Birds of Chicago centers around the duo of JT Nero and Allison Russell, who make beautiful music together. “The braiding of their singular voices is surprising and often magical,” says the Chicago Sun-Times, and it’s true. JT’s voice sounds scratchy and a little worn, like a favorite record you’ve played a thousand times. Allison’s voice sounds like Emmylou Harris on her third latté, rich, joyful, and able to go anywhere. Their music, at the intersection of folk, rock, and roots, is arresting and original. “We watched the sun dip / like a gum drop / in a tar pit,” they sing on “The Wide Sea” – and somehow convey that the couple in the song has reached a crisis. “Why did we come here? What the hell were we thinking?” They make you hang on every note till they finish the story.

Allison was in the band Po’ Girl in Vancouver and JT was fronting JT and the Clouds in Chicago when the two bands started working together, and in 2012 JT and Allison collaborated on their first album, Birds of Chicago. Recently, they released their second, Live from Space, which the website it’s only rock’n’roll called “live Americana music at its finest.” These birds can sing – catch ’em while they’re flying high!

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Shelley Doty photo by Julie Zielinski