Humbird

with ISMAY

21+

Information | Tickets

Humbird

It feels good to be right. We crave the satisfaction, the ease. But what about when you’re not so sure? When you’re unsteady, angry, swayable, and doing your damned best anyway?

There’s something refreshingly humane about that uncertainty; about having the guts to try, even if you might be wrong. This is the central tenant of Humbird’s third full-length album, Right On, a radical ethos in this soap-box age, and an effort worth turning up the amps for, resulting in the project’s most electric, playful, mettled record yet.

Siri Undlin (the songwriter behind the moniker) and her collaborators tracked live and to tape over the course of two muggy weeks in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. For a collection of songs unafraid of ambiguity, it’s music that bares its teeth. Anger and dismay sizzle in response to current events. Heartbreak feels like sandpaper, while wildflowers bob and sway in an ever-expanding universe.

Produced by Shane Leonard and featuring regular contributors Pat Keen (bass, synth, percussion) and Pete Quirsfeld (drums and percussion), the majority of the songs showcase the locked-in rock trio, a progression from the contemplative folk musings of Undlin’s previous releases. Even so, Right On incorporates friendly winks to the more whimsical, soundscape-y improvisations that audiences have come to expect from a Humbird performance - electrified, gritty, Midwest Americana with a little magic fairy dust thrown in.

“Right On,” the title track and first song of the album, opens the record with a tone of resigned tenacity. ‘I’m not mad, but I should be / since true love proved unlucky / I cast the dye, I stained my hands / on wrongful judgments and half-baked plans.’ As the song moves through time and space, “being wrong” feels less and less like a failure, and instead transforms into guiding wisdom. The warm tremolo of the guitar maps along the grooves of the rhythm section, creating an atmosphere of inviting imperfection, a clever catalyst for the chorus’ simple melody to launch and land right in the tender part of your sternum.

Other notable tracks include “Child Of Violence,” complete with psych-rock phaser pedals, which explores the legacy and impact of white supremacy in middle America; “Cornfields and Roadkill” focuses in on land stolen for profit, and old-growth forests traded for mono-crops in a sonic landscape reminiscent of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. “Song For The Seeds” is a slow-burning synth number, imploring the listener to tear up their lawn. It wields a refrain that will germinate in your mind - a proper earworm.

Through observation and deft questioning, the lyrics land less like a political agenda and more like a hard conversation with a friend. All the while, you can hear the summertime pace where the recording took place, and the steady confidence of songs that have already traveled many miles on the road.

And those miles - they’re hard-earned. For Undlin, growing up steeped in church choirs and traditional Irish ensembles eventually led to conducting extensive folklore and musical research around the world as a Watson Fellow. That work inspired years of DIY touring around North America, including performing around the twin cities one backyard at a time during the pandemic. Undlin continues to expand and experiment as a writer and bandleader in a way that is fluid with each season, and oddly suited for this particular moment. Following the surprise success of the self-released debut album Pharmakon and the pensive reflections of 2021’s Still Life, Right On is the next iteration in her process of witnessing the world in all its complexity and responding with candid consideration.

For loyal fans and new listeners alike, Right On is a mischievously kind offering: a whole heap of songs that are unafraid to bask in the perfectly ordinary and also excruciating possibility that sometimes we’re right, often we’re wrong, but no matter what, music can meet us where we’re at and keep us company along the way.

ISMAY

There’s music you hear and there’s music you see, the best kind achieves both. ISMAY creates music that is a tapestry of alternative American roots full of alt-country textures and lush folk songs that transport you straight to the land where they were written - deeply rooted in the heart of Sonoma Mountain. It is music that transcends tradition and blurs boundaries, embodying the sound of the New American West.

Driven by singer/songwriter Avery Hellman, ISMAY released their debut full-length album Songs of Sonoma Mountain in 2020, to widespread acclaim. It was named one of the 10 best Albums in the Bay Area and garnered features in American Songwriter, No Depression, Sonoma Magazine, and more. Their sophomore album, DESERT PAVEMENT (1/26/24) was produced by Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse and recorded at the famed Echo Mountain Recording studio in Asheville, NC.  It is a brilliant representation of ISMAY's unique sound, its songs evoking the landscapes and lifestyles of rural northern California, where Avery spent most of their 20s working the land on the family's ranch. "The perspective of my songwriting is very rooted in ranch life," says Avery.   "I didn't know what sound I was creating at first, but I knew I was writing songs that made me curious. That was the most important thing to me. I'm not trying to copy anybody else or take a predetermined path with my music. I'm just trying to be me, whatever that may be."  In other words, it's ISMAY's kind of music, owing more to geography than genre. With Desert Pavement, ISMAY paves a path toward a new horizon, filling the journey with songs about the sights, sounds, and singular characters found way out west.

Growing up backstage at their grandfather’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, ISMAY was inspired early on by artists such as Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Hazel Dickens.  Since then, they have appeared throughout the West Coast at music festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry Music Festival, Huichica Festival, The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Lantern Tour, SF Jazz Americana Roots Week, and at renowned venues such as the Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, The Chapel, Golden State Theater, and the Mystic Theater. They have opened for acclaimed artists including Steve Earle, Watchhouse, Justin Townes Earle, Sunny War, Margo Cilker, James McMurtry, and Chuck Prophet. They were also a featured artist on AppleTV's 2023 music show, My Kind of Country.

Avery also executive produced the film, Finding Lucinda.  This captivating documentary takes listeners on a heartfelt journey through the life and early career of the iconic country/folk music star Lucinda Williams, as ISMAY searches for inspiration in their own artistic journey, and to help answer the question of whether or not to pursue being a musician in the face of self-doubt.