Beautiful Birdie
On Myspace Emily 'Birdie' Busch describes her job in Birdie Busch, the Philadelphia folk ensemble, as “word weavin’ and heart on sleavin.” Beyond her artful arrangements and sweet vocals (and that the heart on her sleeve sometimes seems improbably plucky) it's true that her unabashed honesty is what makes her music wonderful.
In 2006 Busch secured a deal with Bar/None records to release her debut album, The Ways We Try with producer Devin Greenwood (whose resume includes Norah Jones and Amos Lee. The album attracted the attention of a slew of Philadelphia musicians as well as the national media and her 2007 sophomore effort, Penny Arcade, confirmed her status as an up and coming folk act, making the iTunes list of top 20 indie records.
This fall Birdie Busch will release a new album, to be mixed this September in Philly. The album will be an expansion of the diversely styled folk that made up her earlier work, but will also explore new directions, highlighting the subtle, artful band that backs her. "It’s a mix of both concise songs with words and also some instrumental things,” says Busch.
The role of her band has been steadily increasing, and the appearance on Penny Arcade of stomping country or jazz-inflected, old-timey moods was an enormous boon to both light-hearted and sober tunes. "Since The Ways We Try I’ve come to really collaborate and work with musicians, both that I play as a band with and record music with, I’ve had time to really simmer and develop sounds with others and think about how the sounds and language and emotions go together and it is still just as fascinating and new."
Busch relies on the endearment of her own raw emotions, laid bare in simple words and melodies. "I feel responsibility and this responsibility could be for something as simple as a turn of phrase that I come up with and I think, ‘no one else is going say this’ I need to say this!” As Devin Greenwood puts it, Busch's music is important because it's "unfiltered by the trends or social factors that often define what people are or aren't listening to, or what they would admit to listening to or what they're 'supposed' to be listening to and so her style is able to emerge unencumbered as it were by these social factors which are inherently unmusical." Word.
Despite the increasing buzz that surrounds her, Birdie Busch still feels intimately local. The band is made up of a rotating cast of local musicians, including Greenwood, and they still play an impressive number of shows at a range of Philly venues. You can see them Sept. 4th at Johnny Brenda's, playing with Matt Bauer. Also, watch for the upcoming album.
