2/3 Goat

By Lee Zimmerman (Staff Writer) -

Rarely does a band make such an emphatic impression with a simple seven song offering -- and an odd handle to boot -- but 2/3 Goat has done just that, courtesy of their third EP, the aptly titled Let It Rise. A diverse and eclectic ensemble, they make a sound that effective combines a traditional tapestry with a compelling sound that veers from the nu folk of Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers to a contemporary country veneer. No one individual in the quintet attempts to steals the spotlight, but singers Annalyse McCoy and Ryan Dunn take turns at the helm, sharing the singing and determining the dynamic that applies equal emphasis to each of the entries. Indeed, every song is a standout, but the fiddle work and shout out of the opening romp, “Burning Bridges,” the easy lope of “Color Blind” and the assertive stomp that drives “Jenny” command immediate attention. “Whistle in the Wind,” on the other hand, sounds like the kind of tattered ballad that the fictional Ex’s might sing on TV’s “Nashville,” but rather than come across as contrived, it serves to demonstrate the credence that they invest in their craft. In truth, every song is outstanding without exception, resulting in a consistently cohesive effort. Ultimately, 2/3 Goat emerges as one fine ensemble. - No Depression

For half a decade, 2/3 Goat (pronounced “two-thirds goat”) have been releasing all sorts of genre-weaving music, each touching on elements from folk-country mixed with bluegrass, rock, blues, and Americana, resulting in an equal parts dance-y and relaxing signature sound. The five-piece band, fronted by Annalyse McCoy and Ryan Dunn, are back again with their alt-country tunes on their upcoming full-length record, Let It Rise. In anticipation of the album’s release, 2/3 Goat have decided to release two tracks off the album every two months, acting as an entire year of pre-orders, all leading up to the full, cohesive record reveal.

The second batch of early-release tracks introduces “Young Man”, a simple, classic folk-rock track focused mainly on the sparse, sparkling instrumental arrangements, and aided by Dunn’s gritty vocals against vast violin. After the track’s initial uncomplicated introduction, the song sweeps with soft harmonies and rock crescendos, giving it a fuller sound and memorable rhythms. Though Dunn’s voice can stand alone, accompanied by McCoy’s melody and the almost orchestral sounds, “Young Man” evolves to a rustic, comforting track. - Elmore Magazine

Check out “Jenny,” a stomping rocker about an eerie settler’s tale by New York’s alt-country troupe 2/3 Goat. The track is the first single released off sophomore album Let It Rise, which the band are releasing track by track over the course of the year. “Jenny” tells the story of Jenny Wiley, a Virginian settler who was captured and taken prisoner by Native Americans in the late 18th century. - American Songwriter

By William June (Contributor)

2/3 Goat, the alt-country project co-fronted by Annalyse McCoy and Ryan Dunn, just recently dropped their new album Let It Rise. The album opens up with "Burning Bridges," an appropriate introduction to the LP. It leans on the americana side with easy-going instrumentation and a pleasant musical atmosphere, but McCoy's lyrics inject an element of darkness into the song. As the title infers, "Burning Bridges" is about the dissolving of relationships in an almost celebratory matter. It's something of a dismal message pillowed by beautiful instrumental work and warm production. This combination allows "Burning Bridges" to be enjoyed in a number of different ways, depending on what aspect the listener focuses on. - Paste Magazine

By Susan Hubbard -

Annalyse McCoy and Ryan Dunn make beautiful music together—on and off the stage. The husband and wife team are the co-lead vocalists of New York City-based Americana band 2/3 Goat (“Two Thirds Goat”), who seamlessly blend alt-country, classic rock, and bluesy bluegrass (Blues-grass? I feel good about it), calling it “Metrobilly”, a style as diverse as the pair creating it.

McCoy, a direct descendant of the infamous McCoys of Eastern Kentucky (as in the Hatfields and the McCoys), and Dunn, a son of the southern New Jersey shore, met over music in New York, and the band was born. “I kept asking her to write with me so I could spend time with her, and she kept saying yes,” says Dunn with a laugh. Named for the percentage of Capricorns in the group, 2/3 Goat releases their new album, Let It Rise, on Friday, April 15th. In 2015, the band released songs every two months, until they’d unleashed a whole album’s worth of music they called Let It Rise at the end of the year. Now, the album will come out in physical form with some new songs added to the mix. The first new single, “Whiskey Sins”, a rowdy country banger, was featured on Mother Church Pew in March.

McCoy and Dunn draw on their backgrounds for inspiration, and use those experiences to keep a traditionally ol.d-fashioned genre fresh and relevant. “I grew up playing music,” recalls McCoy, whose family’s rich history is regularly celebrated. “We have reunions every year, it was a big part of my life growing up,” she adds. “Annalyse’s parents are big activists too, they’ve even been featured in a Greenpeace documentary. They passed that revolutionary spirit on to Annalyse,” says Dunn. The pair also use their musical megaphone to bring awareness to environmental and labor issues that permeate today’s headlines.

