Sunday Music Spotlight - The Bowerbirds

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to see and band and had the pleasure of discovering something entirely new. That’s just what happened to me this week though. Aaron and I went to see Sunday Music Spotlight graduates The Rosebuds down in DC. Opening for them was a band I’d never heard of called The Bowerbirds.

I was worried when they were setting up for their set and all I saw was a guy with an acoustic guitar and a hight-hat (with a tambourine attached to it), a chica with an accordion, and a guy with a violin and bass drum. Not a combination of instruments you see very often. The accordion instantly made me think they were a polka band. Or that the woman was an orphaned gypsy fulfilling her father’s dream of enlightening America with his family’s unique accordion style. My skepticism grew when they had all sorts of problems setting up their mics. I was prepared for a debacle of epic proportions. Then they started playing…

Think Iron & Wine meets Jeff Buckley meets Nickel Creek. The strange combination of instruments worked beautifully, with fingerpicked guitar keeping both rhythm and melody and the accordion and violin adding haunting harmonies. Speaking of harmonies, I can’t remember the last time I heard such tight harmonies during a live performance. Despite some issues starting and ending songs I was simply blown away.

So I picked up their CD Hymns for a Dark Horse at the show. And when I listened to it I was blown away again. The arrangements are tight. The harmonies are tighter. And the melodies are strange and familiar. It’s actually hard to believe these guys haven’t been around very long. My only complaint about the CD is that there’s a bit of a lack of variety in the songs. Luckily they’re consistently good.

This is the point where I typically talk about the band’s background, members, etc. But I’m feeling lazy tonight, so here’s their bio from Burly Time Records’ site about them:

Phil Moore and Mark Paulson had moved east from Iowa to form a band, Ticonderoga. In Raleigh, Phil met Beth Tacular–a collected and published painter. Both were weary from the recent collapse of their long term relationships but saw something special in each other. Not long before Ticonderoga disinegrated on tour somewhere in Alabama, Phil and Beth moved in together.

While taking a summer job in the swamps of South Carolina, Phil and Beth painted pictures and wrote songs and sang them. They started Bowerbirds and asked Mark to join them whenever possible.

Now, on to the music:

Bowerbirds - Bur Oak

I love the harmonies in the chorus (starting about 2 minutes in). And I love some of the little twists in the melody. Sometimes it seems like it’s going one way but goes in a different direction. I like being surprised. This is a fairly complicated song musically, and it shows a lot of maturity in songwriting. Very impressive.

Bowerbirds - In Our Talons

This was the best song live, and probably the best song on the CD.

Links:
Official Site
MySpace page
Buy Hymns for a Dark Horse