Twisted Pine: All Over the Bluegrass, Swing, Folk, and Standards Map
Frank Gutch Jr.
Posted On January 20, 2018
Not that they play the standards — not on this record, anyway — but they damn well could if they wanted to. Twisted Pine’s latest album almost got past me but I was lucky and grabbed it just before it went under the bridge. I wasn’t sure when I started listening but by the end of the album all I could think was I want to see these guys live. They walk a fine line between country, bluegrass, and swing with touches of ’30s and ’40s harmonies thrown in for good measure, and it is a potent combination, largely due to the musicianship. I mean, it is easy enough to follow the trippy vocals and harmonies but when you lay them over stellar picking, it is pure magic.
I mean, I was digging it until they got to “I Miss Talking,” which waylaid me enough to want to play it again and maybe again, but I didn’t just because I had to hear what came next. It was a tough decision, rectified as soon as the album ended when I clicked on it a few times just to make sure I had heard right. I had.
If that isn’t The Living Sisters territory, I don’t know what is. Grabbed my ears and dragged me 20 yards. Have you ever heard The Living Sisters? Listen to this.
Hear it? The harmonies? Am I wrong or do they parallel one another? Not that they do except for the two songs, but I love stuff like that. And Twisted Pine does it very well. Extremely well. That’s not the only thing they do extremely well, either. They jam. They really jam.
https://twisted-pine.bandcamp.com/track/hogwild
What an album! I take this one in my car. Nothing like battling freeway traffic with music like this. Anybody gets in my way and I’m steamrolling them, speakers on full blast.
I wish there were more bands like this. There probably are, I’m thinking, but these guys do it better than most. On my list to see live. At the top, in fact.
