Feather in his Hat

Did you ever notice that there are a lot of people who use some form of the statement; "If/when I ever win the lottery, the first thing I would do is ______" that don't actually purchase lottery tickets?
.
NUMBER 9: Andrew Bird "Armchair Apocrypha"- Andrews talents include glockenspiel, violin, mandolin, whistling..........and oh yeah, guitar.

We move to the mid-west in our global tour of artists because Mr. Bird was born in and still resides in Chicago. He originally had his start with the band "The Squirell Nut Zippers" and then formed his own band called "Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire", which contained a number of talented Chicago musicians but went their own seperate ways peacefully in 2003.

Bird released 2 solo albums in which he worked out some kinks in refining what sounds he could create without backup musicians. Both were critically a success but it's not till this album that Bird has found himself a wide audience.
.
A tossy turn of loopey guitars, mandolins, glockenspiels, piccato violins, and of course a little bit of that signature whistle all seem to make sense in what is now Bird's signature sound. His vocal ability is the finishing touch on a musical delight. Soft, deep and playful, Bird's vocal abilities match his intrumental ability. Without trying too hard Bird matches his instruments perfectly offsetting their melody and coming in with harmony. What comes across is a person who's trying to blend in rather than stand out apart. It gives the music a great understated feel, you can listen to the vocals intently, or they can blend in. The most amazing thing about Bird is that he is a one man band who performs these songs live, jumping from place to place to record and loop his own songs on stage. A true professional at his craft. (Watch him set all the music on the Fiery Crash video recording, then looping, and for the signature whistling!)

The lyrics are perfectly loopey as well. Fiery Crash is a song about fears of terrorism and Imitosis is a song about the differences in aggression in society. Scythian Empire is a bleak view on the confusion in the middle east and Armchairs is a love song simplistically fighting for love through all its twists and turns. They are confusing and actually most of them are about Bird's own confusion on certain topics. I have to read them to put togethor what he is talking about, but even the songs about politics sound romantic.

Heavy strings with an orchestral sound make this album fluid from start to finish and very enjoyable. Its almost a mix of classical-folk-jazz. I like every single song especially Imitosis, Armchair and Cataracts and I can see much more success coming from Mr. Bird. At least, I'll buy it.

Samples: Imitosis, plasticites, fiery crash
Amazon page
Artist Page