Purple Mountains has been played on NTS over 10 times, featured on 17 episodes and was first played on 19 June 2019.

Purple Mountains was the creation of American musician, singer, poet and cartoonist David Cloud Berman (born David Craig Berman on 4 January 1967; died August 7, 2019).

In 2019, 10 years since retiring Silver Jews and retreating from public life, Berman returned as Purple Mountains with the eponymous album released on 12 July 2019 on the Drag City label.

Berman is best remembered for his work with indie-rock band the Silver Jews. Although the band primarily existed as a recording project for most of its existence, in January 2009 Berman announced his retirement from music in hopes of finding a meaningful way of undoing the damage that his estranged father Richard (a lobbyist for the alcohol and firearm industries) had brought upon society. In early 2019, Berman returned to music under the new band name Purple Mountains, releasing an eponymous debut album in July 2019, which would be the final musical project attributed to him before his death on August 7, 2019.