Steve Gunn and the Black Twig Pickers produced a record this year, Seasonal Hire, that combined the strengths of these champions of the string instrument, with Steve’s guitar work a perfect compliment to the traditional bluegrass stylings of the Twigs. As much as one had to love hearing the record, there weren’t many opportunities for the musicians to show up in the same room again to recreate the stuff live.

This year’s Hopscotch Music Festival solved that for us, as Steve and the Twigs came together — along with Greg Fox on one song (!!!) — to not only play the Seasonal Hire material, but to augment a couple of Gunn’s songs as well. “Old Strange” benefited from that treatment, as did “Shadow Bros,” which closed out the night with a cameo from Fox. The show had the feeling of a reunion onstage and in the crowd; much like the bands, most of their fans around these parts know each other, too. Several artists, as you can see, played seated, and it gave the event a relaxed, inviting and tranquil vibe — a welcome feeling after a long festival day.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from the NC-based master engineer Wayne, together with Audio Technica 4051 microphones. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:



Steve Gunn and the Black Twig Pickers

2015-09-11

Hopscotch Music Festival

Kennedy Theatre

Raleigh, NC USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Wayne) + Audio Technica 4051 (at SBD, DFC, PAS)>Edirol R-44>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, fades, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:05:23]

01 Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down

02 Dive For the Pearl

03 [tuning]

04 Old Strange

05 Cardinal 51

06 [tuning/banter]

07 Trailways Ramble [w/ Greg Fox]

08 Seasonal Hire

09 [banter/tuning2]

10 Shadow Bros

Support Steve Gunn & the Black Twig Pickers by visiting their websites, and buying Seasonal Hire among their many other fine releases.