Johnny Bell

Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Johnny Bell, whose album “Mountain States” expands mountain music beyond Appalachia to the Rocky Mountains of the American West. From a vintage western revolver lamp to a family heirloom lap steel and banjo finger picks, his ten objects sit close to the music — and the high desert home — that shaped them.

New Mexico banjoist Johnny Bell builds “Mountain States” around the character of the five-string banjo, though his focus is far from traditional. There is unease and an underlying gravity to music that is stark, edgy and gnarly in places, with an ominous drone haunting throughout. He set out to make a modern solo banjo album, and he’s done exactly that.