Birds of Play/Birdsongs of the American West/independent
Four out of Five Stars
With their fourth album, Birdsongs of the American West, Birds of Play an Americana roots quartet based in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado, reprise their vintage approach in both tone and temperament. The band features multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Alex Paul on guitar and mandolin, Eric Shedd on bass, mandolin, and guitar, Anneke Deanon on violin, and Jake Tolan on guitar and mandolin. All four members share the vocal duties equally. Over the course of their combined four-year career, they’ve established a reliable reputation courtesy of a generally unassuming sound, and earthy attitude.
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The new album affirms that finesse, a series of elegiac offerings woven together through a series of plucks and strums, all invested with a simple sashay. The comforting caress shared by “Texture,” “Numbers and Names,” “Breathe,” “Exhale,” “On the Eve of Adam’s Redress,” and “Paradox of Choice” in particular hint at worldly wisdom and their own effortless assurance. Consequently, the songs take some time to sink in, but the time taken is well worth it. The music is firmly entrenched in tradition and the environs they call home. It’s both supple and sturdy, all unabashed anthems flush with promise and perseverance. The music is conveyed sans pomp and pretension but still sounds decidedly determined.
That’s not to say the band fails to opt for connection in pursuit of commitment. The songs are alluring and engaging, a point easily established courtesy of “Aftermath,” with its plucky fiddle-fueled delivery; “Peace,” which starts at an otherwise low-key level, only to accelerate in tempo once the proceedings get underway; the beautiful ballad “Linden and Oak”; and the sweetly swaying instrumental “Stargazer. ” All aim to establish a more contemplative embrace and succeed as a result. Then again, this is a sound that generally eschews most modern mores. That’s what gives the album its understated charm and makes repeated listens a good investment in
“My oh my, what a lovely day,” they declare on the aforementioned “On the Eve of Adam’s Redress.” With Birdsongs of the American West, they give that notion its own singular soundtrack.
Courtesy McGuckin Entertainment