Brown Bird


Brown Bird was a band from Warren, Rhode Island, formed in 2003 as a solo project by David Lamb. In their final incarnation, the band was the duo of Lamb and his wife MorganEve Swain. The band disbanded in 2014 following Lamb's death from leukemia.

History

Lamb formed Brown Bird in 2003 in Seattle, Washington but moved soon thereafter to Portland, Maine. The line-up soon included Jerusha Robinson on cello and her husband Jeremy Robinson on multiple instruments. The Robinsons left the group in 2009, leaving Lamb, MorganEve Swain on fiddle, and Mike Samos on lap steel guitar and dobro in the line-up.
In 2010, with the departure of Samos, the band had become a duo.
Brown Bird played the Newport Folk Festival for the first time in 2011 and were then currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. They have toured with The Devil Makes Three.
Brown Bird went on hiatus in early 2013 after David Lamb was diagnosed with leukemia. Lamb died from the disease on April 5, 2014.
In April 2015 Brown Bird's final album, , was released produced by MorganEve Swain. Most of Axis Mundi was written and recorded while David was recuperating at home from his bone marrow transplant. It peaked at .
In July 2017, MorganEve Swain went on to release work with her new band, .

Musical style

Brown Bird is influenced by American folk music, Gypsy music, and Bluegrass. According to Aimsel Ponti of the Portland Press Herald "heir sound is one that lives on the darker side of American folk, ensconced in Eastern European roots music."

Works