baby dee, the weird weeds, and jonathan meiburg of shearwater February 22, 2006

All-around fascinating character and erstwhile Antony & the Johnsons guest Baby Dee performs. Austin's Weird Weeds open, as well as a solo Jonathan Meiburg (of Shearwater & Okkervil River).

Meiburg on Baby Dee:

If you haven't heard Baby Dee before, you should; she's a composer, harpist, pianist, accordionist, and singer, and she worked as the director of a church choir in the Bronx for over 10 years before leaving to join the circus! She's something of an underground legend, has collaborated with Antony and the Johnsons and occasionally releases really hard-to-find and lovely records on the Durtro label (Current 93's imprint).

Here's what John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats had to say about her record, Love's Small Song (which, to my delight, includes a background track of robins singing throughout the record, along with an accompanying disc of just the robins):

"This album has a stranglehold on the living room. I can listen to anything I want as long as I play Baby Dee at least once a day. I want to play it in the morning, and again in the afternoon. These songs might pass for unearthed treasures from some clandestine songwriters' circle in Cleveland circa 1904 if the lyrics weren't so messed up. Some of these songs are genuinely frightening; all of them are ominously gorgeous."