“I really like the thought that the memories and feelings of my two best friends are now connected in these children’s toys – just like my songs came together into one album,” confessed Janie Price, known under the concise and flying pseudonym Bird, talking about the cover of her new record. In the photograph, there are old stuffed toys that belonged to two different people in their childhood, and after the wedding ended up on the same shelf in the living room. In this accidental, at first glance, sketch from the home of her Danish friends lies the main key to understanding her new album “Held Here Together”. The recording was also made not according to plan, but from fragments and scraps: two EPs, three new songs, and a year of life that accumulated by itself and one day asked to come out. In working on the album, Bird was helped by artists whose names sound like a short course in the history of British rock: Andy Dunlop from Travis, Ally McErlaine from Texas, Hal Lindes from Dire Straits. It would seem that with such a constellation of co-authors, it is easy to lose one’s voice, to dissolve in someone else’s mastery. But with Bird, the opposite happens – each guest adapts to her intonation, helps her finish her thought. She managed to gather strong musicians around herself and remain absolutely recognizable.
Everything was recorded across three continents depending on the mood = in Bird’s home studio in Tuscany, in Nashville, and in Austin. In the sound of the album, there is something of Italian leisureliness, of Nashville craftsmanship of country ballads, and something of Texas dusty directness. Bird and her team remixed some of the tracks from the previous EP specifically for this release, as well as three completely new songs. Now “Held Here Together” sounds like a single narrative. Bird’s music possesses a rare quality: you listen to it, and the imagination instantly paints images. The first half of the album unfolds like a retro film strip.
And the prologue to this movie is the first single “The Film” from the second EP “Strange As Folk”. Written in solitude, it sets the tone for the entire narrative: intimate chamber folk, beautiful string and bowed parts float throughout the track. Bird’s vocals move softly and precisely, gliding inside a carefully constructed sonic form. Another familiar piece, “The Boy And The Swan”, continues the line of fragile storytelling. A fairytale-like, but devoid of naivety ballad, created in co-authorship with Justin DeGryse and Jens Dolleslagers. In it, one can hear the melancholy of the European North, finely interwoven with Janie’s signature string arrangements. “Winter Rose”, one of the three new songs of the release, looks successful on the album. Thanks to the co-authorship with Ross Bell and Nick Southwood, the authors offer an interesting contrast: the frosty freshness of the title melts under the onslaught of an incredibly warm, enveloping melody.
Photo by Stefania Besancon
Next is “Havana Garden” – southern warmth against the winter restraint of “Winter Rose”. A languid, “caramel” song with a graceful arrangement fascinates. The first side, exploring the landscapes of the subconscious, ends, and the second begins. It turns to myths, roads, and other people’s destinies. The second part is opened by another newcomer – “The Car”. A song to which the entire press hook around the release is dedicated. Bird’s fragile voice clashes with the grand scope of orchestral strings: the chamber space of the car interior gradually grows into symphonic tension. It is here that the album shows its main trick: the ability to make the small huge, and the huge – personal. The cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” works as a gesture of respect to the roots of the genre, before the record goes back into more personal stories.
“Roy,” written together with Ally McErlaine, tells a mythical story – about how Roy Orbison allegedly prevented an attempt to kidnap Elvis Presley’s body. The plot is so cinematic that it is no wonder: the song has already become the basis for Bird’s short film “You Found A Friend In Elvis.” “Daddy,” written with Hal Lindes, and “Sunny Days” with Andy Dunlop continue the conversation about family and memory. They are soft and comfortable, like giant, house-sized plush pillows. Bird’s performance is accurate and thoughtful. If she is anxious, it is very, very quiet; a light breeze of emotions is unnoticeable. The final “Things Get Broken” is a quiet and peaceful song. An admission that fragility is a form of existence. In life, many things break, but it is precisely from these fragments that resilience is assembled.
Photo by Miles Myerscough-Harris
Bird remains true to her style: emotional precision, a variety of moods and themes, a constant play of nuances and small details in arrangements – something that pleases the attentive listener. On the album “Held Here Together”, the singer creates an amazing spiritual space that the listener has to fill with themselves. The feeling of melancholy and longing that unites the tracks leaves behind a thoughtful aftertaste and a desire to return to this album again. Bird’s new recording connects seriousness and romance, mysticism and character, reflection and humanism. It’s great that the project will be released not only in digital format, but also on vinyl.
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