I have only just recently learned about Twang Darkly, but I was still super excited when they showed up at Couch by CouchWest to share their trippy take on mountain music with the world.
Here they are with Spot for the Dragon, from Modal Creatures:
Late Night Listening: a home for things that might be fleeting, might be soothing, might be weird, might be soothing and weird. The blogging equivalent of sitting in the garage twiddling radio knobs just to see what might be out there.
Twang Darkly is Michael Futreal (dulcimer, guitar, banjo, gourdtar, harmonica, flute), Joel Boultinghouse (bass, guitar) and Troy Messina (drums) and they are based in Shreveport, Louisiana. You’ll notice there are no “vocals” in there; they are, indeed, a purely instrumental trio.
And they are really great. Their sound takes elements from multiple traditions, including mountain music, jazz, and folk, and fuses them all together, with delightful results. All of their songs are excellent; I picked these three to share because I liked the titles.
Skinwalker: This one adds some “horror movie” shine to the proceedings, and is both eerie and lovely:
Close to the Spark: For when the autumn nights begin to draw in, or any other time a fire must be built:
Sea Glass is pretty and smooth, and so is this song:
