Klang: recent updates

2012-03-12: Mike Gangloff, Slane, County Meath, Ireland, Boyle's Bar

2012-01-31T10:48:14-05:00

2012-03-12: Mike Gangloff, Slane, County Meath, Ireland, Boyle's Bar

2012-03-11: Mike Gangloff, Balla, County Mayo, Ireland, Mannion's Bar

2012-01-31T10:46:39-05:00

2012-03-11: Mike Gangloff, Balla, County Mayo, Ireland, Mannion's Bar

2012-03-10: Mike Gangloff, Effrinagh, County Leitrim, Ireland, The Swan Lake Inn

2012-01-31T10:46:05-05:00

2012-03-10: Mike Gangloff, Effrinagh, County Leitrim, Ireland, The Swan Lake Inn

2012-03-09: Mike Gangloff, Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon, Ireland, Spells

2012-01-31T10:45:14-05:00

2012-03-09: Mike Gangloff, Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon, Ireland, Spells

2012-03-08: Mike Gangloff, Cork City, Ireland, Black Sun @ Plug'd (w/ Yawning Chasm, Brigid Power Ryce, Sacred Harp Singers of Cork & screening of Luther Price's 'Green')

2012-01-31T10:44:12-05:00

2012-03-08: Mike Gangloff, Cork City, Ireland, Black Sun @ Plug'd (w/ Yawning Chasm, Brigid Power Ryce, Sacred Harp Singers of Cork & screening of Luther Price's 'Green')

2012-03-07: Mike Gangloff, Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland, The Sitting Room Sessions at DeBarra's

2012-01-31T10:42:25-05:00

2012-03-07: Mike Gangloff, Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland, The Sitting Room Sessions at DeBarra's

2012-03-06: Mike Gangloff, Wexford Town, Ireland, The Candlelight Sessions at the Sky & the Ground

2012-01-31T10:41:22-05:00

2012-03-06: Mike Gangloff, Wexford Town, Ireland, The Candlelight Sessions at the Sky & the Ground

Black Twig Pickers

2006-07-27T14:35:00-04:00

Exploring the stringways of our corner of the mountains, eternal one-song and Turkey in the Straw.

BOOKING/PROMO: Download the Black Twig Pickers one-sheet (ever in need of an update). And here are larger photos and sound clips and more over on the downloads page. And keep scrolling down this page for a stack of very kind reviews. And visit us on Facebook.

Contact the Black Twig Pickers at band@blacktwigpickers.org.

Early 2012:

It's shaping up to be a busy year, which is what we like -- Mike playing solo fiddle and banjo shows in Ireland in March, Nathan with a solo banjo record in the works, a full Twig tour in the UK and France in April, and in the US in May and August, festival appearances, new Twig records -- joyousness abounds.

We've been having a ball collaborating with guitarist Steve Gunn, and figure some of the music we've made with him will see daylight soon in Black Dirt's Natch series and as part of a new Twig album-to-be.

And a 7-inch record of "Yellow Cat" b/w "You'll Never Miss Your Mama" is due out on Thrill Jockey this spring.

More new releases news to follow.

In the meantime, we still have the vinyl edition of "Glory in the Meeting House," the gospel album we made with Charlie Parr. And we have a few copies of the cd edition released by House of Mercy -- get in touch quick if you'd like one.

Closer to home, we're honored to be continuing the monthly dance gig at the Floyd Country Store -- some months this will be the full Black Twig dance ensemble, usually with Sam Linkous and Sally Morgan adding bass, duo fiddle and dance-calling, and sometimes more of a wild Twigs & Friends free-for-all. We're also proud to continue our monthly bar gig at the Cellar, and regular shows at Gillies and up near Isak's home in West Virginia. Check the schedule page here or look for updates on the Black Twig Facebook page.

And we urge your attention (if you don't have six copies already) to IRONTO SPECIAL, our Thrill Jockey release of 2010. We've got vinyl and cd copies at shows, and downloads are available via Thrill Jockey's FINA site.

