North Carolina folk innovators Magic Tuber Stringband have been cropping up in Folk Radio’s Playlists and Mixtapes over the past couple of years and have picked up some great praise along the way. Most recently, founding member of Pelt and The Black Twig Pickers, Mike Gangloff, mentioned them in an interview with Folk Radio, especially their 2023 Tarantism album; he said: “It’s wonderful to hear younger and newer players mixing and matching in their own ways, but still keeping those roots elements that speak to me the most.”
Featuring Courtney Werner and Evan Morgan, the duo have just signed to Thrill Jockey, through whom they will release their new album, Needlefall, scheduled for release on March 22nd. I’ll admit to being slightly biased, as the label’s roster frequently gets featured on Folk Radio, but it seems the perfect home alongside the likes of Sally Anne Morgan.
Alongside the announcement, Magic Tuber Stringband are sharing their bittersweet new single, “Days of Longing.” A duet between fiddle and 12-string guitar, Werner and Morgan craft intricate, interlocking melodies that duck and weave like circling birds, before building into a feverish, ecstatic freakout that recalls Henry Flynt’s “Purified by the Fire.”
The label shared: Magic Tuber Stringband’s music thrums with a primal, vital energy that speaks to an intimate relationship with both folk practice and the natural environment. Morgan is an organizer within the local music community, and Werner is a dedicated naturalist involved in local land stewardship. Much like the North Carolina wilds it reflects, Needlefall waxes and wanes from mysterious and unsettling to ecstatic and awe-inspiring, capturing the sacred dimensions of the natural world. The album exemplifies the diversity of contemporary folk movements, placing Magic Tuber Stringband’s work in the tradition of modern innovators like Moondog, Pauline Oliveros and labelmate Sally Anne Morgan. The vast forests and mountains that inspire the duo act as a metaphor for living music traditions – ever-changing and yet still standing, shaped over time by human hands while equally shaping the human experience.
Magic Tuber Stringband – Needlefall tracklist
- A Dance on a Sunday Night
- Days of Longing
- The Hermit’s Passage
- Water Dripped Upwards
- The Long-Suffering
- Needlefall
- Twelfth House
- Piney Woods Burn
Pre-order Magic Tuber Stringband’s Needlefall: https://thrilljockey.com/products/needlefall