Photo by Kristin Karch
Following the announcement of their new album and Thrill Jockey debut Needlefall, out March 22nd, Magic Tuber Stringband share new single “Twelfth House.” Dovetailing rich American music traditions of primitive guitar and fiddle music, the duo here demonstrates their fluency in myriad folk forms, expanding on the living musical traditions of the Appalachian region.
Recorded in a single session with minimal overdubs, Courtney Werner and Evan Morgan’s arcing melodies seem truly alive, with rich interlocking fiddle and guitar figures that duck and weave around each other in a constant mesmeric dance, invoking freewheeling bird formations. Werner elaborates on writing the track: “I wrote Twelfth House for fiddle…I tried to take a fingerstyle guitar composition approach for fiddle and write the primary part. For me that meant repeating phrases, rhythmic bowing across strings, double stops and chorded shapes.”
Needlefall exemplifies the diversity of contemporary folk movements, placing Magic Tuber Stringband’s work in the tradition of modern innovators like Moondog, Harry Partch, 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.
