Brother Bird “Dirt”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Brother Bird’s song “Dirt” from her forthcoming album The Lodge In Miller County, which is set for release on September 25. The album was produced by Andy Hull, Caroline Glaser, Jamie Martens, and Owen Lewis; mixed by Jamie Martens; and mastered by Dan Millice.
“Dirt” is Caroline Glaser on vocals and acoustic guitar; Juan Solorzano, Thomas Luminoso, and Andy Hull on guitars; Eli Beaird on bass; Julian Dorio on drums; and Rowen Merrill on strings.
We had a brief chat with Caroline Glaser of Brother Bird. The premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: What was the writing process like for “Dirt”?
Caroline Glaser: I wrote all of the songs off The Lodge In Miller County in the same summer. I had just moved out of my house in Mt. Juliet, TN, I was in the beginning stages of picking my life back up after a divorce. My parents let me stay in their basement in Chesterfield, MO for a few months. Writing songs was pretty much all I did there. A lot of the lyrics went through a pretty hefty amount of refining through the years, but “Dirt” was one of those unicorn songs that sort of just wrote themselves and then stayed that way.
AH: When explaining the song’s origins, you say “we do get to decide which pile of mud we wanna hang out in…” in reference to attempting to break certain cycles while recognizing cycles are here to stay. Could you expand on this?
CG: I want to preface this by acknowledging how little I actually know on the topic… I kind of winced at my own quote there. I’ve spent the last 4 years being really intentional about therapy and looking inward, but I spent the other 28 doing the opposite. I’m certainly not an expert, but I know more now than I did then… which I hope I can say 4 years from today. To me, acknowledgement and awareness has been everything. I wrote this record at a really dark, reflective time… I uprooted nearly every comfort that I had in search of something honest. Not perfect, just honest. Saying we get to decide which “pile of mud we hang out in” is my way of saying I would rather hang out in the mud pile labeled “mud pile” than the mud pile labeled “garden of Eden.”
AH: You recently wrapped up a tour with Andy Hull, how was that experience and how did you come into contact with Andy? He also produced your upcoming LP.
CG: That’s my brother! I feel so lucky to have fallen into his orbit… He is the definition of “chosen fam” to me. I covered “Deer” by MO on my YouTube channel in high school. I had maybe 12- 30 views per video, but somehow Andy’s mom, Sharon, stumbled upon it. He wrote me on twitter and we emailed back and forth a bit through the years, but didn’t actually meet or work on anything together until 2016. It’s insane how much music we’ve written and worked on together since… one being my new record, The Lodge In Miller County. And yes! I just opened for him on a run of solo shows last month. They were really special. They always are. His songwriting and musicality is truly otherworldly. I’ve been inspired by him since I was the 15 year old kid with the YouTube channel. He’s been such an integral piece to all things Brother Bird. I could write a novel about it.
A service is ending, a soprano vocal, and an introspective indie folk delivery create a modern, emotionally resonant effect: “now we’re all in the dirt together, my friend.”
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Caroline.
The music can be found here: https://brotherbird.lnk.to/TheLodge
