With April is Passing, Virginia-based violinist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Gangloff has once again presented us with beautiful, complex, original pieces of music, another excellent example of the unique ability of this fascinating musician.
Featuring two quiet stalwarts of the instrumental scene, American fiddle player Mike Gangloff and British fingerstyle guitar ace C Joynes, the music of ‘Tom Winter, Tom Spring’ is fluid and confident, balancing dense intensity with lighter foot-tappers and spacious abstracts. It’s quite a thing.
Tor Invocation Band’s ‘Medicine’ travels through a borderless realm of traditional folk, ambient, heavy psych, noise and free jazz. But it hangs together admirably under Jake Blanchard’s guiding hand, proof that the most uncompromising music can also be an absolute pleasure to listen to.
Gareth Thompson reflects on Mike Gangloff’s well-attended gig at the Golden Lion…Gangloff ends by saying, “A set of creaky old fiddle tunes ain’t the easiest gig to sell,” but the success of his latest touring venture would rather suggest it is.
Ahead of his UK tour in May 2023 with C Joynes, we catch up with Mike Gangloff, a founding member of Pelt and The Black Twig Pickers, to chat about taking Appalachian fiddle music into new spectrums, Shape Note singing, Jack Rose, Pelt and more.
Buck Curran and Tompkins Square have done a fine job here, both in paying tribute to the late great Jack Rose and bringing in a number of superb players. Fantastic stuff and a real testament to the quality of current material available to those who seek it.
Originally released in 2003 on CD, VHF records are to reissue Pelt’s Pearls From The River on vinyl for the first time. It features the “classic” Pelt trio lineup of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, and Patrick Best.
Our Song of the Day is “Rake & Rambling Boy” taken from a 2015 single released by Mike & Cara Gangloff (Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, The Great American Drone Orchestra) on The Great Pop Supplement label.
The Black Twig Pickers are back with a new album Rough Carpenters. All those small musical nuances go to make up the unique whole…As Gangloff explains, “It’s not the melody, it’s the moss.”
