Ride Festival: David Byrne & St. Vincent

10 Jul Ride Festival: David Byrne & St. Vincent

David Byrne & St. Vincent

Where were you Thursday night, June 20, 2009? If you, like we, were at Telluride Bluegrass, you witnessed the white out.

We are referring to that magic moment when David Byrne & Co. – band and dancers – all dressed in white, put on one of the most unforgettable shows in the 40-year history of Planet Bluegrass.

And now David Byrne is back. He appears on a bill with St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, at the 2nd annual Telluride Ride Festival, the Sunday night closer, after a rocking, roosty weekend of music that also includes Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Rodrigo y Gabriella, Cake, Drive-By Truckers, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Son Volt, The Revivalists, Brown Bird, Brothers & Bones, The Whiskey Sisters, Matthew Curry, and the Hazel Miller Gospel Brunch.

Byrne & St. Vincent embarked on a creative dialog about three years ago. Though the duo each have an unmistakable sound and persona, their voices blend seamlessly. Like an old married couple or close friends who can easily finish each others’ sentences, when one takes the spotlight alone it is often with words the other provides.

Chance brought these two artists together, but the work they’ve made together feels more like kismet. That work includes their debut release, Love This Giant, dominated by surreal images of nature set to brass and percussion. And chances are good tracks from their collaboration will find their way into what promises to be a (‘nother) set for the record books.

To learn more, continue reading here.

About David Byrne:

David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, on 14 May 1952. When he was 2 years old, his parents moved to Canada at the expense of a company that was recruiting engineers and semi-scientists from Europe. When David was 8 or 9 years old, his parents moved again, this time to the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland.

In September 1970, Byrne went straight from High School to the Rhode Island School Of Design. It was here that he met Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth who were also enrolled as freshmen. Byrne was not very impressed by art school:

“I think art school is a real racket, especially in this country. You run into a couple of good teachers and some interesting students but for the amount of money you spend, it’s not worth it.”

At Rhode Island School Of Design, Byrne studied a functional design programme known as the Bauhaus Theory course. He also took a conceptual art course. The staff were not sure about Byrne, particularly when he put on a performance in which he had his hair and beard shaved off onstage to a piano accordion accompaniment and a showgirl displaying cue cards written in Russian. The professors at RISD were less charmed, however, and Byrne found himself out on the street. He had been at the RISD for one year.

In the early half of 1974, The Artistics ceased to exist, at which time Byrne made the decision to move to New York in order to concentrate on his songwriting. After completing their studies at RISD, Frantz and his girlfriend Tina Weymouth joined him there, and before long their musical collaboration resumed (non-musician Weymouth taking up the bass guitar when no other candidates for the instrument could be found). Six months of private rehearsals ensued before the trio’s first public performance: calling themselves Talking Heads, they opened a show by The Ramones at the nearby Bowery club CBGB…

Continue reading here for more on David Bryne’s life story.

AND

For a preview of David Byrne & St. Vincent, watch this video.