‘Sophisticated, playful, beautiful’ | Arts & Entertainment

American roots quartet Birds of Play came to Willits Arts Campus on Saturday.

Known for their soulful lyrics and smooth musicality, the Colorado band is currently on tour and will make their TACAW debut. Opening Birds of Play on Saturday will be bluegrass band The Red Hill Rollers from Carbondale. Show starts at 8pm (doors open at 7pm), seating is limited.

Birds of Play frontman-songwriter Alex Paul describes his band’s sound as “delicate, playful and beautiful”. He said there are many stories to tell when performing live, and he looks forward to sharing that experience with Roaring Fork Valley.

“The songs we make are really soulful and meaningful — you know, a lot of our inspiration comes from the land we live in and the community we’re part of,” Paul said. That soulful delicacy of craftsmanship is met and appreciated.”

While the idea of ​​forming a band has been around for a long time, Birds of Play was born about four years ago as a trio. Paul — who also plays guitar, mandolin and bass and was previously part of another band from Durango — with his friend Jake after winning the solo competition at the 2018 Telluride Blues and Blues Festival Tolan and Eric Scheider form Birds of Play.

Included in the prize package is a guaranteed performance at the following year’s festival. The opportunity arose around the same time that Paul also received funding from the Telluride Arts District to record an album.

“All of a sudden, I had the funding for this album and the opportunity for this festival,” Paul said. “I had a little bit of a drive to finally put together this idea of ​​a band — you know, having a goal to work towards and something to create.”

So Paul, Tolan and Shedd got together to record their first album, “Anthrophony,” before they started performing, Paul said. The trio soon began touring, gaining momentum in the year leading up to the 2019 Telluride Blues and Bluesfest.

Paul says it’s an interesting foundation upon which Birds of Play will only continue to grow over the next few years. The group became a quartet in 2020 with the addition of Anneke Dean, a classically trained violinist who has played the instrument since the age of 8. She holds a degree in violin performance from the Chicago Academy of Performing Arts.

“I’m really proud of how we’ve built the band without any outside help; we’ve had a fundraiser and been creative with how we can make this work,” says Paul. “It’s been a slow experiment in grassroots community building, four years in now, and it feels like we’re getting closer to being able to do this sustainably for years to come.”

Birds of Play has released three studio albums and plans to record a fourth by the end of the month, Paul said. The musician explained that it’s hard to pin Birds of Play into a particular genre, both in terms of design and setting. He notes how the four band members come from different musical backgrounds and what they each bring to the mix can complement each other nicely.

“It’s hard to genre what we do because everyone has a different musical upbringing,” Paul says. “And we didn’t want to be categorized as a bluegrass band or a folk band or a blues band because we took all these influences from all over the world and tried to make them flourish as much as possible.”

Paul said he considers Telluride often his band’s home base, noting that many of the songs originated in the southwestern Colorado mountain town. But he said the Birds of Play musicians never actually all lived in the same place.

The quartet has many different centers in Colorado and the West Slope—Roaring Fork Valley is one of them, because Tolland grew up in Glenwood Springs, and the band would often go to the valley for rehearsals or gigs, Paul said. He mentions how Birds of Play often plays at Carbondale’s Steve’s Guitars and True Nature and Beyul Retreat.

“We have a lot of communities around the Roaring Fork Valley, especially in Carbondale and Glenwood — that’s our adopted home,” Paul said. “One of the things I’m most looking forward to is spending the evening with the Red Hill Rollers, I think they’re a fantastic pairing and I can’t think of a more special place to do our first show together. “

Paul goes on to say that Birds of Play is not a party band, and while the quartet does some bar shows and likes to play higher energy events around, the band’s favorite place to play is the listening room — “where people really get into the music and want to Let’s take them on a trip,” Paul said.

Paul added that TACAW’s theater room was perfect for the kind of atmosphere Birds of Play was going for. While Saturday’s show will mark the musician’s first performance at the Basalt venue, Paul mentioned that he had seen a show at the space before and was excited to be in a venue so conducive to the music his band creates. Play in the room.

“You know, we want rooms that play music that fits the kind of music that we want to share with people and get a positive response,” Paul said.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the show.For more information and to purchase tickets, visit tacaw.org.