Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers

The Black Twig Pickers follow the longstanding model of early-twentieth-century Appalachian string bands, reviving and reworking the region’s classic mountain repertoire through banjo, guitar, fiddle, and washboard. Their debut, North Fork Flyer, surfaced in 2001; subsequent releases appeared on VHF and Thrill Jockey, while collaborations included Jack Rose on the 2009 album Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers, Charlie Parr on 2010’s Glory in the Meeting House, and Steve Gunn on 2015’s Seasonal Hire. Friend’s Peace, issued in 2021, marked the ensemble’s twentieth anniversary.

Formed in Appalachia during the late 1990s, the group’s nucleus—Mike Gangloff on vocals, guitar, and fiddle; Isak Howell on guitar and harmonica; Nathan Bowles on washboard, banjo, and percussion—consists of Virginia and West Virginia natives drawn to historic mountain folk and blues. Additional musicians regularly participate. Independent albums, most captured in living rooms or on back porches, began with North Fork Flyer on VHF Records in 2001. Big Banjo Blues followed on Klang Records the next year. VHF then issued Soon One Morning in 2003, Midnight Has Come and Gone in 2005, and Hobo Handshake in 2008, while the collaborative Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers arrived in mid-2009.

The band next joined Minnesota singer/songwriter Charlie Parr for the 2010 House of Mercy Recordings release Glory in the Meeting House. Also in 2010, Thrill Jockey signed the group and released Ironto Special. A split LP with Glenn Jones, Even to Win Is to Fail/Eastmont Syrup (featuring Parr), appeared in 2011. The EP Whompyjawed came out the following year. On 2013’s Rough Carpenters, bassist Joseph DeJarnette and fiddler/vocalist Sally Anne Morgan joined the lineup. Morgan remained for the 2015 live-in-the-studio album Seasonal Hire with guitarist Steve Gunn, which contained four original tunes and one traditional song. After leaving Thrill Jockey, the Black Twig Pickers returned to VHF for Friend’s Peace in 2021.