Being Renewed Day by Day

I can still remember my dear friend & musical guru, Charis, sitting me down in her room on our hall, 3rd North, to show me a video of the multi-talented musician, Andrew Bird.

We were crouched in front of her little lap-top (most likely around 1am) and were suddenly captured by this pro-whistling, guitar-slinging, violin-plucking, glockenspiel-tapping, perfect-pitch-singing wonder of a musician.

That night stirred me into an admiration for musicians who really PLAY music. I mean PLAY. Not only does he prove his musical talent for instruments, but I would argue that his ability comes out most when he’s on stage putting it all together – a wonderful sort of plalying. That first year of listening to Andrew Bird’s music I saw him play live three times in three different cities: First was June 2005 in St. Louis for a PACKED house at Off Broadway, second in Atlanta that fall at The Eyedrum (again a packed house), and third in Nashville on my way home to St. Louis at The Mercy Lounge that same fall. All three awesome shows. Since then I’ve seen him on a few late shows showing off his newest album: Noble Beast.

If you aren’t familiar with Bird’s music, your first listen will NOT disappoint. And let me tell you, it is no lie when Paste Magazine’s Kate Kiefer warns you to grab a dictionary before trying to decipher the lyrics!

A sampling of A.Bird lyrics:
palindrome
plasticities
radiolarian
aubergine
fratricide
rheostat
machinations
cosmonaut
incandescent
proto-Sanskrit
Cypriot
Uralic
troglobite
plecostomus
anthurium
pleurisy
valerian
dermestid

About a year ago, Bird started a blog on The New York Times website called : Measure for Measure. It is here that he explains how he chooses the words that fill his songs saying, “…writing lyrics becomes like running multiple code-breaking programs in your head until just the right word with just the right number of syllables, tone of vowel and finally some semblance of meaning all snap into place.”

So you can see that not only is he giving plenty of thought and practice to the melodies, harmonies, and parts of each instrument, but the words – both their combination & rhymes – are just as important to the wholeness of the songs.

“That’s part of the fun with Andrew Bird, the songs are so well-crafted, music and words so inextricably connected, that the songs are both beautiful objects to be admired as well as puzzles to be unlocked.” -Gavin Breeden

The release of Noble Beast and the kick-off to the album’s tour started with a concert at the historic Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 28th. Bob Boilen at NPR gave me my first listen to the new album while I waited for my download on iTunes. It’s a great album. Lives up to his last release, but involves a little more creativity in the percussion department. I would also agree with the compliments on his vocals which are all rich and lilting throughout the album. Three stand-out tracks to me are: “Fitz and the Dizzyspells,” “Tenuousness,” and “Not a Robot, But a Ghost.” His imagination is as deep and wide as any 8-year-old, but his years of training as a musician give way to sound maturity. Comparing the sound of this album with the previous, I would say that it’s a fuller sound – more production in what feels like a larger space. Armchair Apocrypha, to me, has a more intimate production quality. There may even be less whistling & glockenspiel in this new album – more guitar & violin. Maybe “Effigy” is the most characteristic to me on Noble Beast of that layering process that Bird uses in his live shows -the transitions from one melody to the next and then the connection in the end. The key is that Bird is growing as an artist and yet stays true to his own style; one that I haven’t heard repeated.

**Check out the A.mazhing Archive.org for some FREE Downloads of Andrew Bird’s music. click here for my favorite show**

Next Time: On the Big Screen: The Class – This film, nominated for this year’s Academy Awards as Best Foreign Film, is playing at the AFI and as soon as I see it, I’ll let you know how I like it!