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The Black Twig Pickers are a group defined by their forward thinking approach to a type of music most often associated with times gone by. Over the course of eight full-length records, including collaborative releases with Jack Rose and Charlie Parr, a split LP with Glenn Jones, and numerous EPs and singles, the group has established itself as a collection of dedicated practioners of old time music re-cast and shaped by their appreciation of modern improvisation, drone, and punk. While not at odds with the experimental scene that has fostered them or the old time circles they travel in, The Black Twig Pickers thrive in the in-betweenness of those two worlds, proving that the exploration of the outmost bounds of sound and the exploration of decades old tradition and community aren’t as different as one might think.
The group’s repertoire is constantly growing as they turn to first-person sources, older musicians that were brought up in the old time scene and in some cases the children and families of deceased respected practitioners, and unreleased archival recordings passed among musicians. And while local and regional history is ever present in the music The Black Twig Pickers play, they turn songs that are many decades old into living artifacts, released from the restrictions of era by the personal convictions of the musicians.
This spirit of ecstatic abandon is conveyed through the percussive elements of The Black Twig Pickers’ music and more importantly, through a spontaneity and an unrehearsedness the band wears as a badge of pride. As Gangloff explains, “It’s not the melody, it’s the moss.” The sharp twang of the banjo, a spontaneous holler, a foot stomping along in time, and other seemingly incidental sounds become all important. Like the band’s previous Thrill Jockey full-length Ironto Special, Rough Carpenters was recorded with absolutely no overdubs and in as few takes as possible. The Black Twig Pickers are indeed rough carpenters, building unpolished but finely crafted records that embody the spirit of a timeless old-time scene.
Elsa Howell took an early interest in old Appalachian ballads, a tradition rich with wild stories and haunting melodies. Her voice and attention to musical detail have won her ribbons at folk song competitions in the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina, and her native Virginia. She spent more than a year learning the style from ballad master Elizabeth LaPrelle through the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, and Elsa has been featured at the Richmond Folk Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art, the Floyd Country Store, on the Inside Appalachia podcast/radio show, and she was a resident artist at the 2024 MidMountain Festival, which was devoted to examining and reinventing murder ballads. She has also carved her own path as an acoustic guitarist and songwriter, writing personal songs that meld with her more traditional material. She recorded and released Eyes Wide, her EP of mostly original material, in 2024.