The album is fantastic, y’all; it’s seven stunning tracks shimmer and groove, a straight up down-home party for your ears. - Mother Church Pew

By Jeff Biggers -

Rising up on the folk-rock charts, New York City-based "Metrobilly" band 2/3 Goat has just released a foot-stomping, evocative and inspiring video performance from their breakthrough new CD, Stream of Conscience.

Featuring lead singer/mandolin player Annalyse McCoy, whose golden pipes resound from the hollers with the haunting beauty and power of a young Shawn Colvin and Patty Loveless, Stream of Conscience is an acoustic-driven foggy mountain breakdown that chronicles the ravages of mountaintop removal operations in the Appalachian hills. A reckless strip mining process that has destroyed more than 300 mountains and 600,000 acres of hardwood forests in McCoy's native eastern Kentucky region alone, mountaintop removal operations throughout central Appalachia have led to a humanitarian crisis of large-scale water contamination, entrenched unemployment, cancer corridors and birth defects, and the largest forced removal of American citizens since the 19th century.

"Music is such an integral part of Appalachian culture and tradition," said McCoy, who grew up in Inez, Kentucky and also works as an actress in New York City. " As a child of Appalachia, I felt that there was no better or more natural way to "give back" to try and help my community than through song. Amid all the destruction that mountaintop removal causes -- all the thousands of miles of streams that have been buried, all the remaining water that's been tainted by heavy metals -- there is purity and light left in Appalachia; there is Hope."

Flanked by cowriter, singer and guitar player Ryan Dunn, whose confident bluesy licks add a natural Johnny Cash resonance to McCoy's June Carter, and talented fiddler Ryan Guerra, 2/3 Goat's new CD was recorded by famed Gin Blossoms producer Chris Mara at the Welcome to 1979 Studios in Nashville.

"Coal has been king for over a hundred years in Appalachia," the band posted on their website. "Taking rock from under the ground is one thing; but blowing up mountains, burying thousands of miles of freshwater streams, inciting flooding in areas where it's never been a problem, and causing the highest cancer rates in the nation from industry runoff is another. Mountaintop removal also takes away more and more jobs from an area that desperately needs them. It's time we take a stand. Our song and music video "Stream of Conscience" are focused on this very topic. Appalachia is Rising!"

The "Stream of Conscience" single was featured last week on AOL Music's top charts.

Alongside the beloved Grammy star Kathy Mattea, Loveless and Emmylou Harris, 2/3 Goat joins other great folk, country and rock acts in the long-time campaign to end mountaintop removal.

"Writing this song, I envisioned the People, this light, flowing down like the cleanest water you'll ever drink; a Stream of Conscience, descending on the industry that's dealt them such a terrible hand, saying, "We will no longer be poisoned!" McCoy said. "I can't wait for that day." - Huffington Post

The lead singer of 2/3 Goat is Annalyse McCoy, a native of Inez, Kentucky (in Martin County). Jeff Biggers has written about the band, which operates out of New York City now but who sing mostly about their home. (We first heard 2/3 Goat's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive.")

Here is a song they do about coal strip mining. The band writes about what this song means:

"Coal has been king for over a hundred years in Appalachia. Taking rock from under the ground is one thing; but blowing up mountains, burying thousands of miles of freshwater streams, inciting flooding in areas where it's never been a problem, and causing the highest cancer rates in the nation from industry runoff is another. Mountaintop removal also takes away more and more jobs from an area that desperately needs them. It's time we take a stand. Our song and music video "Stream of Conscience" are focused on this very topic. Appalachia is rising." - The Daily Yonder

Annalyse: We're 2/3 Goat, a metrobilly band based out of New York City. Like most artists in NYC, we're all from different places. I'm the Lead Singer/Mandolinist, and I come from the small town of Inez, KY, deep in the hills of central Appalachia. But the rich, craggy valleys of my homeland are getting shallower as we speak.
Mountaintop Removal coal mining is ravaging the region I call home. Thirty percent of the surface area of my home county has already been leveled by strip mining and mountaintop removal. Mountaintop Removal (MTR) is a violent process of coal mining in which the tops of mountains are blown off to gather the seam of coal within (sometimes the seam can be as shallow as 2 feet), and the leftover material is placed into hollows, deemed "hollow fills" or "valley fills." Over 500 mountaintops have already been blown off, and over 1500 miles of freshwater streams have already been buried. More and more flooding now occurs due to this, in areas where it never before was a problem. And worst of all, the water supplies of citizens are ruined by heavy metals in the runoff from these MTR sites as well as from coal slurry impoundment releases. The highest cancer rates per capita in the nation, according to the CDC, are found right in the heart of Central Appalachia, right in these communities where MTR takes place.
I grew up around this stuff; I saw mountains being leveled by the side of the highway. Due to a slurry impoundment break in 2000, most in my community don't drink the water that comes out of the faucet. The majority of citizens buy bottled water to drink; it is the highest selling item in the supermarket, in a county where unemployment and poverty rates are higher than most places. I've seen how the coal industry can wreak havoc on a community firsthand. Once I moved away to NYC to pursue my artistic dreams, I began yearning for home more and more. It really sunk in how much of my home was disappearing through MTR. My parents are activists against it. Human rights and environmental & social justice were always a topic of conversation in my house growing up. I was drawn to join the fight against mountaintop removal in full force, and to write a song to inspire others to do so too.
I set out to write a call-to-action song to try and get people fired up about stopping mountaintop removal. I wanted something people could relate to on a lyrical as well as a musical level. I started writing some words, but couldn't quite find the catchy, driving groove that I wanted. This is where Ryan and I always come together well. I'm always focused on the details, and he's always looking at the "big picture," as he calls it.

