If you’ve made your way to the Texas Avenue Makers Fair, the Shreveport Farmers’ Market or the Red River Revel Arts Festival this year, there’s a good chance you heard some bluegrass music while you were there via Shreveport band Twang Darkly.
The trio was founded by multi-instrumentalist and North Carolina native Michael Futreal and includes Troy Messina on drums and Joel Boultinghouse on bass and guitar. Their talents meld together to create a unique sound they describe as “original and improvisational Appalachian fusion instrumental progressive roots rock music for dulcimer, banjo, guitar and what-not.” That “what not” includes Futreal on a range of instruments from harmonica and flute to dulcimer and gourdtar.
Hear it all come together when the band celebrates their new album, Mojo Fix, with a CD Release Shindig, 10 p.m., Dec. 7 at Bear’s. The event will include live performances, copies of the new album’s limited “Get Your Gourd” edition, as well as Twang Darkly work shirts.
Mojo Fix is available now for download. The album features 13 songs filled with the kind of deep down, heartwarming, backwoods flavor that makes it easy to see why The Forum named Twang Darkly as one of their “10 Must-See Acts That Will Make your Summer Sizzle” last June.
So just where exactly does a name like ‘Twang Darkly’ come from? “Twang Darkly is the name of an imaginary ‘spaghetti western’ character who has been roaming around in my head for years,” Futreal said. “In 2010, I recorded a song called ‘Twang Darkly Comes to Town,’ for a solo cd, Devil’s Stomping Ground. It wasn’t too long after that I formed the band, and the name seemed to fit.”
Check them out live in this video of the single “Gourdtown” from their new album.
