Ms. Delmhorst and Her Little-Winged Bird

by HJ Mills in Album Reviews, Editorials, Musician Reviews, Opinion Posts, Reviews, bands to watch

“I just want to be part of all this beauty, want to be part of all this flight on little wings”, sings the lovely Kris Delmhorst in her song, “Little Wings” I see her as one of the most remarkable musicians I have ever come across. Her lyrics are as beautiful as the leftover drops on bushes after a sweet summer rain. In her song, “The Drop and Dream”, Kris wistfully sings “It’s both our curse and our grace, here in this place to reach for heights that we’ll never climb”. She sculptures her pieces with light, philosophy, self-reflection, cracked bits of robins’ eggs, and broken guitar strings tied in a bow. Yet, her name is only whispered, and according to “Little Wings”, Ms. Delmhorst does not mind that a bit. She confidently professes, “Now I don’t want to be a jet airliner, I just want to be a little bird, I don’t want to rip the skies wide open, I just want my song to be heard” . I heard her exquisite melodies long after one of my favorite music writers unveiled her .

I wrote about her on my own blog a while ago, but somebody else beat me to it.
Heather Browne of I Am Fuel, You Are Friends came to find her and her friends the same way that I did. Redbird, a petite gem of talent consisting of Delmhorst, her husband Jeffrey Foucault, and Peter Mulvey, covered R.E.M.’s “You Are The Everything”. Browne discussed her delight about years before I had the privilege of listening. The Redbird cover album is the rickety wicker basket of filled with the lullabies, blankets, and those bears full of honey you wish you had as a child.

How much of a pleasure and an honor would it be to see her wispy voice croon on a little stage, sharing grains of her soul with a huddling audience trying to keep hold of them. The lovely lady is playing at the Tin Angel in Philly in May. If I was only born a few years earlier…