It’s rare that a musician comes along in popular music with a very wide range of ability, a true and pure artistry, and the willingness to package it all together for the world to enjoy. Even rarer still that the world should notice what it has been given, but Andrew Bird stands out.

Bird is a singer/songwriter who has a bit of everything going for him. He’s a very talented multi-instrumentalist, primarily known for his violin, but he also prominently features the guitar, glockenspiel, and even his own whistling. He has been able to distill his own special auditory brew using these tools, without it becoming at all weird or hard to listen to. The songs he writes approach relatable human issues from new and intriguing angles, and are cleverly delivered without a lot of pretense.

Break It Yourself is an album full of love songs, but it would be hard to know that at times without paying close attention. Bird can be very subtle, and has a knack for weaving a delicate metaphor, or looking at personal matters and stories from a far-reaching and philosophical vantage point. When he does come right out and say how he feels, then, it only has more power behind it, and seems to bring clarity to the emotional landscape he’s been painting all along.

Bird was trained from a very young age to play the violin using the Suzuki method, which conditions artists to become very adept and naturally in tune with their instrument, shifting towards more traditional musical education later on. It’s a popular and well-respected method for classical violinists, but is probably even better suited to one like Andrew Bird, who is a great all-around performer with a touch of a rock star in him.

One criticism of the Suzuki method has always been that it stresses collaborative play over solo performances much more than the traditional method, but this has clearly not been a problem for Bird. He’s not only comfortable performing alone, but he often juggles his skills and instruments with loop pedals, becoming a one-man orchestra.

The songs on Break It Yourself are very complex and layered, but they come across as simple tunes, and are very easy to pick up and get into. Bird says he used to have a distaste for pop music, but today he seems much more willing to embrace widely listenable melodies and catchy hooks. The result should be nothing short of a revelation for popular music fans.

Though there are a lot of different techniques and influences on the record, the songs are not very dissimilar from one to the next, and he reaches into the same bag of tricks on almost every track. Andrew Bird’s growth and willingness to experiment appears to have slowed slightly here, with this his sixth solo release, but it’s hard to consider that sameness a very big fault on an album which is itself so very different from other music. It may not be particularly divergent from other Andrew Bird albums, but nobody else is doing what he does, and I wouldn’t want to see his techniques and sounds go extinct.

For many fans Break It Yourself will be regarded as Andrew Bird in perfect form. For the uninitiated, it’s a great spot to jump in.

Andrew Bird’s current tour is in its last gasp, but that doesn’t mean its over. The singer/songwriter is readying a new slate of gigs including a few churches. These shows are being dubbed as ‘Gezelligheid’, the Dutch term for coziness, and he is said to be focusing on his violin pieces during this stretch in Minneapolis (12/10-11) and Chicago (12/15-17).

In the press release, Bird said of the shows, “What I hope to do with these shows is adapt my music completely to the atmosphere of the space and the season,” Bird said in the statement. “I’m inspired to do this based on childhood memories of performing Handel’s Messiah in various churches on an annual basis. The music will be mostly original instrumentals using my voice only to intone. I want the audience to be both lifted and comforted as we head into another cold and dark winter. I feel the space should be sacred so the audience can experience my music in a different atmosphere.”

Bird’s latest album “Noble Beast” was released in January and shot up to number 1 on Billboard’s Top Independent Album Charts. The current Andrew Bird tour has hit 25 cities beginning in Los Angeles on July 20.

October 2009
24 – Portland, ME – S. Portland High School Auditorium
25 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
26 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
27 – Providence, RI – Lupo’s
28 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

December 2009
8 – Champaign, IL – Foellinger Hall – solo
10, 11 – Minneapolis, MN – St Mark’s Episcopal Church
15-17 – Chicago, IL – 4th Presbyterian Church

February 2009
6 – Honolulu, HI – Pipeline Cafe
20 – Los Angeles, CA – Bovard Auditorium @ USC