Black Twig Pickers: Ironto Special
About a dozen Appalachian classics and two originals mix it up on “Ironto Special.” While the adept musicians of Black Twig Pickers clearly revere these old songs of daily life, daily struggle, and nightly relief from struggle, they are also astute enough to have fun, knowing that the enduring power of these tunes comes in their simple, true stories, the ones we all share, stripped of the particulars of our time.
Recorded in Ironto Virginia, all the songs on “Ironto Special” were done in one take, and that assured feel is evident throughout; these are lived-in songs, and the instrumentation, from jaw-harp to washboard to banjo, deliver warmth and soul.
The lo-fi grind, Jew’s harp stumble of “Saro O Saro” has causal power; “Rockin’ In a Weary Land” offers martial drums, funeral march pace, bringing an old gospel warhorse feel. The boozy, lovable shuffle of “Lay Ten Dollars Down” also has some of the best lyrics of the set. The real worn and lived-in songs, like “Fire on the Mountain,” “Walls of Jericho,” and “Picking out the Devil’s Eyes,” are given energetic readings that betray their having been given many a spin by the band on stage.
“Ironto Special” is classic hill country music, delivered with love and precision by Black Twig Pickers. There are no surprises here in instrumentation (okay, someone plays bones on a couple songs) or arrangements, but who cares? Music as mainlined from the heart such as this doesn’t need to more to attract attention to itself.