Black Twig Pickers and Charlie Parr

Even to Win is to Fail/EastMont Syrup

LP • Out of stock

Ed. note: This is still available as a download right here.

This very special double A side LP is made exclusively for Record Store Day 2011 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies worldwide. One side is from acoustic guitar wizard Glenn Jones, the other from the Black Twig Pickers & Sally, and Charlie Parr. Included is a free download coupon and an insert with notes, lyrics, and manifold stew cooking recipes from Charlie.

"So a few years ago, Charlie Parr, country bluesman, songwriter and reso guitar and banjo king of the Upper Midwest, and the Black Twig Pickers, scrappy stringband of the Virginia/West Virginia state line, are kicking up a storm at a house party in Blacksburg, Va. It had already been an evening to remember, with three generations of the Thornton family playing a set that included Curtiss, the eldest, singing a hair-raising “I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry” and accompanying himself on dobro. But now Parr and the Twigs are throwing down, ripping through fiddle tunes and blues while a houseful of rowdies dances, jumps and shouts. But then the guy that lives downstairs decides he’s had enough. Wearing his pajamas and a leather jacket, he’s standing on the back porch yelling, saying he’s calling the cops unless people quit stomping on his ceiling. The Twigs try a quieter, slower fiddle tune. People shout and stomp and shout some more. It’s time to go. Then Sally steps up and says she and her roommates are moving the party to their house, just a few blocks away. It’s Blacksburg, so nearly everything is just a few blocks away. Soon the ruckus resumes at Sally’s, with music and dancing into the early hours. Fast forward a few years. It turns out that Sally, besides being an excellent dancer, is a great fiddler and knows how to call a square dance too. She starts sitting in with the Twigs at dances. And Parr and the Twigs keep playing together whenever Charlie’s globetrotting tour schedule and the Twigs ‘ rounds of community events line up. Along comes EastMont Syrup: part reunion, part hoot, part lament for times and pals gone by -- and part sampler for what’s to come."

Glenn Jones' Even to Win is to Fail is a side-long display of guitar and banjo wizardry from a 30+ year devotee of the so-called “American Primitive” school of acoustic steel string guitarists. Jones has collaborated with John Fahey (a friend for nearly 25 years) and written extensively about the leading lights of the American Primitive style like Fahey and Robbie Basho (Jones was friends with the guitarist until his untimely death in 1986, and hosted Basho’s final tour of the East Coast). Jones was also close friends with Jack Rose and they toured together in the U.S., Canada, Europe and UK. Jones guests on several of Jack’s albums and recorded a DVD with Rose titled The Things That We Used to Do, which features hour-long solo sets from each artist, and a pair of duets.

Even to Win is to Fail/EastMont Syrup Reviews

• ... from dark haunting twang to old timey blues, from rollicking hoedown to mournful lament. (Aquarius)
• Boston musician Glenn Jones shares the spotlight with Virginia backporch players The Black Twig Pickers and old school player Charlie Parr... (Hour Community)
• One of the happiest surprises to manifest itself in vinyl form... (Chester Records)