Welcome to a retrospective of some of my favorite recordings from 30 plus years of making long playing record albums. I discovered early on that you are not recording notes or words or even music for that matter, but magic. Here is a crazy 20 track collection of folk, jazz, rock, world, electronica, ambient, meditative magic made with the help of many beautiful musicians. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have. JEFF BIRD RHYTHM AND ENTERTAINMENT track genres Listening to the myriad styles on Rhythm and Entertainment is a bit like mountain weather. If you don't like what you hear, wait 5 minutes . Here are brief track descriptions to help you navigate the ever changing climate. RHYTHM 1. Souvenir Flutes (medium instrumental)- ambient,loopy,psybient, dark______7:53 2. Kaw-Liga (peppy instrumental) jazz, Hank Williams, bass, guitar duo______4:15 3. Monkey (slow heavy vocal) rock, Tom Waitsish, fat and scrappy _________2:31 4. Mr Hicks (peppy vocal) rock, fun,cartoony___________________________3:20 5. Beat For the Boneman (peppy vocal) rock, psychedelic world.____________3:31 6. Articles of Faith (medium heavy instrumental) rock,psychedelic, guitar______6:18 7. 3 Cats and a Dog (peppy instrumental) folk,world.______________________3:27 8. Just Like Driving (med up instrumental) jazz, saxophone,guitar___________6:42 9. King Kong Strutt (med vocal) rock,guitar,harmonica_____________________7:26 10. Mu Blues (peppy instrumental) jazz, piano trio________________________6:10 ENTERTAINMENT 1. Deep Breathing -One (slow instrumental) meditative, spacious_____________11:10 2. Self Mastery (med slow instrumental spoken word) hypnotic, piano, accordion_5:51 3. Nae-Pogo (med instrumental) world, shakuhachi, percussion._______________6:33 4. Six Legs (med/slow instrumental) floaty, piano,harmonica, accordion, ________4:20 5. Un Beau matin (med/peppy vocal) folk, Français, trippy____________________3:59 6. Borealis Angst ( med instrumental, spoken word) dark,brooding,ambient,guitar_ 6:30 7. O Auctrix Vitae (med instrumental) bright, melodic, loopy, electronic__________4:14 8. Ryukyu (peppy instrumental) world, shakuhachi, mandolin ,_________________2:52 9. Little Hooves (slow vocal) hypnotic, piano, violin_________________________4:57 10. Ramblin Man (slow vocal) hank williams,guitar, bass______________________6:19 "I have been working with Jeff Bird for over twenty-five years and his ability to approach a piece of music from a direction that is surprising and contrary still amazes me. He is one of the few musicians that I have come across that I would call “fearless”. That fearlessness and his ability for constant reinvention are all on glorious display in his 30 year retrospective, Rhythm and Entertainment." Michael Timmins, Cowboy Junkies. Jeff Bird – Rhythm and Entertainment: Recordings 1983-2009 (independent) "If you’ve seen live music in Guelph, K-W or Elora in the past 35 years, you’ve most likely seen Jeff Bird. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have seen him with the Cowboy Junkies since 1988. Before that band’s success and whenever he’s had free time since, Bird has been a very, very busy man. He was a founder of Canadian folk group Tamarack, does regular jazz gigs and had a long-standing collaboration with fiddler Riki Gee, some of Bird’s many sides that appear on this career retrospective of sorts. On his own, however, Bird gets up to all kinds of experimental weirdness: improv with shakuhachi and drums, cinematic ambience, some straight-up country shuffles, experimental dub reggae, francophone folklore, spoken-word dream recollections set to music, and gorgeous harmonica and harmonium duets. You know, the usual. The stunner is “Little Hooves,” a piano ballad from his 1997 album featuring vocalist Nick Craine, followed closely by a take on Hank Williams’s "Rambling Man," featuring Tony Quarrington on vocals. In the background of "Mu Blues," you can hear a dinner audience blithely ignoring Bird’s jazz combo, gabbing away despite the fiery fingerwork of pianist Witold Grabowiecki. The track is indicative of Bird: always around, politely ignored, inconspicuous, and indifferent as to how he might be blowing the minds of anyone who cares to listen. (May 8) Michael Barclay: radio free canuckistan. the Record. the Guelph Mercury. http://radiofreecanuckistan.blogspot.ca/ stylus magazine 14 oct 2014 http://stylusmagazine.ca/2014/10/14/jeff-bird-rhythm-and-entertainment/ "the moment it passed through my hands at the August Stylus Contributor meeting, I was intrigued by Rhythm and Entertainment. The cover art is simple, symmetric, and boasts an impressive longevity (albeit of recordings from someone I’d never heard of) but I thought, this could be good. Rhythm and Entertainment is a two disc retrospective of Jeff Bird’s thirty years in the music industry – the main difference between discs being that disc two is more introspective and experimental with repetition and spoken word/vocals. Musically, Bird excels in every way. He’s accredited to five different kinds of bass on the release as well as eleven additional instruments (including the lap steel, mandolin, melodica, and tarka to name a few).  Genre-wise, there’s no uniformity. There’s a mix of soul, swing, and worldly sounds throughout. Over the years he’s played with the Cowboy Junkies, worked in film and television, and now, should you ever find yourself in the Kingston area, he offers music lessons for the mandolin, harmonica and bass. The album was recorded at multiple locations, including live at Manhattan Pizza Studio and the “Ty Tyrfu” (don’t know where that is exactly, but it is Welsh for “house of noise and commotion”). Astounding in more than the musical sense, Bird’s humble website is an endearing accompaniment to satisfy all the questions you may ever have about him. Rhythm and Entertainment is an entertaining retrospective highlighting a superbly skilled musician." Victoria King, stylus magazine 14 oct 2014 http://stylusmagazine.ca/2014/10/14/jeff-bird-rhythm-and-entertainment/