Starting a successful music career in Maine is about as difficult as becoming a guitar virtuoso with missing fingers. Of course, some people get lucky. Then there are the people like Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt in the late 1920s. Despite losing fingers as an adult, Reinhardt moved to a cultural center and completely revolutionized a popular musical genre. He also created something unique from a sound everybody else aped.
That might explain some of billy libby’s magic. It’s a magic based not on luck, but focus and craftsmanship. While libby has five and five on his hands, he began playing in a state with a languishing creative economy and more wannabe musicians than pigeons. Shortly after college, he moved from Maine to New York and began steadily performing in both states and releasing his music online. His music fits into a genre widely imitated, often poorly executed, and one that regularly mistakes angst for depth. And like Reinhardt with early European jazz, libby transcends all of this.
In his latest release The Little Bird EP, a subdued, acoustic sampling of an upcoming full-length album, libby offers listeners one of the most intimate sounds of his career. These stripped-down four tracks remove the stage, the performance, and all the pretensions of a concert. What is left is libby’s voice and guitar. It comes through the speakers with all the earnest passion as if he were right there in the same room singing to himself.
Fans of Rufus Wainwright’s breakout album Poses will find a kindred experience in libby’s lyrics and voice. libby matches Wainwright’s comfortable passion, but lack the self-absorbed, whiny undertones. libby’s voice, caught between a post-party-rasp and the gentleness of a soft speaker, removes any accusatory overtones. The result is a conversation as comfortable as dating a best friend. It lets his light, almost simplistic tropes play like honest dialogues between complex people.
If there is one problem with this release, it’s length. libby serves The Little Bird EP as a snack made from ingredients worthy of a feast. At $4.00 for a download from bandcamp, the price is fine. The EP cost about as much as one share of Citi Group, but provides infinitely more pleasure. However, like one lonely share of Citi or a snack to a starving person, The Little Bird EP leaves listeners wanting more. Fortunately, a full length album is on its way.
Want to hear a sample from The Little Bird EP or even pick up a copy? Click here to check it out.
Heard it already? Have your own opinion? Reviewer Joseph Thompson wants to know what you think. Leave a comment below.
[...] out. The review was originally published on 16 November 2011 by the fine folks at Sleeping Hedge. Check it out here. Comments [...]