Meg Baird | |
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Background information | |
Genres | Folk |
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Formerly of | |
Website | Official website |
Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound and Comets on Fire. She was also a guitarist and the lead female vocalist in Philadelphia psychedelic folk rock band Espers, and played drums in Philadelphia punk band Watery Love. Baird frequently collaborates with the Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore.
Originally from New Jersey, United States, Baird's family history is based in the folk tradition: Baird is the great-great niece of Isaac Garfield "I.G." Greer, a historian and Appalachian folk singer born in 1881. [1] His inclusion on one of the earliest albums issued by the Archive of Folk Culture in the Library of Congress helped expose Baird to folk music at a young age, while she was taking piano lessons, teaching herself guitar, and listening to Smithsonian Folkways albums. [2]
While a member of Espers In 2007, Baird released her first solo album, Dear Companion , on the Drag City record label. Baird's second solo album, Seasons on Earth, was released in 2011 and received favorable reviews from The Wire , Allmusic, Spin and NPR. [3] [4] [5] [6] This was followed by Don't Weigh Down the Light in 2015, described as "post-folk" by the New York Times. [7]
Baird was a founding member of the Philadelphia psychedelic folk group Espers, whose first album was released by Time-Lag Records in 2003.
In 2014, Baird joined Heron Oblivion as lead vocalist and drummer. The supergroup includes Charles Saufley, Noel Van Harmonson (Comets on Fire), and Ethan Miller (Howlin Rain, Comets on Fire). [8] [9] [10]
She also plays with sister Laura in The Baird Sisters and have released three albums between 2003 and 2011. In 2013, the Baird Sisters joined Glenn Jones on My Garden State.
Between 2009 and 2012, Baird played drums for Philadelphia punk band Watery Love. [11]
In 2018, Baird and Mary Lattimore released their album Ghost Forests to critical acclaim, [12] [13] reaching the number three position on Billboard's new age chart. [14]
As a solo artist, she has toured with many noted fingerstyle guitarists, including Bert Jansch, [15] James Blackshaw, Micah Blue Smaldone, Michael Chapman, Glenn Jones, Michael Hurley, and Jack Rose. In February 2016 Baird served as the support act to Ryley Walker and Danny Thompson on an extensive tour of the United Kingdom. [16] In 2019, Baird and Mary Lattimore toured extensively in support of their album Ghost Forests.
Evoking Appalachian and Anglo-American folk ballads, Baird's vocal style has been compared to members of the UK folk-rock scene, including Celia Humpris of Trees, Fairport Convention's Sandy Denny, and Pentangle's Jacqui McShee. [17] [18] [19]
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is the third album by the Scottish psychedelic folk group, the Incredible String Band (ISB), and was released in March 1968 on Elektra Records. It saw the band continuing its development of the elements of psychedelic folk and enlarging on past themes, a process they had begun on their previous album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. Instrumentally, it was the ISB's most complex and experimental album to date, featuring a wide array of exotic instruments. In addition, the album captured the band utilising multi-tracks and overdubbing.
Comets on Fire were an American noise rock band from Santa Cruz, California, United States. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarist and vocalist Ethan Miller and longtime friend bassist Ben Flashman, who were seeking to create rhythmically and sonically intense music that paid no attention to categorizations.
Wichita Recordings is an independent record label located in London, founded in 2000 by Mark Bowen and Dick Green. Its most notable signees include Bloc Party, The Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Best Coast, Los Campesinos! and Peter Bjorn and John. The label signed Clap Your Hands Say Yeah for a UK distribution deal for the group's debut album. They also signed the UK producers Simian Mobile Disco for the UK.
Espers was an American psychedelic folk band from Philadelphia, United States, that was part of the emerging indie folk scene. They formed in 2002 as a trio of singer-songwriter Greg Weeks, Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons but later expanded to a sextet including Otto Hauser, Helena Espvall and Chris Smith. Their music is reminiscent of late-sixties British folk as well as many contemporary folk acts. Most of the band's members have also featured on recordings by a number of other folk artists such as Nick Castro and Vashti Bunyan and as a result have become an important part of the psychedelic folk revival.
Jack Rose was an American guitarist originally from Virginia and later based in Philadelphia. Rose is best known for his solo acoustic guitar work. He was also a member of the noise/drone band Pelt.
Greg Weeks is an American singer-songwriter based in Philadelphia. His music has been described as folk, acoustic, psychedelic and experimental. He is best known as a founding member of the psychedelic folk-rock band Espers. Weeks has released four solo albums and has guest-recorded with many artists, including Fern Knight and Marissa Nadler. He is also a member of The Valerie Project.
In Stormy Nights is the final studio album by the Japanese band Ghost. It was released by Drag City in 2007.
One Nation Underground is the debut album by American psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine. It was released on the ESP-Disk label in July 1967.
Manimal Vinyl is a Los Angeles-based record label founded in 2006 by film/TV producer, composer and former fashion editor Paul Gebser-Beahan.
Donald Willard Devore Jr. is an American artist and curator, known as Don Devore, who has been a member of the bands Ink & Dagger, Frail, Rain on the Parade, The Icarus Line, Lilys, Amazing Baby, Historics, Vague Angels, and Souls She Said, among others. He is currently performing as a solo artist and as a member of the band Collapsing Scenery.
Dear Companion is Espers vocalist Meg Baird's first solo album. It was released in 2007 to critical praise. The album contains three traditional folk songs, four covers of more recent songs, and two original songs written by Baird. The album is lightly orchestrated traditional folk music, without Espers' psychedelic and prog influences, dense orchestration, and dark atmosphere. Dear Companion was recorded at the same time as the Espers album II, at Baird's home in Philadelphia. Two of the traditional songs also appeared on Leaves From Off the Tree, an album by Baird, Espers bandmate Helena Espvall, and Sharron Kraus that came out the year before. Two versions of the title song open and close the album, the second one a cappella.
Sharron Kraus is an English singer, songwriter and musician with strong ties to the US. Kraus was born in New York but grew up in Leicester, England. She has lived in Philadelphia and collaborated with American musicians, including Meg Baird, Helena Espvall, Christian Kiefer, Tara Burke (Fursaxa), and Gillian Chadwick.
Sic Alps were an American garage rock band from San Francisco, California. Formed in 2004 by Mike Donovan and Adam Stonehouse, they released music on Siltbreeze, Drag City, Woodsist and several other independent record labels.
Helena Espvall is a Swedish-American musician noted for her participation in the post-millennial psychedelic folk and free improv scenes. Her primary instruments are cello, guitar and voice.
Edward C. Askew is an American painter and singer-songwriter who first recorded in 1968 and now lives in New York City.
Don't Weigh Down the Light is the fourth studio album by folk singer Meg Baird, released in 2015 on the Wichita label in the UK and the Drag City label in the US.
Heron Oblivion is an American psychedelic rock supergroup that first performed in April 2014, when they opened for the War on Drugs. Its members, all of whom were active in the psych-rock scene in the mid 2000s, are: singer and drummer Meg Baird, bassist Ethan Miller, guitarist Noel Von Harmonson, and second guitarist Charlie Saufley. The band released its first album, which was self-titled, on March 4, 2016, on Sub Pop Records.
Mary Lattimore is an American classically trained harpist based in Los Angeles, California. In addition to her solo work and collaborations with fellow Philadelphia musician Jeff Zeigler, she has performed with indie musicians including Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile, and Steve Gunn.
Furling is the fifth solo studio album by American folk singer Meg Baird, released on January 27, 2023, through Drag City. Baird co-produced the album with Charlie Saufley, her bandmate in Heron Oblivion. It received acclaim from critics.