JT Nero and Allison Russell release music as Birds of Chicago, who made their third appearance on Mountain Stage in 2019, as we’ll hear on this weekend’s encore broadcast, hitting NPR Music stations starting January 15.
Joined by guitarist Steve Dawson, our Song of the Week is Birds of Chicago’s “Lodestar,” which appears on Love in Wartime, the band’s 2018 full-length release.
Since this recording vocalist and songwriter Alison Russell joined Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, and Leyla McCalla to release “Songs of Our Native Daughters,” and Russell’s first solo album is due on Fantasy Records in 2021.
Closing the show are indie-pop mini-orchestra San Fermin, whose immersive set includes songs from the first volume of their two-part series, The Cormorant I. The Cormorant I & II are the first releases from composer and songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone and vocalist Allen Tate’s new label venture with Sony Masterworks called Better Company. The Cormorant II was released in February of 2020 and both albums can be purchased and streamed at San Fermin’s website.
We’ll also hear solo sets from Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson and one from Eric Anderson- who records as Cataldo, plus New York City indie-quartet Office Culture, on this week’s broadcast of Mountain Stage with Larry Groce.
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