Finally, even though we sold all our copies of some earlier Black Twig Pickers releases (the ones listed out of stock here at Klang), you likely still can get a very reasonable deal on them here or here.

Natch!

2012-02-03T11:01:45-05:00

Leaning into the Natch

Pigeons alight in Europe, Black Twig madness in West Virginia

2011-10-03T12:43:46-04:00

Pigeons, with Nathan in the drum seat, tear through some Europe shows this week and next -- more details here. Nathan will be playing solo as well, including this banjo show. And other Black Twig Pickers are carrying a variety of strings, as well as harps of mouth and jaw, into Lewisburg, W.Va., on Oct. 6.

Klang

2012-01-31T14:56:09-05:00

Klang (also known as Klang Industries, or Kläng Industries) was founded in Richmond, Virginia in 1994, originally to produce a series of festival-style summer concerts. The first Klang record release was Gospel Midgets' Side One, Two in 1995. Releases have followed occasionally since then.

"Klang" rhymes with "song" or "long", not with "bang" or "rang." ("Kläng", with the umlaut, would rhyme with the last two when spoken in German.)

Klang has nothing to do with the Klang Valley of Malaysia, at least until we open our Kuala Lumpur office, currently scheduled for "not any time soon."

Klang is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, any other "Klang" domains on the Internets.

Everything we do at Klang is in memory of our co-founder Jack Rose (1971-2009). We miss you so much.

Thanks for stopping by.

Seven virgins and a mule

2012-01-31T14:42:16-05:00

OK, maybe not. But, as the song says, keep it cool: you're looking at the all-new Klang web site. It's been a very long (too long) time in the making, but nearly every line of code has been reworked, retooled and given a fresh coat of paint. As always, shoot us a line at klang@klang.org if you find anything out of place.

(Many thanks to the fine folks at Twitter and jQuery for supplying some layout and scripting under a liberal license. As for the rest of it, we would like it to be known that the exhibits that are shown are exclusively our own - all our own, all our own...)

2012-02-05: Nathan Bowles, Durham, NC, 305 E. Chapel Hill St. No. 215

2012-01-31T10:55:51-05:00

2012-02-05: Nathan Bowles, Durham, NC, 305 E. Chapel Hill St. No. 215

Black Twig Pickers high-res photo 2

2012-01-19T10:41:37-05:00

photo by Matt Peyton

Black Twig Pickers high-res photo 1

2012-01-19T10:38:19-05:00

photo by Matt Peyton

Black Twig Pickers Mp3 1

2012-01-18T14:05:55-05:00

Mp3 of Picking Out the Devil's Eyes, from "Ironto Special," Thrill Jockey

Black Twig Pickers liner notes for Ironto Special

2010-09-07T22:44:59-04:00

full-color, three-page version w/all Whitney's drawings --- same as the pdf on the cd, and definitely the best of the several versions included with the various Ironto Special formats --

Black Twig Pickers high-res photo 4

2010-04-27T22:33:07-04:00

photo by Jeanna Duerscherl

Black Twig Pickers high-res photo 3

2010-04-14T21:41:06-04:00

photo by Jeanna Duerscherl

Black Twig Pickers ONE-SHEET

2010-03-19T22:21:52-04:00

yep, this is the newest version of the Black Twig one-sheet

Jack Rose high-res photo

2009-04-08T13:55:02-04:00

Jack press photo

Jack Rose & Black Twig Pickers high-res photo 2

2009-04-08T13:46:21-04:00

photo by Tim Stuhldreher

Jack Rose & Black Twig Pickers high-res photo 1

2009-04-08T13:45:15-04:00

photo by Tim Stuhldreher

"My Music Is Words" - The Poetics of Sun Ra

2008-12-28T21:35:56-05:00

Nathan's masters thesis on the poetry of Sun Ra.

Even to Win is to Fail/EastMont Syrup

2011-04-06T15:00:05-04:00

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.