Brian Welby Poore is a nerd, I.T. professional, audiobook enthusiast, food-festival photographer, and podcast junkie. He has had over 400 stitches on his hands and was once heir-apparent to a potato chip empire. You can find his mercurial blog at alotofwords.net.
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Brian Welby Poore • Aug 04, 2020
The Musical Shibboleth of Andrew Bird
by Brian Welby Poore
You can be forgiven for not recognizing the name Andrew Bird . While he certainly has an ardent following, and possesses potent talent, his albums tend to stay outside the range of mass market. If you watched the 2011 film The Muppets, you’ve heard his virtuosic whistling, and if you’re into swing music you may have heard some of his early work with the Squirrel Nut Zippers or Bowl of Fire.
You can also be forgiven for having to look up the word “shibboleth.” 1
If you haven’t and don’t already know what it is, it’s a tribal tell, a kind of password, a way of discerning if someone comes from common ground. An example close to my home is the city of Prescott, Arizona. If you pronounce Prescott as though it rhymes with guess not, then you’re probably not from around here .
Which is a lot of introduction to say that even though Andrew Bird isn’t my favorite musical performer, he serves as a passable shibboleth for me. If someone tells me they’re a fan of his work, I will be highly likely to think well of that person. Our Venn diagrams will have enough overlap that we could potentially converse like old friends even if it’s the first time we’ve met.
Always in the market to expand my pool of viable friendships, I want to tell you about him.
Bird has played the violin since age four and has added guitar, glockenspiel, and other instruments to his repertoire along his journeys. He sings with emotion, and his lyrics are informed by a broad range of knowledge of history, science, mythology, and a vocabulary that may inspire listeners to frequent dictionary usage. Don’t worry; it’s worth the effort. Listening to Bird actively engages your mind.
Though Bird has performed with diverse and venerable ensembles including the L.A. Philharmonic and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, his more intimate solo programs (or with a single guest) spotlight his inventiveness and skill. He’s mastered a technique of playing a few measures of music then looping it with electronics. He then adds another complimentary loop to create a broader layer of sound, often altering between pizzicato and bowed playing, sometimes switching instruments, and adding in his signature whistling. A single aspect of his playing would be impressive, but the fluidity with which he adds layer upon layer to his performances dazzles the eyes and ears .
Let me recommend his TedTalk as a starting point:
One can’t call this a thorough sample of his work, because he frequently switches between genres, but his speech about feedback loops and the sound of self-destruction illustrates the common theme of unfettered curiosity that his lyrics often evoke.
Next, give his Une Soire de Poche 2 performance for La Blogothèque a listen, where he gets surprised by singer-songwriter St. Vincent. (Forward to the 15 minute mark if you want to slip in as she joins the performance.)
There’s a lovely moment during his performance of Tenuousness where his whistling harmonizes delightfully with the piano, demonstrating the precision of his gift. You may spot Bird discerning how to accompany St. Vincent on the fly, from a camera angle that shows him in soft focus observing her for cues to get a sense of her tone and rhythm, his fingers making practice chords several times before he joins the tune. The joyous interplay and creativity show why other artists love working with him.
Shifting from his live performances to his studio albums, I would recommend his recent release My Finest Work Yet as a solid entry point. Bird made a conscious decision on this recording to have the entire band play in the studio rather than recording instruments in isolation. The result allows the sound of instruments to blend richly, while only losing the sharpest edges of sonic separation. His lyrical genius comes across brilliantly from the first track Sisyphus, which offers social commentary, alliteration, and a subtle pun – the myth of Sisyphus being a ‘rock and roll’ story, if you will. His track Bloodless moves between a sense of resignation and a spirited call to action, quoting Psalm 37 with aching energy.
Turn around and quote a well-known Psalm
Don’t you worry about the wicked
Don’t you envy those who do wrong
And your innocence will be like the dawn,
And the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
The Psalm is well-known among some groups, but the reference could easily be missed by many audiences if he didn’t point it out. In these days of political dog whistles, where coded language gets deployed to signal affiliation with hate groups without raising the ire of the masses, Bird subtly employs references to the Bible, literature, history, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy as a positive dog whistle, signaling to the nerds, the poetically inclined, and those with a heart for justice that this is the music of their tribe, a shibboleth for those who would hear it.
1 Shibboleth is an adapted Biblical reference, taken from the book of Judges. The Gileadites and the Ephraimites, who were at war, pronounced Shibboleth differently, with those from Ephraim unable to make the “sh” sound. As people would cross the river Jordan, the Gileadite soldiers would make them pronounce Shibboleth, and those that couldn’t make the sh sound were captured and killed. The modern usage for the word isn’t quite as gory, thankfully.
2 Une Soire de Poche translates to A Pocket Party, which I find immensely charming.
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