Quality: CBR 192 kbps
Label: Lune Music, US
01 Birch Bark
02 How The Hours...
03 Five Hundred Keys
04 Easy To Live
05 Coffee Morning
06 Eglantine
07 Train To Rome
08 Leaf Patches On Sidewalks
09 Sleepless Search
10 Warm Wind And Rain
11 Windows
12 Birch Bark
Credits:
B'eirth (Bee): Vocals, guitar, lute (cittern) , piano, recorder, harmonica (mouth harp), jew's harp, harp (folk harp), xylophone, percussion (sundry percussion),
Seth Eames: telecaster electric guitar
Annabel Lee: viola
Moss (Moses): vocal chorus
Victoria: vocal chorus
Birch Book / In Gowan Ring is the mostly one-man project of B'eirth, or simply "Bee", who plays psychedelic folk music in the tradition of Nick Drake and Donovan. He arrived at the station alone with a guitar case and put on a simple but beautiful and mesmerizing set of songs laced with imagery of his travels and meditations in under populated natural locales.
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The songs, twelve in all, of Birch Book, were recorded in New England from 2002 - 2004. It is interesting to note those 21st Century dates on a recording absent of any of the electronics we generally associate with this dawning century. The effect is much more timeless than dated, however, and the album does make some very nice concessions to electricity, most notably the Telecaster guitar playing of Seth Eames. Along with Annabel Lee on Viola, there is a subtle (of course!) but strong counterpoint to Bee's own acoustic guitar and voice. While the gothic/psychedelic folk sounds of his In Gowan Ring work are still there, the group brings out a decidedly "post-rock" element, though still entirely on the mellow extreme side. Fans of Will Oldham's early Palace recordings might well enjoy the Birch Book album quite a bit. I suppose what that really means is that the British folk influences are blended with some more American ones tinged slightly with country and blues instrumentation. Bee's music is in general very reflective, in Birch Book there seems to be a touch of bittersweet melancholy to this reflection.
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