Jenny Bird

Although New Mexico resident Jenny Bird isn't a huge name in the music world, the veteran singer/songwriter has been quite active on the folk circuit since the ‘70s. Producer/drummer Jerry Marotta has described Bird's folk-rock singing as "quiet and loud," which sounds like a contradiction but isn't in Bird's case--she isn't a fragile, waifish sort of singer, but she isn't an aggressive belter either. Bird (who often plays acoustic guitar on her recordings) is quite capable of vulnerability, yet she brings a quiet strength to much of her work. If Sam Shaber and former October Project singer Mary Fahl are the essence of big-voiced, full-bodied belting and Jewel and Suzanne Vega exemplify the waifish approach, Bird is somewhere in between. Bird's introspective, often spiritual approach to folk-rock has reflected her interest in the "three J's": Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, all of whom had a major impact on so many of the female singer/songwriters who emerged in the ‘60s and ‘70s (as well as a lot of younger Gen-X singer/songwriters who first made their mark in the ‘80s or ‘90s). But Bird has evolved over the years, and some of the people who discovered her work in the ‘90s have made more modern comparisons--some listeners have found that there are parallels between Bird's writing and the work of Lillith Fair favorites such as Sarah McLachlan and the Indigo Girls. In fact, Bird performed at McLachlan's Lillith Fair festival in 1998. Bird doesn't inundate listeners with overtly political songs, but like a lot of folk-rock artists, she has been politically active and has supported a variety of liberal causes. In addition to working with environmental groups, the singer/songwriter has performed at fundraising events for the Green Party. Bird, who lives in...