Farewell is not Goodbye...Black History Month/Spotlight on Allison Russell
Farewell is not goodbye, or even see you later as we hope to be seeing you a lot in different ways... but when we play Signature Sounds 25th Anniversary celebration series on Wednesday, Feb 10th (7 CT/ 8 ET) , it will be the last public performance for Birds of Chicago till... who knows when... as we’ve alluded to before, Birds are taking an indefinite hiatus. The time has come to shift our focus to the upcoming release of Alli’s first solo album, and to truly establish her -- not just as a solo artist-- but as a beacon of light, inspiration and hope for the millions that might see a part of themselves in her incredible journey.
The official release of Alli’s debut solo album will be later this spring ( exact date TBA soon) on Fantasy Records, but as many of you know, the buzz has definitely begun. Last week, Alli released two sublime covers of Sade’s “By Your Side”, and Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide” (which she translated into French!) - they were also featured in Rolling Stone. In the first three days they were up on Spotify, Alli went from zero to to 43K monthly listeners...That is so exciting, and we hope to keep the groundswell - swelling ? - is that the verb? - the momentum going as we get closer to the release date.
In this non touring pandemic era, we’ve come to view Spotify, You Tube, Instagram as the crucial community builders they are, not as necessary evils.. putting aside the obvious work that still needs to be done in appropriately monetizing these platforms for artists, there is just no denying how vital they are in building an artist’s base.. so please, Birds nation, find Allison Russell on your platform of choice and follow, engage…You can also sign up for Alli’s email list here- she will NEVER spam you.
Alli and I are always a collaborating team, and we always planned to use Birds of Chicago as a home base and launching pad for other projects. We’re both writers for Concord Music Publishing now and there will be plenty of announcements about cool things we are involved in, both separately and together, in the next year. But for now, family, it’s all hands on deck to introduce the wide world to Alli, and Outside Child. Rolling Stone just featured her in the top 12 Artists to Watch in 2021, in their print edition no less, online edition coming soon... There’s also some very exciting Our Native Daughters news coming down the line, TBA very soon...
As for Birds - we’ve been driving this band, this idea hard for 7 years, and it’s time to spread our wings a little wider, fly a little higher and farther afield... While there won’t be anymore public Birds shows or albums in the next couple of years at least, we have decided to keep the spirit of Birds alive with special, exclusive concerts on Patreon with our dear comrade in music, coffee, whiskey and laughs, Steve Dawson. We’ll take Birds song requests for those and we’ll do a monthly zoom hang where you can have a cup with us and get some inside scooping on all that’s going on. So... come find us over on Patreon, we’ll leave a candle burning in the window.
But ... let’s go out with a bang! We love Signature Sounds. Jim Olsen and the gang have been such a righteous force in music for 25! years, it seems fitting that our last public show for a spell should also celebrate them. See you at the shindig on Wednesday - keep your knees up and your masks on…Let’s hold the line, rock steady, take care of each other. Empathy is a Super Power.
Love Always,
Your Birds
Signature Sounds:
Cover songs:
https://found.ee/ARByYourSideLandslide
Linktree (with links to FB, Instagram, YouTube, Newsletter)
https://linktr.ee/Allisonrussellmusic
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3JBmecDGXTll46ygrnGTM6?si=iA31-jQoSbecMmBV_gGVXA
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClZHWIcBImm2xTPukkj1iCw
Rolling Stone Feature:
https://www.facebook.com/107613734254280/posts/241827894166196/