"Birds don't sing because they have the answer. They sing because they have a song"

I was very happily surprised and delighted to find out that there is a new blog in the New York Times Online edition called Measure For Measure, which gives songwriters the chance to share their songwriting process. A description of the blog reads "With music now available with a single, offhand click, it's easy to forget that songs are not born whole, polished and ready to play. They are created by artists who draw on some combination of craft, skill and inspiration. In the coming weeks, the contributors to this blog -- all accomplished songwriters -- will pull back the curtain on the creative process as they write about their work on a songs in the making."

Thank you New York Times!

To make this discovery even more amazing--one of my favorites of late, the wonderful, talented and magical Andrew Bird, will be detailing his process as he records his new album (which I cannot wait for). The first post went up yesterday. It really touched me. His album Armchair Apocrypha is one I have listened to a lot over the last 6 months--and it's really helped get me through a lot of hard times. I love his voice and think he's pretty unclassifiable. It's pretty incredible to get the inside scoop. The story he wrote of, in regards to the forthcoming "Oh No" is funny and poignant--just like his music.

Big shout out to the NYT and Mr. Bird himself for participating. I will be looking forward to all the other postings. Roseanne Cash, Darrell Brown and Suzanne Vega will also be writing.

Without further ado, a live performance from Coachella 2007: