Lonesome Valley
Side A of the Lonesome Valley 7" features a collaborative track from The Black Twig Pickers and Steve Gunn. Side B is a fiddle duo of Mike Gangloff joined by Sally Morgan. The 7" is pressed in an edition of 300 hand-numbered copies packaged in a jacket letter pressed by The Black Twig Pickers' Sally Morgan at Ratbee Press. A free download coupon is included.
The Black Twig Pickers and Steve Gunn have traveled in the same circles for years, but it wasn't until the first Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, NC that they got the chance to play together. The Twigs’ Mike Gangloff and Nathan Bowles convinced Gunn to join them in a rendition of “Lonesome Valley” an old traditional spiritual, during a laid-back day party, which was received with overwhelming enthusiasm. Steve held down guitar, Nathan sang and played banjo, and Mike laid into a fiddle and sang harmony. Although Gunn has joined the Black Twig Pickers during live performances since, this 7” is the first time they have appeared on wax together, and they celebrate the event by reprising “Lonesome Valley,” with Isak Howell wailing on harmonica.
The flip side shows is a two-fiddle scorcher, with Gangloff joined by Sally Morgan. The duo take a run at the Virginia-North Carolina border tune “Sweet Little Julie,” a dance favorite in its home territory. This single, presented with a letter-pressed cover made by Morgan, is just one more example of the singular approach to old-time music by the Black Twig Pickers.
