Brown Bird

Brown Bird

Axis Mundi

Supply And Demand Music

Brown Bird’s final album of original material, Axis Mundi, is a sixteen-song collection written by the beloved Rhode Island husband-and-wife duo of David Lamb and MorganEve Swain during Lamb’s year-long battle with leukemia. It was finished by Swain after Lamb’s passing last Spring. “Axis Mundi is the album that Dave and I wrote during the year of his battle with leukemia,” explains Swain. “Excluding ‘Tortured Boy,’ which I wrote for him in the first stage of our relationship, these songs were written in the months leading up to his diagnosis, and the months following his bone marrow transplant, when he was confined to our home. As long as he felt well enough to be working, he was. He would spend hours in our home studio, meticulously recording and rerecording his parts—full drums, guitar, vocals and percussion ideas... This album is different from our others in that it is, in many ways, the album we always wanted to make. It is fuller, louder and more rock-inspired than our previous efforts, while still holding tight to the Middle-Eastern and Eastern European influences we’d become known for. We’d intended to record at home during Dave’s recovery, and release and tour on it when he was well enough to get back on the road.” Lamb fell ill while touring behind the band’s 2013 release Fits of Reason. Following his diagnosis, an outpouring of fans and friends from across the globe came to the pair’s aid and offered enduring support. Brown Bird released five albums...

Brown Bird

Fits Of Reason

Supply And Demand Music

Thomas Paine once said, “reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” Fits of Reason, the new self-produced album by Brown Bird, raises its hat to Mr. Paine in a flurry of cerebral themes that surface in the album’s eleven songs. The band’s two members, David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, build their sound from the foundations of blues and American roots music, using the simple foot-percussion, violin, cello and upright bass for which they are known, while expanding Swain’s vocal presence and flaunting Lamb’s lyrical mastery. Recorded in their home-state of Rhode Island at Machines With Magnets, Fits of Reason is inspired by the writings of Omar Khayyam, Christopher Hitchens and Plato, among others, and grapples with the human condition in a smooth but unapologetic departure from the band’s previous release, Salt for Salt. With the introduction of electric guitar and electric bass, and a more prominent display of the band’s Middle Eastern, metal and psych-rock influences, Fits of Reason delves into heavier territory and invites the listener to hear with discerning ears. Brown Bird spent most of 2012 on the road, supporting Trampled by Turtles, The Devil Makes Three, Yonder Mountain String Band and Horse Feathers, and wowed the crowd at the Newport Folk Festival with their first main-stage appearance. The band will continue criss-crossing the US in 2013, with a full US tour planned in April and an appearance scheduled at the Sasquatch Festival.

Brown Bird

Salt For Salt

Supply And Demand Music

***Recorded live to tape in Pawtucket, RI, Salt For Salt is the first album by BROWN BIRD to capture the intense energy of the duo's live show, surging in waves that often swell into high-spirited, foot-stomping madness. DAVID LAMB's lyrics are as well-written as they are emotionally intelligent, thankfully avoiding the pitfalls of the wish-wash known as "modern-folk" or "singer-songwriting". Lamb and his partner MORGANEVE SWAIN write simply, and the record is eerily sparse at times—a tambourine, a bass drum and the cello often the sole accompaniement to Lamb's cracked, wood-smoke voice. Brown Bird are also not afraid to write experimentally— "Ebb and Flow" and "Shiloh" (the latter a longer, entirely instrumental track) each boast melodies worthy of a dervish, the melodic structure reminiscent more of Turkish or Greek rebetika than old-time or bluegrass. Lamb's continual reference to ships clearly come from his years spent working at the shipyard in Warren, RI, just as their arrangements well only from a deep knowledge of the American folk tradition. A cantankerous and drafty two-man ship stationed in Providence, RI, Brown Bird plays original, traditional American music in the best sense possible. It is music that comes from a context but is not afraid of the context: a living root with a view towards the leaves. (STREET DATE - 10/18/2011)

Brown Bird

Sound Of Ghosts

Supply And Demand Music

Brown Bird has a tendency towards the dark side. Pulling from the influences of the blues, outlaw country, roots rock, early American folk, Gypsy and Eastern European music, they offer harmonized voices, haunting lyrics and diverse rhythm and instrumentation, which surges in waves that often swell into high-spirited, foot-stomping madness.  Brown Bird began in 2003, while singer/ songwriter David Lamb (guitar, banjo, percussion, vocals) was living in Seattle. Lamb has since toured across the country multiple times, and now resides in Rhode Island with his partner MorganEve Swain (vocals, fiddle, cello, upright bass).  Since the 2009 release of their fourth album, The Devil Dancing, Brown Bird has toured extensively in the US, and supported The Low Anthem on tour across Europe. The duo is currently working on their fifth full-length to be released this fall.