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(2003) REDBIRD is both the name of an album
and a loose affiliation of three American songwriters that began
to take shape during a common tour experience. In January of 2003,
KRIS DELMHORST, JEFFREY FOUCAULT, and PETER MULVEY did a run of
shows together in England. Thanks to excellent routing, they found
themselves with a few hours at a hotel every afternoon, and without
fail they engaged in an off-the-cuff song circle. (Nighttime after
gigs was reserved for poker.) Across the tour, they discovered
musical affinity and a shared love of a fairly diverse spectrum
of Americana.
It was a no-brainer to do a record, but in keeping with the spontaneous nature of their original sessions, they did it in a living room, around one microphone, in three days in August of 2003. What emerged is a love letter to the body of American song. The members enlisted the talents of multi-instrumentalist David "Goody" Goodrich, and became multi-instrumentalists themselves. The bulk of the record speaks from the common tongue of music: traditional tunes, old jazz standards, country songs, and things that blur the line between those forms. Kris and Peter also swapped covers, backed Jeffrey on one of his originals, and they all lent their instrumental skills to a Goodrich composition. There are also a handful of songs by contemporary writers who are well entangled in the great briar patch of this music.
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