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December 04, 2020  /  Birds Of Chicago



https://troublemuffin.myshopify.com/pages/birdsofchicago

https://troublemuffin.myshopify.com/pages/birdsofchicago

Family, 

I hope this finds you well, and when we say well ….what does “well’ exactly mean right now, exactly?  Not sick for one, or sick and getting better.. And mentally, spiritually keeled in such a way as to navigate this bomb cyclone (chose that over derecho, after some back and forth) of new hope, old poison and dread that is undeniably in our path this winter…. INTERESTING TIMES, and getting more so by the minute. Anyway...

 We wanted to give you something you could feel, that wouldn’t disappear when you needed it or turn around and bite you in some unforeseeably painful way; something you could count on no matter what in the days ahead… and after a lot of painful thought and envisioning, it was clear what that something was; a vastly expanded web merch store with seemingly countless new thrilling designs for t shirts, sweatshirts, hats, tote bags etc…  We know we’ve been a little delinquent getting you new stuff in the last year or so, but damn, have we made up for it. 

We’ve partnered with Trouble Muffin to create a Birds only online boutique in time for the holidays. Check out the site here.  Here’s the crucial bit: orders must be in by Dec 10 to arrive to you by Christmas.  We honestly could not be more excited by all the great options, go see of what I speak..

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There’s much else afoot, so let me give you as quick a rundown as I can.   As most of you know, Alli’s first solo album is going to be released on Fantasy Records in 2021, but Alli has already begun to make her presence and voice felt.   I hope you had a chance to see her incredibly powerful, inspiring speech -- the Dream of America, featured in Rolling Stone -- at some point in the last couple of weeks. After she delivered that speech to the Women’s March 2020 here in Nashville, T Bone Burnett and Colin Linden helped her record it, and the recording was then set to a powerful montage of images arranged by Jesse Mechanic.  Also over on Spotify, Alli has just shared a playlist, “Good Trouble”   curated to honor the noble, fighting spirit of John Lewis, and even more so to shine a light on  Bipoc/ LGBTQ+ / Anti- Bigotry artists making an impact on the culture with their music. The playlist is road trip ready, and got the full thumb’s up from Ida, a notoriously tough critic of DJ choice making… Alli has a new Youtube channel and Website too - you can also find her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.


Also, as we’ve alluded to, Birds is going to go on a bit of a hiatus while we focus first on Alli’s release, and also on other projects in the next year or so. Birds will always be the mothership, but since the beginning, we’ve envisioned branching out and pursuing the work that spoke to us most urgently in any given moment. We are a partnership in all things - writing, music, love, child-rearing (rearing feels less and less like the appropriate word with each passing second of her life - child-trailing? ) so our home base, our watch tower where we create and record, won’t feel wildly different.  On the other hand, once touring actually comes back, we know it might feel a bit strange and melancholy that Birds of Chicago is not out there in the form you know…    

But we will be out there, in different ways, and we are so excited for you to see the Allison Russell Band and her vision for delivering this new music to you…. We can’t speak too much on it now, but more shall be revealed soon…


We will very occasionally fit special Birds dates in, we just did a Paste on the Road Session here in Nashville a few days ago….. But there won’t be any new Birds tours or records for a little while.  In the meantime, before I forget, we are going to make a very few zoom show dates available before the end of the year. We are really slammed with Alli’s album prep right now or we’d do more, but we’ve got a bunch of inquiries, so…. I think we are going to schedule a total of 3 or 4 before the new year.  What you need to do, should you want a private holiday zoom concert, is contact our brilliant manager, Carissa Stolting of Left Bank Artists, and talk particulars. These slots won’t be around for long, so jump jump on it.


What’s my scene? Well, I and Alli have both signed on with Concord Music Publishing as writers, so I hope to be doing a lot of writing with and for other artists in the coming year, as well as continuing my production work. I am working on a special project of new songs with my brother, Drew - whom you know as the Birds keys man and arranger, but we hope to be very secretive about that for at least a while. If we sense that our secrecy is not increasing your interest about the project, we’ll tell you all about it very soon.   What we will be is busy, doing the work we love, and filled with gratitude at that prospect, given the trauma our industry has felt and continues to feel this last year.  It certainly makes us want to work even harder, and relish the opportunity, for ourselves, our families --- and for you all who have held us steady and urged us on,  for every minute, every mile of this journey.    Love and blessings on you all ---  JT 

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