Hands Of Glory is the new album from from Andrew Bird which will see its UK release on November 6th. The release was been spurred on by audience appreciation of recent live sessions during which Andrew Bird has been indulging fans with some classic “old-time” covers which have included the likes of ‘Railroad Bill‘ a track that has been covered by many from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings to Lonnie Donegan. It’s not all ‘classics’ though: featured also are covers from the late great Townes Van Zandt as well as the Handsome Family with ‘When That Helicopter Comes‘. Fans will also be pleased with reinterpretations of his own work including ‘Orpheo‘ from his last album Break It Yourself.
The seed of this album appears to have been born out in his western Illinois barn where Bird has been organising get-togethers for the past three summers, “They begin with little more pretense than to capture the way we make music together” he revealed, “after a few days sleeping, eating and jamming under one roof we get increasingly inspired and ambitious about what we’re doing.”
Of recording the new record, he notes that, “Hands of Glory begins with two songs we actually recorded in a church in Louisville on a day off on our July tour. The rest was recorded around a single microphone at the barn in August. We ended up putting the drums on the back porch. I hated to exile Martin like that but it just sounded better. ‘Something Biblical’ I started writing in July well into the severe drought that hit the Midwest this summer. I kept having dreams of a great flood. Nothing biblical—just a local deluge. The day we left the barn it rained pretty hard.”
Teaser Trailer
Track listing
01 Three White Horses
02 When That Helicopter Comes
03 Spirograph
04 Railroad Bill
05 Something Biblical
06 If I Needed You
07 Orpheo
08 Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses
UK & European Tour
November
06 Paris, France – Les Inrocks
08 London, England – Roundhouse
10 Lisbon, Portugal – Aula Magna
11 Cartagena, Spain – Cartagena Jazz Festival
12 Barcelona, Spain – Sala Apolo
14 Milan, Italy – Magazzini Generali
16 Enschede, Netherlands – Crossing Border Festival – Wilmink Theatre
17 The Hague, Netherlands – Crossing Border Festival — The Royal
19 Copenhagen, Denmark – Amager Bio