AMY TURNER

They grew up inside someone else’s ministry. For years, the five young musicians who now call themselves Eighteen Mile built their chops and shaped their faith on the road with the Steve Pettit Band, learning what it meant to play music in service of something larger than themselves. It was formative, honest work. But it wasn’t entirely theirs.

“As a band of songwriters, this album is special,” says Carson Aaron, one of the group’s founding members. “It’s the first project we’ve worked on where we’ve written almost every song.”

That shift in ownership, from interpreters to authors, is what makes Peace Be Still, the group’s debut for Mountain Home Music Company, feel like more than just a promising first record. It feels like an arrival.

Formed in South Carolina by Aaron and his partner Savannah, alongside siblings Jack and Hallie Ritter and vocalist Emily Guy, Eighteen Mile signed with Mountain Home in the summer of 2025. The label’s A&R Director Jon Weisberger wasn’t hedging when he described their appeal. “Eighteen Mile’s distinctive identity and commitment to their vision deeply impressed us,” he says. “We’re excited to help bring their music to a wider audience.”

That vision is already part of Bassist Hallie Ritter’s lead single “Above the Clouds.” It has become a reliable presence on the Bluegrass Today gospel chart, followed by Aaron’s “What Mercy Means” and a luminous take on Kristyn and Keith Getty’s “Living Waters.” Each release has built momentum in the way that matters most in this corner of the music world: steadily, genuinely, without shortcuts.

Produced by Andy Leftwich, Peace Be Still carries the emotional weight that only comes from lived experience. The arrangements are polished without feeling laboured, and the performances carry a confidence that doesn’t announce itself. Whether the band leans into straightforward bluegrass or lets the arrangements breathe into something closer to contemporary folk, the result is music that feels at home in both the church hall and the festival field.

The album’s title track is perhaps its centrepiece. Written and sung by multi-instrumentalist Jack Ritter, with Rob Ickes contributing resonator guitar work that is as sympathetic as it is technically masterful, the song crystallises everything the band is reaching for. Its lyrics trace a prodigal arc familiar to anyone who has taken a longer road back to themselves, and arrive at a refrain that functions almost like a breath:

“Peace be still” He says to me / Grace unmeasured, boundless, free / Keep me Lord from unbelief / Let me rest in perfect peace.

The rest of the album moves through doubt overcome by faith, fear quieted by the certainty of salvation, and the recurring recognition of grace that costs the receiver nothing but demands everything in return. Two covers round out the set: a tender treatment of Ron Block’s enduring “He’s Holding on to Me” shows the band’s roots, while “Living Waters” confirms they can bring reverence to someone else’s song without losing their own voice in the process.

“We know the stories behind each song because they are our stories,” Aaron says. “The common thread through all these songs is the grace of God that has transformed our lives. In several of the songs, you’ll hear a clear invitation to consider His grace; we offer that invitation because each of us have heard God say to our souls, ‘Peace Be Still.’ We hope you find the peace of God in this album.”

There is something quietly remarkable about a group of young musicians who spent their early careers playing other people’s music and emerged not bitter or impatient, but grateful and ready. Eighteen Mile didn’t need to reinvent bluegrass gospel. They simply needed to find the words for what they already knew to be true.

Peace Be Still is out now on Mountain Home Music Company.