Browse by Artist: BLACK TWIG PICKERS

Artist:	BLACK TWIG PICKERS
Title:	North Fork Flyer
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 061CD

"North Fork Flyer represents the continued persistence of a type of Appalachian folk music that has come and gone from the popular radar over the years, but has never completely disappeared from the Black Twig Pickers' Southwest Virginia home. The songs on North Fork Flyer are mostly traditional numbers (with a few originals sprinkled in) that form the backbone of a century-old tradition -- the music of bonfires, front porches, coal miner's festivals, and informal gatherings. These 'mountain ragas,' as the group calls them, have been recorded, performed, and revised continually by a who's who of true American artistry -- luminaries such as Bukka White, Mississippi John Hurt, John Fahey, Bob Wills, Holy Modal Rounders, New Lost City Ramblers, etc., etc. Recorded live to DAT on front porches and in family rooms, North Fork Flyer blends the fiddle blues of Ralph Berrier Jr., Isak Howell's sinewy guitar and the drone and twitch of Pelt's Mike Gangloff's fretless clawhammer banjo with the trio's rough-around-the-edges but warm vocal harmonies. Played to the accompaniment of night insects, passing trains, and the noise of wandering children, the music retains the charm of tradition but is free of fake antiquarianism and nostalgia. Regardless of age, the music is just as relevant today as it was 100 years ago and the band plays it like they mean it."

Artist:	BLACK TWIG PICKERS
Title:	Soon One Morning
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 073CD

"The second CD by this SW Virginia area trio is firmly planted in Old-Time Appalachian tradition, but concentrates mostly on original material. Standing out in particular is 'Floyd Allen,' Ralph Berrier Jr.'s masterful retelling of an area tragedy with a sweet and unexpected major/minor chorus change-up. Mike Gangloff's lengthy and elegiac instrumental 'This War Is Killing Me' glides along on a sad melody passed around between resonator guitar, cello and fiddle. Many tracks are anchored by Gangloff's unusual gut-string baritone banjo. Two solo instrumentals on the CD add balance between the vocal numbers -- Isak Howell's 'Have You Been To Alabama?' is a subtle fingerpicked workout, while Gangloff's 'Ironto Special' is a considerably more exotic-sounding modal construction on the big banjo."

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