Tall Tall Trees is the musical id of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Savino, a pioneer in the realm of experimental, DIY banjo music. Accompanied by his trusty Banjotron 6500, a highly customized, electrified banjo and effects pedal setup, Savino has wowed audiences since the 2009 debut of his self-titled album with his eclectic and innovative blend of psychedelic folk, rock and world music. His work seems to actively evade comfortable definition, upon first listen one will recognize the tenderness of Cat Stevens, the melancholy introspection of Elliott Smith, the anthemic psychedelia of Pink Floyd, and a deep abiding respect for Earl Scruggs. Savino often performs solo, showcasing his fleet-footed loop pedal mastery, as well as alongside long-time collaborator and fellow innovator, Kishi Bashi. He has recently collaborated with fellow psych-banjo maestro JD Pinkus of the Butthole Surfers, releasing Ponder Machine, a psychedelic banjo opus on the Shimmy Disc label. Tall Tall Trees latest release and 5th LP, Stick to the Mystical I, featuring a collaboration with Josiah Wolf of the band Why? is out September 8th, 2023 on Joyful Noise Recordings.

Mike Savino had big plans for getting through the pandemic with his sanity intact. He built a recording studio in the basement of his home in Asheville, North Carolina, setting himself up to lay down the tracks for a new album. To help see them across the finish line, Savino invited longtime friend and drummer of indie rock mainstays WHY? Josiah Wolf to help him out. But once they set up their gear and started playing together, everything changed.

“I had a bunch of songs, but we didn’t use any of those at all,” Savino remembers. “We were so into improvising that we just started recording until we stumbled onto something that excited us both and chased that. Josiah’s knack for quirky and experimental beats brought me into places I’d never go alone.”

Rather than fight the creative tide, Savino and Wolf went with the flow. What came out of these sessions at Savino’s home studio, affectionately called GalleyTapes, was Stick to the Mystical I, a playful collection of songs that pulls liberally from the pair’s collective influences — folk, jazz, pop, hip-hop, noise rock — and ties all those strands together into one delirious psychedelic bundle. Savino, with his heavily modified 6-string electric banjo, is a master of looping textures, creating the perfect foil to Josiah’s explosive improvisatory drumming.

The bulk of the music on Stick to the Mystical I came about in spontaneous bursts, some of them built from first-take improvisations that they would then shape into the finished material heard on the album. It’s a new way of working for Savino, especially, who admits to being something of a perfectionist when it comes to his music.