I go through phases of music obsession, and currently my Andrew Bird obsession is returning. Although he hasn’t released an album in a year, his last album, titled Noble Beast, is pretty much amazing. He produced it himself. His other albums are good too, especially The Mysterious Production of Eggs and Armchair Apocrypha. I think my favorite songs of his are “Imitosis”, which has a catchy hook and kind of seductive tone, and “Fake Palindromes”, arguably his most famous song to date. “Fake Palindromes” has all the hints of folk, singer-songwriting, and rock too.

Andrew Bird grew up in Illinois learning to play the violin among other instruments, and he went to college for violin. He is multi-talented in songwriting, singing, guitar, violin, mandolin, whistling, and even playing the glockenspiel. He claims his influence is Gypsy, early jazz, blues, South Indian, and he went to college for violin. He’s been putting out albums since 1998, but it seems as if he really didn’t hit it big until The Mysterious Production of Eggs in 2005, and followed up in 2007 with Armchair Apocrypha. I like the description The New York Times gives him, “Mr. Bird spins existential doubts into elegant confections.”

One of his unique qualities that make him so famous is his live show. He is an excellent performer, and he changes all his songs up every time he plays them. He changes his sets frequently and the arrangements of his songs. See him live if you can and buy his albums on Amazon. He’ll be at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on July 31st and at the Guggenheim in NYC on August 5th, catch him there!

-Whitney J. Manson