Mo Pitney and John Meyer, aka Pitney Meyer, have released another single from their upcoming Curb Records project, Cherokee Pioneer.
The two good friends grew up learning to play and sing bluegrass in their separate family bands. After finding success in the country music world, they have rekindled that early passion for bluegrass with a set of songs they have written together in recent years. The process finds them embracing old school methods, tracking everything live with no overdubs to analog tape in an old wooden cabin.
This latest is one called Trail of Tears, one Mo started in a moment of inspiration considering the forced removal of native peoples in the US during the early to mid 19th century, colloquially known as the Trail of Tears. The fate of these peoples since the arrival of European settlers in the Americas became a theme running through this forthcoming record.
Pitney says that these thoughts took the form of question in his mind.
“During the time period of writing this song, I had been in a season where I was deeply moved by the story of the Native American people, and felt my spirit asking the question: What does the gospel have to say to that story now? It was in that place I started to feel a song being sung to me, and from the deepest part of my heart, rather loudly, I began to sing ‘on the trail of tears, hear the voice, of the Cherokee who’s crying in the wilderness.'”
In a bit of divine coincidence, John reached out to Mo while the song was being completed.
“I was up around Licking, Missouri on a side-by-side, literally riding down a ridge that was once part of the Trail of Tears. I texted Mo and he kind of freaked out because he had just been feeling this song.
The first time we performed the song was out in Bon Aqua at the Johnny Cash farm. There are stories that Cash used to walk down by the creek behind the cabin and find old arrowheads and native pottery. It was poignant to hear the song first come to life on that property.”
The Cherokee Pioneer album was recorded in Johnny Cash’s Bon Aqua cabin, something that wasn’t lost on these two.
The track features Pitney on guitar and lead vocal, Meyer on banjo and harmony vocal, with Blake Pitney on bass and harmony vocal, Nate Burie on mandolin, and Jeneé Fleenor on fiddle.
Check it out…
Trail of Tears is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
Look for the full Cherokee Pioneer album in April of 2025.
