Monday, May 12, 2014

Andrew Bird announces summer tour, Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of... out June 3


“Bird is a force”—The Huffington Post
“[Listeners] will walk away amazed at the kind of sounds he can spring from a violin”Los Angeles Times
Andrew Bird will embark on a North American tour this summer with his band Hands of Glory (Tift MerrittAlan Hampton (bass), Eric Heywood, (pedal steel) Kevin O'Donnell (drums)) including dates at SummerstageTelluride, and Bonnaroo. The tour begins June 6th with a special live appearance on Studio 360 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and two intimate shows at Rough Trade NYC onJune 7. Tickets for Rough Trade go on-sale Friday, May 16 at 12 p.m. EST. The tour will celebrate the release of Bird’s collection of The Handsome Family covers, Things are Really Great Here, Sort Of... out June 3. The album is available for pre-order here.
The Handsome Family is husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks, who have collaborated as a couple for more than 20 years. The band has garnered widespread clinical acclaim, Spin says “The songs are an effortless blend of vintage country and pre-rock ‘n’ roll pop, but New Mexico’s Handsome Family are no cutesy nostalgia act.” Bird, who has long been a fan and first covered their track “Don’t Be Scared” in 2003, toured with the band last fall and began working on this collection. Things are Really Great Here, Sort Of... includes an updated rendition of “Don’t Be Scared,” along with “Far From Any Road,” the main title theme song for the HBO series True Detective. Watch The Handsome Family perform their track “So Much Wine” with Bird in Santa Barbara last fall here.
The new album follows Bird’s 2013 release of the 7 track EP I Want to See Pulaski at Night, and his 2012 release Hands of Glory, which was dubbed to be “A quiet, careful grower…it blooms into something beautiful.” by NPR, while gaining praise from Rolling Stone, calling Bird a man whose “emotional urgency energizes his fluid multi-instrumental elocution.”
Chicago-based film score composer, multi-instrumentalist and lyricist, Andrew Bird, picked up his first violin at the age of four and spent his formative years soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear. As a teen Bird became interested in a variety of styles including early jazz, country blues and gypsy music, synthesizing them into his unique brand of pop. Since beginning his recording career in 1997 he has released 11 albums, his first solo record Weather Systems coming in 2003. Bird has gone on to record with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Most recently Bird composed his first ever film score for the movie Norman (hailed as “a probing, thoughtful score” by The New York Times; available now on Mom + Pop), contributed to the soundtrack of The Muppetsand collaborated with inventor Ian Schneller on Sonic Arboretum, an installation at New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
ANDREW BIRD TOUR DATES
June 6                  Studio 360 WNYC Radio Love Fest at BAM Harvey Theater      Brooklyn, NY
June 7                                                         Rough Trade                                             Brooklyn, NY
June 8                                                       Lincoln Theatre                                       Washington, DC
June 9                                                       Lincoln Theatre                                       Washington, DC
June 10                                                        Cat’s Cradle                                              Carrboro, NC
June 12                                                        Orange Peel                                              Asheville, TN
June 13                                                          Bonnaroo                                           Manchester, TN
June 15                                                     Cain’s Ballroom                                                Tulsa, OK
June 16                                               The Paramount Theater                                        Austin, TX
June 20                                                        Chautauqua                                                Boulder, CO
June 21                                                           Telluride                                                 Telluride, CO
July 2                                                         Power Center                                          Ann Arbor, MI
July 4                                               Toronto Urban Roots Fest                                   Toronto, ON
July 5                                                     Ottawa Blues Fest                                           Ottawa, ON
July 6                                                            Jazz Fest                                                Montreal, QC
July 8                                                          Summerstage                                           New York, NY
July 10                              Spaulding Auditorium at the Hopkins Center                    Hanover, NH
July 11                                                          The Klein                                             Bridgeport, CT
July 12                                           Lowell Summer Music Series                                   Lowell, MA
July 18                                                 Vancouver Folk Fest                                     Vancouver, BC
July 24                                                    Calgary Folk Fest                                            Calgary, AB
July 26                                                    Interstellar Rodeo                                       Edmonton, AB
August 1                                              Henry Miller Library                                         Big Sur, CA
August 2                                                 Mountain Winery                                          Saratoga, CA
August 3                                              Sigmund Stern Grove                               San Francisco, CA
September 19                                              Humphrey’s                                            San Diego, CA
September 21                                          Hollywood Bowl                                     Los Angeles, CA
Visit the official Andrew Bird website (http://www.andrewbird.net/home/) for additional resources.

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