B-Side Guys

Joseph Decosimo’s three-year-old son still bops to “Billy Button,” which tells you everything about how traditional folk material can bridge generational gaps when handled with proper reverence and creative audacity. The Durham-based musician’s approach to this North Georgia banjo song demonstrates how electrification can serve preservation rather than betraying it.

M.C. Taylor’s original prompt about giving old-time fiddle music “an Albion Country Band / Fairport Convention sort of treatment” finds perfect expression here. Decosimo and his collaborators—including members of Wye Oak, Fust, Elephant Micah, and Beirut—understand that honoring traditional source material doesn’t require museum-piece recreation. Instead, they treat the song as living organism capable of adaptation without losing essential character.

Andy Stack’s production sensibilities, honed through Wye Oak’s dynamic range, create sonic space that accommodates both historical authenticity and contemporary experimentation. The electrified banjo inspired by Abner Jay cuts through the mix without overwhelming the song’s nursery rhyme logic, while spacious electric guitar work provides atmospheric depth that traditional arrangements couldn’t access.

Decosimo’s connection to Jake Xerxes Fussell and Art Rosenbaum’s folklorist documentation creates a traceable lineage from Mary Ruth Moore’s original performance through multiple generations of interpretation. This isn’t appropriation but continuation, each performer adding their own sensibilities while maintaining respect for the material’s origins.

The track’s “nursery rhyme surrealism” operates through accumulation rather than linear narrative. Decosimo allows the song’s trippy imagery and tongue-twister elements to work on listeners subconsciously, understanding that folk material often communicates through repetition and rhythm rather than logical progression.

What distinguishes this version from typical folk revival approaches is Decosimo’s willingness to let electric elements coexist with traditional ones without forcing synthesis. The result feels both ancient and immediate, suggesting that some songs contain enough inherent power to survive any number of interpretive approaches.