Black Twig Pickers: Mount Airy report
Isak's account of the Mount Airy Fiddlers convention this past weekend: The Black Twigs descended on Mount Airy for inspiration and music-making June 2-4: The inevitable gullywasher came early and produced enough humidity to put the big banjo's skin head thoroughly out of commission. Unfazed, Mike reached for the more conventional banjo, threw it into a less conventional tuning, and took the stage to perform "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad" with Twig friends Tim and Maggie Thornton as a banjo/banjo/autoharp trio. 24 hours later, Mike and Maggie picked up new instruments, and led a double fiddle (Tim still on banjo) assault on "Cindy." Between these forays, Mike and Isak waded into the foggy and unpeopled world of ragtime clawhammer and slayed a banjo-and-guitar version of Sam McGee's Buck Dancer's Choice (the song selection seemed to stun the emcee, who claimed to have never heard of the piece). Ralph jammed with the legendary, raucous and thrilling Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, the greatest band ever to be powered by a stretch of cotton clothesline (or weedwhacker line).
Like everyone else there, the Twigs soaked up the many musics: the raging racket of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the darling of the Mount Airy crowd that was nonetheless shut out by the Mount Airy judges (ed. note: Justin did take third in flatfooting; ed. second note: if you haven't checked out the Drops, you need to: carolinachocolatedrops.com. Their new "Dona's got a rambling mind" cd is great.). Other highlights included frenetic and powerful fiddling from former Freighthopper and current Forge Mountain Digger David Bass, campsite jams with the Hilltoppers and Rural Retreat crazy man Jim Lloyd, and bawdy late-night humor with WPAQ-AM radio host Clyde Johnson. "So the preacher comes to church mad, tells the deacons, 'Someone's stolen my bicycle'..."
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