Album Notes

Bird Mancini's third and newest CD features 13 all new songs with lush vocal arrangements--performed entirely by Ruby Bird and Billy Carl Mancini--along with a plethora of amazingly talented friends, including 3 drummers, 3 bass players, a violinist, a percussionist, and others. Boston area fans have been hearing much of this music in recent live performance, and Bird Mancini is happy to now have it available for the rest of the world to hear. Enjoy!

BIO
Camped out in six inches of mud, they played for 5,000 people at a van show in Englishtown, New Jersey. They've been stranded on a mountain in a broken down bus, gigged one-nighters out West where it's 100 miles to the next town, and made their living for years playing Northeast clubs, colleges, resorts, music halls and festivals. They've opened for David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills & Nash), Gregg Allman, Jonathan Edwards, James Montgomery, Mighty Sam McClain and the Pousette-Dart Band. And all this occurred before their first CD release in 1996 (then as The Sky Blues). Ruby Bird and Billy Carl Mancini's career together spans nearly two decades. Their original recordings have garnered critical acclaim, an ASCAP/Boston Music Award nomination, and fans from all over the world. Twice, in 2002 and 2004, Bird Mancini were named among the Top 10 Year's Best by New England's Metronome Magazine. But their music is its own reward to those lucky enough to find it in an Irish pub in Boston, a breezy summer concert, on the Internet, or simply through word of mouth. As AllMusic.com puts it, "Bird Mancini is likely to please a wide array of listeners."

Gospel choirs in country churches and Kansas City blues and swing were Ruby's early upbringing, while Billy Carl cut his guitar-playing teeth on high school rock and roll bands covering songs by 60's greats like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and the Stones. Mix it all together and you get two high-spirited lead singers, blues-tinged guitar, accordion, harmonica, a variety of percussion, bells and whistles that is the Bird Mancini duo. Add a plethora of talented musician friends acquired over the years, and you get energetic recordings with an astonishingly colorful palette--Indie-Music.com says, "It's so refreshing to hear such great variety on every single track and with such consistency and quality." A snowballing circle of talent finds its way each year to their annual Backyard Acoustic Jam Love and Food Fest (think Monterey Pop or Woodstock on a smaller scale). If you appreciate fusions and variations on rock and roll, blues, pop, Latin jazz, country gospel and psychedelic world beat, you are likely to come away from a Bird Mancini recording or live performance feeling happy you found your way here. Peace.