Black Twig Pickers: Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers
Rose has always had a foot closer to actual Appalachian Folk than he has to most of the new crop of fingerpicked, psych-folk leaning crowd and on his latest VHF release he cracks that root open wide and proud. The album swings like a barn dance, the air thick and full of autumn harvest and a certain magic letting the night settle comfortably on all those within earshot. Aided nicely by Mike Gangloff on banjo, Isak Howell on guitar and harmonica and Nate Bowles rustling up all manner of percussion, Jack and the Black Twig Pickers seem to slip out of time, recalling an era when simple skill eschewed need for a second take. Their S/T album rolls the hills and lays back to rest and watch the clouds. It seems to breathe a cleaner air than you an I. The boys can't help but slip a smile on the stodgiest of cynics faces with their earthen stomp. Pick this one up on LP though, because the ol' gramophone won’t know what to do with that digital muck.
