Mountainside Studio

06/18/2026

Last week in Brazil was one for the books. Much love to Duca and the fellas.

06/05/2026

New music out from John Paul Douglas & The Bitter Trades

Regardless of whether you are looking forward to a road trip to a great show at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia on Saturday, or you are just rather ready to roll the windows down and cruise into a no stress weekend, we hope you take a detour to your favorite music streaming platform to check out our new single "Sycamore" that is the last of the three we recorded at Mountainside Studio in Charlottesville earlier this year.

I wrote this song about the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia becoming my home for twenty years, fifteen+ of which have been filled with traveling to play music with a band over countless weekends of our busy lives. The tune centers on my windshield contemplations about a home life and a traveling band life being at odds with one another for the most part. Every show we play as working musicians costs us more than money, it can also forfeit some precious memories made back at home. We all know that being gone so much of the time, or even just being mentally absent with constant writing and practicing, can stress the unseen bonds with everyone around us. Change is ever waiting in the wings of love for an opportunity to tap you on the shoulder and cut in on the dance, but we musicians all know that without the music--the dance is not as sweet.

One day soon the little kids won't come running up in bare feet to ask Daddy to help get their kites out of the tree at the end of the drive, because they won't be little anymore and all their pretty paper planes will be flying in different skies, far from what home has always been. Perhaps the music won't seem so important then, but never knowing until it might be too late is what it costs to chase down a dream.

We call the band The Bitter Trades because we've lived it long enough now to know that every song has its price.

We hope you enjoy the recording.

Thanks for giving it a listen and sharing what we love to do. ❤️

05/15/2026

Keel + Peter Rowan + Kyle Tuttle ✅

05/14/2026

Give a listen!

We want to really thank all of the folks who have gone out and added our new single "Light in the Darkness" to their streaming playlists and supported all the work that went into releasing new Mountainside Studio material. We will be releasing two more new tunes in the next few weeks, the first of which will drop next Friday the 22nd and we hope that you will enjoy it.

Don't forget that if you want to hit the open road for a little trip south, you can still get tickets to be a part of the crowd at the historical Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia for June 6th taping of the award-winning PBS show "Song of the Mountains" where our whole band will be opening the evening for the Grammy-nominated Yonder Mountain String Band! We'd love to help in every way we can to make that night a success, so we hope some of our fans consider making the trip and attending what will be a wonderful concert experience worth remembering! We've heard from a number of you already confirming that you'll be there and we are so appreciative of that support. You can RSVP for tickets at the link below!

Thanks for all the love!

https://www.thelincoln.org/event-details/song-of-the-mountains-ft-yonder-mountain-string-band-john-paul-douglas-the-bitter-trades

04/08/2026

Amazing session! - airing today at 5p on local radio and online.

02/16/2026

Margo Price x WNRN 🔥🔥🔥