On their third album, the Boston quartet pushes the roots music envelope with sass and wit, displaying harmony, hooks and chops for days. Hear about their unique approach, being at home in a liminal space, collaborating with fellow acoustic innovator Casey Driessen, and much more in this conversation from their appearance at the 2024 Earl Scruggs Music Festival.

Twisted Pine performs at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival 08-31-24

Songs heard in this episode:

“Green Flash (feat. Jerry Douglas)” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind

“Peaches en Regalia” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind, excerpt

“Goosebump Feeling” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind, excerpt

“After Midnight (Nothing Good Happens)” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind, excerpt

“Lonestar” by Twisted Pine, from Love Your Mind

Thanks for coming by! We hope you can help spread awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice, so easy! You can find us on Apple here, and Spotify here — hundreds more episodes and many hundreds more artists await you.

From there it takes just a moment to give us a top rating, and where it is an option, a review! It makes a great difference because the more top reviews and ratings we get, the more visible we become to everyone on those platforms, which means that more people just like you connect with artists like Twisted Pine, Casey Driessen, Jerry Douglas and hundreds, literally hundreds more we have profiled that are at your fingertips. Speaking of Jerry Douglas, his episode from 2021 stands the test of time, and you can find that by looking up “It’s Always Roots Music 12 O’Clock With Jerry Douglas” on southernsongsandstories.com, as well as the search feature on your podcast platform of choice. Still to come in the series are artists interviewed at Scruggs Fest and at the last IBMA held in Raleigh, and I know you won’t want to miss those conversations with Lindsay Lou, The Faux Paws, Unspoken Tradition’s Ty Gilpin, author David Menconi and banjo innovator Tray Wellington.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks also to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs — you can link to his music here. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Artist stereotypes do not apply

How many times have parents cringed when their children fell in love with a musician? Let's be honest, the world has looked askance at artists of all stripes (with notable exceptions) for most of our history. Musicians tend to be thought of as people who may be great at their art but who are nonetheless pretty bad at life skills like paying bills, getting to work on time, and sticking with the missus.

Aaron turns all those stereotypes on their head; he is not only a fantastic songwriter and musician, but he also runs his own construction business and is a devoted family man living a stone's throw from where he grew up in the western NC mountains. He is as meticulous and intense about his guitar and ballads as he is about his green built homes and raising his two girls.

As you'll see in our pilot episode, Aaron does both life and art exceptionally well. The folks around him are a big part of that.