Nashville-based duo Paper Wings have just released a brand new album, Mountains on the Moon, a collection of exquisitely-crafted, timeless folk songs. While all the songs are gently captivating and thought-provoking, the title track is especially absorbing. Here’s the video for Mountains on the Moon, the latest single and the perfect introduction to Paper Wings’ music.
In the video, we find Wila Frank and Emily Mann wandering a hushed, snow-filled winter landscape; those scenes are interspersed with images of the pair playing their delicate acoustic accompaniment and singing together intimately and it feels as if we’re privileged to hear their personal recollections. Lyrically-talented, Frank and Mann deliver poetic reflections on the passage of time; their nostalgic recollections ache with a sense of subtle grief for what has been and the futures that will never be. They manage to capture these complex feelings and make them universal: “All the things I’ll never see, all the things I’ll never do… My heart beats fast and the clock ticks slow.” Mountains on the Moon references a total solar eclipse that Frank and Mann saw together while on tour and that magical moment is recreated through a gorgeous vocal melody over delicate acoustic instrumentation. The duo’s voices wrap around one another in a stunning, lilting harmonic blend.
From Oregon and California respectively, Frank and Mann were raised in rural communities, sharing a love of the outdoors and the fiddle. They met and became friends at festivals and music camps before creating their first demos in 2015, selling their home-made CDs at farmers markets, breweries and house-gigs before heading to Nashville to record their debut. The duo’s third album, 2024’s critically-acclaimed Listen to the World Spin was described by Americana UK here as, “Perfection. That’s it.” Enough said. Absorb this – it’s a beauty.
