Varèse Sarabande will release the A Walk in the Woods – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on September 4 and on CD September 25, 2015. The album features the new songs "The Birds Are Singing At Night" performed by Lord Huron and "Dead End Street" performed by Blake Mills, with songs from Dwight Yoakam, Chatham County Line, Tim Grimm, and additional tracks from Lord Huron. The album also features two suites of the original score, composed by Nathan Larson.
"Our biggest musical challenge was how to represent the majesty of the Appalachian Trail, its jaw-dropping vistas, its forbidding mountains and blessedly untamed wildlife," said director Ken Kwapis. "The answer came in the form of Lord Huron, whose songs provide a thread throughout Bryson and Katz's journey."
"I tend to approach songwriting visually, and I often find myself striving and struggling to describe landscapes sonically," said Lord Huron's Ben Schneider. "It was gratifying to hear that some of that came across to Ken and his team, and that they felt the music helped support and describe the natural setting of the movie."
"The subtitle of Bill Bryson's book is Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.' In wildly different ways, all the artists on this CD are rediscovering America's musical past, uncovering its roots and celebrating them with a distinctly modern vibe," Kwapis described. "All of these artists are venturing down an alternative musical trail, but it's one that runs right alongside the AT itself."
"A Walk in the Woods felt warmly familiar to me, like a movie I'd already loved for a long time," said Blake Mills, who contributed the original song "Dead End Street" for the film and soundtrack.
"Bryson and Katz may be in their autumnal years, but the musical world of the film suggests there's a new adventure right around the corner," said Kwapis. "Check out the rambunctious husband-and-wife duo Shovels & Rope, the soulful bluegrass of Raleigh-based Chatham County Line, the virtuosic Blake Mills (his warm and wistful "Dead End Street" was written for the film), the genre-defying Great Lake Swimmers, Honky Tonk pioneer Dwight Yoakam and his rousing salute to Buck Owens, Indiana's Renaissance man Tim Grimm, the dynamic country trio Friends of Lola, and the amazingly versatile rocker-turned-film-composer Nathan Larson."