Axis Mundi

Brown Bird's final album of original material, Axis Mundi, is a sixteen-song collection written by the beloved Rhode Island husband-and-wife duo of David Lamb and MorganEve Swain during Lamb's year-long battle with leukemia. It was finished by Swain after Lamb's passing last Spring. Axis Mundi is the album that Dave and I wrote during the year of his battle with leukemia, explains Swain. Excluding 'Tortured Boy,' which I wrote for him in the first stage of our relationship, these songs were written in the months leading up to his diagnosis, and the months following his bone marrow transplant, when he was confined to our home. As long as he felt well enough to be working, he was. He would spend hours in our home studio, meticulously recording and rerecording his parts-full drums, guitar, vocals and percussion ideas... This album is different from our others in that it is, in many ways, the album we always wanted to make. It is fuller, louder and more rock-inspired than our previous efforts, while still holding tight to the Middle-Eastern and Eastern European influences we'd become known for. We'd intended to record at home during Dave's recovery, and release and tour on it when he was well enough to get back on the road. Lamb fell ill while touring behind the band's 2013 release Fits of Reason. Following his diagnosis, an outpouring of fans and friends from across the globe came to the pair's aid and offered enduring support. Brown Bird released five albums during their eleven-year career: Tautology (2007), Such Unrest (2007), The Devil Dancing (2009), Salt for Salt (2011) and Fits of Reason (2013). The pair toured relentlessly and performed at the Newport Folk Festival as well as the Stagecoach Festival. NPR dubbed the outfit folk's tattooed troubadours and Paste Magazine said [i]t's not every day that a band comes along truly defying classification. Providence, Rhode Island duo Brown Bird are the real deal.