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Magic Twig Community

• Friends of Magic Twig focus on music (Nov. 7, 2008)
• Cause of fire still unknown (Jan. 8, 2008)

January was a chaotic time for musicians who kept their gear in rehearsal spaces at the old Ideal Laundry and Dry Cleaning Co. building on Church Avenue.

On the night of Jan. 3, the multistory converted warehouse mysteriously caught fire, destroying thousands of dollars in musical equipment and covering thousands of dollars' worth more in soot, water and smoke residue. Making it worse, the building was immediately condemned, and for 10 days, people couldn't go inside to retrieve instruments that hadn't been destroyed.

Flash forward nearly a year, to another large building, this one a single-story labyrinth in Southwest Roanoke. It's full of many of those same musicians and much of that equipment, in a setup that would make a visitor think they've been there for years.

The Magic Twig Community bands, The Bastards of Fate and the Situationist adapted quickly.

In fact, the roughly 20 musicians in their 20s and 30s really don't even like talking about what happened back then. It's what they're doing now that counts, they say.

"I think we've all improved with the music and the creativity since then," Magic Twig member Daniel Cundiff said.

"And as friends," Bastards of Fate bassist Jason Wells said.

That doesn't mean they've forgotten about the people who helped them through that time. Fundraising concerts brought good vibes and some money, though not nearly enough to make a dent in the estimated $52,000 in equipment that the Bastards of Fate and the Situationist lost (Magic Twig gear required only a serious cleanup).

Some performers gave gear to the bands.

And of course, there was the issue of getting a replacement spot for the long-dilapidated warehouse that the bands had called their musical home for at least the previous couple of years. The musicians weren't the only ones who faced that problem -- other working shops were also housed in the building on the 700 block of Church Avenue.

James Hooper, 57, who works with both cabinets and concrete, owns one of those businesses. Hooper lost about $1,200 in equipment and at least $2,000 in downtime while he looked for a new location.

When he found one, near Raleigh Court, he realized there was enough room to bring in the bands.

"A band has to be somewhere when they're not on a job," Hooper said. "They have to practice. They have to socialize, and they need somewhere to get away from the home scene. ... It seems to me like they enjoy themselves."

He's got that right. You can tell just by looking around the Magic Twigs' portion of the building.

Posters of country-rock legend Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan, Big Bird and a velvet unicorn painting break up space where vintage gear hangs from the wall or stands on the floor.

The focal point, though, is a mixing board and a 16-track tape machine. As a reporter and photographer settle in, a song by the Sad Cobras, a Magic Twig act, is spinning through the reel-to-reel.

The song is a slow wash of multi-tracked keyboards rolling over each other in waves. Bass guitar emerges, picked trebly, as a round of measures resolves into Paige Hodges' atmospheric, back-of-the-palate vocals, a synth melody and strummed electric guitar rising in the mix.

This is a busy collective. The Bastards of Fate are finishing a new record. The Situationist, which lost half of a record project in the fire, is working to finish the task.

The Young Sinclairs -- John Thompson, Cundiff, Sean Poff, Jonathan Woods and Sam Lunsford -- put out one self-produced album, then got themselves signed to Athens, Ga.,-based Kindercore Records. "The Songs of the Young Sinclairs" will be Kindercore's first release of 2009, said Hodges, who doubles as the community's publicist and also works at Total Action Against Poverty.

All this is springing from a space where Bastards of Fate keyboardist Camellia Delk doesn't have to worry about vagrants and vandals when she goes to the restroom. Hooper said that his space in the Church Avenue warehouse was twice burglarized. The new place is fenced in, with a secure gate.

"The entities here are a more cogent, more amenable group," he said. In the old space, "We had a lot of people walking in with an agenda. They wanted to drink and they wanted someplace to shelter. ... We're not immune to that in the new location, but it does seem to promise a lot less traffic."

All the better for players such as Delk, perhaps the hardest-working musician in Roanoke, to rehearse her keyboard and violin parts. All the better for brothers Sam and Joe Lunsford to beat up on drums, mandolins and guitars. All the better to create music that might help these talented musicians get to a point where they can finally quit their day jobs.

Poff, of the Sinclairs, the Missionaries, Rootstone Jug Band and probably one or two other acts, summed up this collective's feelings about the year that was.

"When it's all said and done," Poff said, "we're here, we're happy, and we're doing so much better stuff now that we're at this place."

And they're insured.