Noble Beast CD

Beginning with a skipping step, enthusiastic whistling and playful backing vocals that suggest a leisurely walk in the park, "Oh No" introduces Noble Beast with a festive air that allows this violin-wielding Chicago singer-songwriter to explore his pop side.  This extra lift in his step remains throughout.  While his influences are steeped in various unrelated traditions that tend towards the darker corners - from jazz to folk to German drinking songs, you name it - Bird mixes and matches as he hears fit with an ebullient grace.  The six-and-a-half-minute "Masterswarm" is a bucolic swath of mystery, flowing onward with a stream-like consciousness, reminiscent of the loose and free cadences of Van Morrison and Tim Buckley.  "Fitz and the Dizzyspells" pulls up with a tough, decisive rhythm section that yields to Bird's sublime melodic musings.  Each track offers up a diverse collection of thoughts and impressions.  The sad Spanish guitar that drives "Effigy," the strains of film noir tha