Ryan (other Lead Singer & Guitarist): I had been working on a new song for a while but I only had the chord changes and structure. I couldn't figure out what to make the song about, and Annalyse came to me and said, "I want to write something that inspires people to stand up and take control of this MTR situation." Now I am not from KY or WV, but as my relationship with Annalyse grew, my knowledge and familiarity of MTR grew as well. Her family was the first to inform me of the atrocities that were happening in Appalachia, a place I thought was some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen.
I am from the Jersey Shore (insert laughter) and I had never heard of Mountaintop Removal. I barely knew anything about underground mining. As I learned more, I immediately wanted to join the McCoys and the rest of Appalachia and stand up to the companies that were profiting off of the death and destruction of some the oldest land and cultures in our country. I knew that most Americans were like me, and if they could just have a chance to see and hear about what was happening, then they too would want to become part of the solution. You see, we all blindly contribute to the problem, from running the electricity in our house to having retirement funds that are vested in coal companies that do MTR. We are all very much involved in this destruction, but none of us are aware that we are doing it. I also learned from many years of Anti-War protesting in the early 2000's that you can't change peoples' minds by screaming at them in the streets. Sometimes you have to just to show that you are strong and willing to take a stand.
But the best way in my mind to educate someone is to lead them to their own decisions. I wanted to write a song that was thought-provoking and made people ask, "What in the world is this song about, what is it they are so passionate about?" Then through our website, or live at shows, we could inform people on where to go to learn about what is happening. I knew that after listeners educated themselves and learned about it, they couldn't turn their backs to it and would inevitably join the fight. The music video is just another extension of this same idea: We wanted people to watch it and say, "Wow, what are they showing here, what are they protesting here?" Sadly, leadersh - Greenpeace Blog

2/3 Goat, "Jenny"
The music of New York alt country outfit 2/3 Goat (pronounced "two-thirds goat") is equal parts fierce country determination and zealous folk resolve. It's raucous and loud and stomps like the best blues-burner you've heard this year. McCoy's voice is serrated and gorgeous but has a barbed edge that you don't see coming until it pierces your heart. For their latest record, "Let It Rise," the band is releasing two or three tracks online each month until the entire album has been shared—then, they'll release the physical copy.

On recent single "Jenny," the band tells the story of Jenny Wiley, a settler in southwestern Virginia who was captured in the 1780s by a group of Native Americans who had taken issue with another member of her small settlement. Mistaking her for someone else, they kidnapped her and killed her children, leaving Wiley to trek through Kentucky with a group of people who could have killed her at any time. Thrown against a backdrop of sizzling riffs, thudding drums and slithering strings, the music takes on the form of a runaway locomotive, gaining speed and threatening to fly off the rails as it races to its end. - NOOGA

They bill themselves as the “Champions of Metrobilly”, but NYC’s 2/3 Goat (pronounced Two-Thirds Goat) come armed with a searing spirit seemingly bequeathed to them from the ghosts of frontwoman Annalyse McCoy’s-native Eastern Kentucky. The band crafts an impassioned mix of well-executed country and bluegrass, filtered and reformulated through the ardor of metropolis.

One of their newest efforts “Jenny” is a glowing-red retelling of the story of Jenny Wiley, a settler captured by Native Americans in southwestern Virginia during a war between them and another member of her settlement. The legend states that her roots (part Irish, part Cherokee) not only helped her survive the ordeal, but see it’s complications from both sides’ perspectives. The band has been releasing a few tracks from their new record Let It Rise online each month, and have a PledgeMusic projects in the works for fans to be able to pick up a physical copy of the album. If you want to help support them, head on over and check out their PledgeMusic campaign. - Striker Bill

"Fiery and smooth, rough and soothing, like a long pull of whiskey, [Annalyse's] energetic songs can leave you feeling equally dizzied with euphoria and angst."

"Those bleary walls at The Bitter End had baked many a doughy young mind, pupils of Ginsberg and Dylan, into season dishes of dissent. Now here came 2/3 Goat, singing, rappin’ about injustice in our own time, cooking up our generation’s revolution ‘zza!"

-Johnny Kilroy, Tenthmil.com - 4/5/10 - Tenthmil.com