Joel Bird - Where the Crows Sleep (2012)

Tracklist

01. Oak Tree Storm
02. High On a Hill
03. Born in a Port
04. All Aboard
05. Shadows
06. Where the Crows Sleep
07. If It's Cold Outside
08. Cherokee
09. Innocent Spirits
10. Go to Sleep

Joel Bird album Where the Crows Sleep is a modern folk album inspired by graveyards, sea shanties & spaghetti western ride outs. Bittersweet stories of love & death to a soundtrack of both traditional instruments & subtle electronics, somewhere between Appalachian folk-rock & a Morricone musical. Joel Bird, Liverpool born artist, now working out of his Studio in London, England. His work reflects his belief that art is the indestructible link between working creative humans & nature. The heart of Joel Bird’s work lies perhaps in painting and sculpture but as a keen photographer, a working carpenter and a life long musician who has studied jazz for over twenty years, his art takes on the inevitable influences of a wide skill set. From photographic studies of allotments, chimney’s and marathon runners, to sixteen track panoramic sound compositions. From the design and production of fashion shoots, to the design and construction of eco-buildings, being an artist is as much to do with the physical act of working as it is about thinking.

I am influenced mostly by folk songwritters and soundtrack composers. I am from Liverpool but I now live in London, England. I have in the past toured the UK and USA with my own bands Jubjub and Eto and also with artists such as Elvis Costello and Catatonia, I have also played guitar and toured with Space. I have written soundtracks for films such as Shifty and worked on TV films with writer and screenplay Alan Bleasdale. When I moved from Liverpool to London, I left music to work as an artist and a carpenter, but I missed music alot. So I return with an album under the name Joel Bird called ‘Where the Crows Sleep’. I recorded the album through a changing Autumn in a converted shed that overlooks allotments, I have tried to tell my stories about love and death and hopefully some of the atmosphere of the place has been preserved in the music. I walk home through a graveyard most days and I often whisper secret goodbyes. I am not sure about spirits, but it is nice to think of them living in crows. When people die only love remains, people try to forget the rest, the album is a little about this also.

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