The Crozet Tunnel is a fascinating recent release via Notice Recordings and a collaboration between two great North Carolina projects.
Magic Tuber Stringband, comprising Evan Morgan and Courtney Werner, channels the spirit of Appalachian music with an intriguing twist, blending traditional playing styles with modern drones and song-centered structures.
The result is a series of rich, organic compositions that flow like rivers through a lush soundscape, grounding listeners in a cathartic experience. Their counterpart, Weirs (Justin Morris and Oliver Child-Lanning), brings a more eclectic mix, rooted in that same fertile intersection between old and new that’s been flourishing across the mid- and south-Atlantic.
Recorded live in Virginia’s pitch-black Crozet Tunnel, this album captures the raw energy of four musicians communing with the tunnel’s acoustics and each other. The voices—strong, grounded, and vibrato-free—carry a weight that feels ancestral, especially on the opening track, “Bright Morning Star.”
This song, originally a Masonic hymn that entered the folk canon, offers an evocative balance of tenderness and gravity. The vocals hover somewhere between sorrow and solace, flirting with dissonance before settling into moments of genuine warmth. It’s a sound rooted in tradition but alive with immediacy, each phrase and note resonating with a timeless, understated power.
The tunnel’s natural reverb is not just a backdrop but a defining presence, shaping the music’s resonance and transforming each note into a kind of topographical feature.
Side B takes this spatial exploration a step further, featuring an altered re-recording of the music from Side A, captured under a dome near a science museum. Here, the music melds with ambient sounds—bird calls, insects, a child’s distant laughter—creating a living, breathing soundscape.
The result is immersive, an audio journey that feels more intimate than performative, inviting the listener to experience the deep connection between sound and place. The musicians’ lighthearted reference to Side B as a “dub version” reflects the playfulness and openness of their approach, as well as their willingness to explore the profound intersections between tradition, experimentation, and environment.
Fans of experimental folk/ambient like The Modern Folk Trio Band and Johnny Bell will certainly love this and be entranced by the otherworldly sounds that are grounded in Appalachia but add a haunting and evocative twist.
Check out The Crozet Tunnel by Weirs and Magic Tuber Stringband on Bandcamp here.
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