*ROTM* Appalachian Smoke [Forest Black Wave Vinyl] [Reservation Pre-Order]

*This item is the August Record of the Month that will ship in early September. If you wish to receive any additional non-preorder items earlier, please place them as a separate order*

Produced by six-time Grammy winner Vance Powell, Appalachian Smoke is the arrival of Mountain Grass Unit — a band whose co-founders began jamming together as pre-teens in Birmingham, Alabama. That decade-long commitment culminated in selling out more than 30 shows and winning the International Bluegrass Music Association's Momentum Artist of the Year award. Leaders of a new generation of songwriters, they treat bluegrass not as a tradition but as a living, breathing language — one that evolves and expands with Appalachian Smoke, an album that combines the live-wire energy of their concerts with the bold, wild-open exploration of the recording studio.

As their sound grew, so did their audience — and their co-signs. Shania Twain, the best-selling female artist in country music history, hand-recruited the band to join her in the recording studio, where they contributed to three songs from her album Little Miss Twain. They began sharing stages with Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Dierks Bentley. Appalachian Smoke proves they're every bit as interested in reinvention as preservation — an eclectic collection of modern-day American roots music, from the Middle Eastern textures of "Eagles Nest" to the psychedelic rock of "Earthquake." Anchored by the childhood bonds that predate the band itself, Mountain Grass Unit are something refreshingly rare: a young band with more than a decade's worth of musical camaraderie between them. Where there's smoke, there's fire.