Andrew Bird

A classy singer songwriter, Andrew Bird uses his classical background and love of jazz to explore genres as diverse as ragtime, swing, indie rock, and Americana pop - while delivering a uniquely elegant and yearning style. Born in Lake Forest, Illinois on July 11, 1973, he started learning classical violin at four and graduated from Chicago's Northwestern University with a degree in music. However, he turned his back on a career as an orchestra player to perform in small bars with fusion bands Squirrel Nut Zippers and Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six. As a bandleader in his own right, his early albums Music of Hair (1996), Thrills (1997) and Oh! The Grandeur (1998) were led by his violin playing and interest in 1920s jazz and blues. He turned towards a more conventional indie rock sound on breakthrough solo album Armchair Apocrypha (2007). Known for their sweet melodies, albums Noble Beast (2009) and Break It Yourself (2012) brought Andre Bird mainstream success, reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on Billboard’s Folk albums chart. The lush, grandiose, cinematic quality of his work was captured on the critically acclaimed 7th studio album Hands of Glory (2012). He scored another number 1 album on the Folk Albums chart with Are You Serious in 2016 while his last Top 10 Folk Albums entry was My Finest Work Yet (2019), which reached number 4. He followed that with the Christmas album Hark! (2020) and These 13 with Jim Mathus (2021), Inside Problems (2022), Outside Problems (2023), and Sunday Morning Put-On (2024).