Brown Bird was an American

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

group, originally formed in 2003 in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

as a solo project by David Lamb. Adding and changing its membership over time, the band's final incarnation was the duo of Lamb and his wife MorganEve Swain. The band ceased in 2014 following Lamb's death from leukemia.

History

Lamb formed Brown Bird in 2003 in

but moved soon thereafter to Portland, Maine. The line-up soon included Jerusha Robinson on

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and her husband Jeremy Robinson on multiple instruments. The Robinsons left the group in 2009, leaving Lamb, MorganEve Swain on

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, and Mike Samos on

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...

and

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

in the line-up. In 2010, with the departure of Samos, the band became a duo. Brown Bird played the

Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...

for the first time in 2011 and were based in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

at the time. They have toured with The Devil Makes Three. Brown Bird went on hiatus in early 2013 after David Lamb was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. Lamb died from the disease on April 5, 2014. In April 2015 Brown Bird released their final album, ''Axis Mundi'', produced by MorganEve Swain. Most of Axis Mundi was written and demoed while David was recuperating at home from his bone marrow transplant. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard Heatseeker Chart. MorganEve continues to record and release music, now under the name ''The Huntress and the Holder of Hands''. In 2021, Brown Bird's "Bilgewater" was featured as the theme song of the Syfy television series ''

Resident Alien In law, an alien is generally any person (including an organization) who is not a citizen or a national of a specific country, although definitions and terminology differ across legal systems. Lexicology The term "alien" is derived from the L ...

''.

Musical style

Brown Bird is influenced by

American folk music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...

, Gypsy music, and bluegrass. The band crosses many genres and cites their inspiration as the music they love including Middle-Eastern psych-rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s, intricate post-metal, and the music of the Balkan gypsies. According to Aimsel Ponti of the ''

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald'' (abbreviated as ''PPH''; Sunday edition ''Maine Sunday Telegram'') is a daily newspaper based in South Portland, Maine, with a statewide readership. The ''Press Herald'' mainly serves southern Maine and is focused ...

'' " eir sound is one that lives on the darker side of American folk, ensconced in Eastern European roots music."

Works

*''Tautology'' (2007) *''Such Unrest'' (Spring 2007) * ''Bottom of the Sea'' (2008) * ''The Devil Dancing'' (2009) * ''The Sound of Ghosts'' (EP, March 2011) * ''Salt for Salt'' (October 2011) * ''Fits of Reason'' (April 2013) * ''The Teeth of Sea and Beasts - The Poetry of Brown Bird'' (Book, April 2014) * ''The Brown Bird Christmas Album'' (November 2014) * ''Axis Mundi'' (April 2015)

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control American folk musical groups Musical groups established in 2003 Musical groups from Portland, Maine Musical groups from Providence, Rhode Island Musical groups from Seattle Musical groups disestablished in 2014

History

Musical style

Works

References

Further reading

External links