Ben and crew are out at Ottawa Bluesfest, and I’ve been here, in New York most of the week posting a bit more than usual, and I wanted to take an opportunity to write about an artist I really like, and wrote about in the past, but didn’t really do justice, Birdie Busch. I wrote about her last year, but that article mostly focused on The Walkmen’s last show, so today I’ll take another look at Birdie Busch and The Greatest Night.

BIRDIE BUSCH AND THE GREATEST NIGHT

I first heard Birdie Busch’s music when she was one of many artists who played the Concert for the Rail Park in Philadelphia, which just so happened to be the final Walkmen show. I remember Busch on stage with her band playing great indie folk music, with an air of positivity and confidence. There was some sort of runway set up and she encouraged people to get up and dance and ended up on the runway herself with some of her band members and danced around. It was a great performance that made me want to hear more from her, and I’m really glad I did because I found one of my favorite albums of 2013, and one I’ve had in my rotation for the last seven months.

Her last album, released in 2013 is self-titled for herself and her band, Birdie Busch and the Greatest Night. From the first track, it’s obvious Busch has created something really special here. “Supermoon” rolls in with some drums and builds into a fantastic chorus. One track that stood out to me when I saw her live was “Far From The Tree” and that song became one of my favorites of last year. The next track, “Part of Apart” is one of the more different tracks on the record, with mostly electric guitar leads and an almost awkward beat to it, supplied by drums and other miscellaneous percussion instruments. I love how it builds up and finds itself back to the simple guitar lead. The cover of Birdie Busch and the Greatest Night has six intersecting arrows on it, and another stand-out track is “Be The Arrow”. It’s another drum led track with some pedal steel guitar and it’s got an epic feel to it. When I originally wrote about Busch, I said she reminded me a bit of Tift Merritt, and “These Banks” is probably why, a fingerpicked acoustic guitar folk track, that’s just gorgeous. That’s followed up by a true rock and roller, “Body Body” which is just an absolute blast to listen to, it’s got a swing to it, you can almost picture Busch singing this in an old hall through an old microphone. It’s followed up by a great love song “This Must Be”. The next two tracks “Wilderness” and “Sitgreaves Pass” are great, too, they’re a bit slower than the songs right before it, and lead into a reprise of “Far From The Tree” called “Hand in Hand”, which ties the entire album together quite nicely before the pretty much perfect closing track “Quixotic”. Birdie Busch and the Greatest Night is a collection absolutely great Americana/Folk music with really strong songwriting.

As you can probably tell, I really dig what Busch has created. Musically, she’s a mix of a lot of stuff I really love, and she’s a phenomenal songwriter. When I ordered her record from her bandcamp (link below) she sent me a nice thank you letter and a copy of their previous record, Pattern of Saturn, which is also really, really good.

http://birdiebuschmusic.com/

http://birdiebuschmusic.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/birdiebuschmusic (When I wrote this she was at 992 facebook fans, let’s get her over 1000!)