Album Notes

The Ragbirds began with songwriter and vocalist Erin Zindle and percussionist Randall Moore as they searched to create fresh original songs sprouting out of their love for world music and their desire to weave these distant sounds into more familiar genres. With the addition of guitarist/vocalist Matthew Melody, percussionist Tim Dziekan, and their new bassist Dan Hildebrandt who share the vision of creating honest, creative music combining these global and local elements, The Ragbirds fully realized their sound. In April 2005, The Ragbirds released their debut CD, Yes Nearby, an independent, full-length album consisting of 12 well-crafted songs. The CD continues to garner critical acclaim & was nominated for a Detroit Music Award. In January of 2006 The Ragbirds followed up with "Catching Fire" a live album recorded in their hometown of Ypsilanti MI. The Ragbirds can be seen performing all over the Mid-West music scene, spreading in ever widening circles throughout Michigan, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and beyond, stirring up a buzz everywhere they go. They can be heard on local and Mid-West radio and read about in numerous papers and online reviews. Their unique fusion of roots folk, world groove, and pop sensibility gets audiences of all ages and sizes up and dancing.

THE MUSIC The Ragbirds use many traditional folk instruments including violin, guitar, mandolin, banjo, accordion, piano and harmonica. But this folky root is firmly embedded in the soil of rhythm, ancient and new, incorporating African poly-rhythms and Afro-Cuban tumbaos, over sometimes rock, hip-hop or reggae style drum-kit. Melodic lines are often built of ethnic scales and techniques, sometimes Celtic in style, sometimes Gypsy, or Latin, or African, and there is an improvisational element to the songs that keeps them fresh. In live performances, the band incorporates variations on traditional African drum pieces, each member trading their instrument for a nearby hand drum. They have a strong belief in the beauty of poetry and positive music, and the power of dance-able rhythm.

"Yes Nearby is a rare debut for the poetic intensity of its focus, the high quality of its musicianship and the quiet, yet astonishing precision of its songwriting. It marks a musical terrain where spirit and flesh, the sacred and profane, the moral and the ambiguous come together in an intoxicating, instructive dance of truth and beauty in everyday life. This is evidence of the very best of what contemporary, independent pop music has to offer."-Thom Jurek, All Music 4 Star Review

"The Ragbirds have gestated a sound and experience so unlike anything you've seen in these parts, that you may begin to wonder if you have teleported to another land. Although the familiar dark, smoky surroundings of the divided pub, with its pool tables, bare brick walls, old worn plank floors and frat boys doing shots to impress the girls is nothing really all that new, you WILL find a feeling of growing anticipation clouding the air as soon as they hit the stage. Then, gradually, as the violin spirals through the crowd and the tribal drums, harmonizing vocals, and rich bass become more and more mesmerizing, you notice the bodies that have begun to swirl around you taking on new shape and form while your own torso starts to sway, and you find you're flying with The Ragbirds to enchanting rhythmic destinations around the globe." The Uncommon Sense Magazine