditional Appalachian-sounding banjo playing on Caldera Repose gives the sound a different energy. The result is reminiscent of Nathan Bowles’ Nansemond album, by far his rawest-sounding release, with the electric guitar sound bringing a certain weight to the music, accentuated by the muscle of that close-mic’d banjo.
Lighter in tone but still underpinned by the sound of the shruti box is the delightful Evening Primrose, a song that uses the drone note to bring an organic feel to the music that the banjo, here played with more emphasis on higher strings, enjoys. There is still plenty of power, but the vibe is somewhat easier and more optimistic.
Occupying a similar space is Staying Home, the shortest song here at under four minutes and one with the air of a jam about it; the playing is quite propulsive, but the mood is less ominous and more progressive, with a feeling of freedom and abandon.
Old Blood is a longer and very different offering, built around a tightly played repetitive banjo piece, with a hint of anxiety in the urgency of the notes, a feeling accentuated by high shards and sparse bass notes. The cymbals are key to this one, providing shimmers of sound, sometimes like a rattlesnake, and creating a definite sense of unease as the banjo tempo-ups and the low notes hit like far-off thunder.
Mountain States is an instrumental album crafted around the character of the five-string banjo, but its focus is less on a traditional approach, even though Bell adopts the clawhammer technique throughout. The accompanying instruments provide contrast; the ominous drone haunts the album, while the high slices of fiddle bring a serious edge to the sound, and the fuzz of the guitar gives it muscle and density.
Bell also uses the long-form tracks to explore the function of the banjo as a drone instrument, with the repetition inviting close listening and a trance-like response in places. He is clearly a musician interested in the broader range of the banjo and uses it here to create music of a mercurial character, bringing in weirdness, heaviness and almost scuzziness in places.
Mountain States is an excellent, wide-ranging album with a deep sense of place and the way Bell places the banjo at the centre of things is refreshingly different. He set out to make a modern solo banjo album, and he’s done exactly that.
Mountain States (May 8th, 2026) Centripetal Force / Ramble Records
Bandcamp: https://johnnybell.bandcamp.com/album/mountain-states