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"It took me back to the old kind of folk music--Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. The music is great! People are going to enjoy this." - Willi Miller, NPR for the Treasure Coast/WQCS
"Lovely!" - Danny Schmidt, Folk Legend
"Good Stuff." - Rob Brezsny, Free Will Astrology
"This is simple, melodic folk -- beautiful harmonies, poetic lyrics, really stunning stuff." - Alexis Dow, Harrisburg Patriot-News
The Orphan Trains are stunning. I train psychiatrists to use language to radically and permanently transform their clients’ lives. But even this surgeon of words has a lot to learn from The Orphan Trains. Their lyrics are astounding. Like Leonard Cohen on a roller coaster. Songs that will make you fall in love with life again. You’ve really got to listen. The Orphan Trains' songs are poetry with wings. - Jon Connelly, PHD, LCSW, Founder of The Institute for Survivors of Incest or Sexual Violence
As a synthetic organic chemist, I have learned to attune myself to the workings of invisible worlds. The Orphan Trains have done the same. Like great scientists, they perform with a palpable passion for the unknown. And when they make great discoveries, they share the story with the rest of us. They deserve the highest honors in the chemistry of song. - Jason Carr, PhD, University of Louisiana, Monroe
A locally popular musical duo, named after the trains which carried New York City orphans to adoptive farm families in the west, will present a free concert Friday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at the Indian River County Main Library located at 1600 21st St. in downtown Vero Beach.
The Orphan Trains, a Vero Beach-based duo comprised of Dakota Rose (aka Amanda Birdsall) and The Masked Fantastic (aka Wolff Bowden), will perform their unique, original songs sung in folk style.
Using acoustic guitars as well as violin, harmonicas and piano, the duo gives musical life to what they describe as the "orphaned" collective imaginations of every day people and their lives.
The singing Orphan Trains took inspiration from the locomotives, which took 200,000 orphans to new homes during the period between 1854 and 1929.
"We were moved by that whole phenomenon. The orphan trains were started by a minister who wanted these orphaned children who were living on the streets to have a morally upright upbringing and wholesome life on farms. It saved a lot of lives," Ms. Birdsall said.
The Orphan Trains have been performing together for about a year after meeting three years ago. At that time, Mr. Bowden was establishing his reputation as an award-winning painter and poet.
The pair began writing songs together and Mr. Bowden put some of his poems to music.
"He's very magical in his music as well as his art, and has an almost unworldly quality to what he does. He sounds like a mix of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie," said Ms. Birdsall.
She previously worked with foster youngsters and was studying for her doctorate in psychology when she realized she was more drawn to music and left her studies.
But her prior experiences and studies were also the impetus for some of the songs she has written.
Ms. Birdsall started as a solo performer and appeared a year ago at a well-received concert at the library. Although she still performs solo on occasion, she has enjoyed pairing with Mr. Bowden, both musically and personally.
"We tell lots of stories in our songs and this is what we want to do with our lives. It's been a magical first year already," Ms. Birdsall said.
"Jenell," taken from the duo's CD "On the Night You Were Born," is sung by Ms. Birdsall and is about a foster child whose story is told from her foster mother's perspective and how she wonders about Jenell 10 years later.
Mr. Bowden believes The Orphan Train's mission is to bring another dimension to what people today view as creativity.
"It seems that imagination and creativity are fostered only in a commercial sense, where people want to make money.
"It's an energy that has become 'orphaned' because people cannot express themselves. We try to bring peoples' stories and creativity into our (musical) world and then give it back to them," he said.
The concert is free and open to the public. It will be held rain or shine on the library lawn if the weather is agreeable, or inside, if it's not.
- Barbara Yoresh, Entertainment Writer for Vero Beach Hometown News
An incredible album. One that I can listen to over and over again. The first song has a lovely melody that also serves as a grounding mantra. The entire album has a beautiful, innocent spirit to it that simply makes you feel good. Yet, there's a quiet sophistication to all of the music. It's an amazing compilation. - Audrey Phillips, Award-Winning Artist
"If you enjoy solid voices with character telling relevant stories, you will enjoy this evening. The Orphan Trains, Amanda Birdsall and Wolff Bowden, have captured the sound we associate with hill and backwoods roots. So when they tell us a story about a wedding, birth, family, childhood, loss, separation, war, or any other human condition, they carry an authenticity which a hardscrabble life or one close to the earth would merit. They are welcomed at the leading folk music venues, festivals and into homes for concerts across the nation. And they both draw on rich, fertile day job backgrounds. Amanda from mental health; Wolff from poetry and art both winning awards and recognition regularly. And they use guitar, harmonica, violin and percussion along the way."
- Barry White, President of the Folk Club of South Florida
The Orphan Trains are very, very strange. But, in a wonderful way. Kind of like a train filled with orphaned children and wild animals, strange. Kind of like a bear on a trampoline, strange. According to their website, they wrote their new album in Corvallis, OR where they live when they are not roaming from Florida to India. Apparently, these songs kept bears away when they were lost most of a night in the OSU research forest.
The first song, You & I, is a rollicking tumble towards love infused with the Buddhist idea that change is inevitable. “You say you want to change the world. You couldn’t stop it changing if you tried. Everything’s changing, day after day except you and I.” The rest of the lyrics are surreal. Tigers and Unicorns sighing forgiveness. Blue horses. Swans on the waters of time. And if that wasn’t bizarre enough, the duo created a YouTube video for the song, featuring two spooky stuffed lambs playing on the train in Avery Park!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl_MT6zKtZU)
The second song, Jenell, is sung by the female vocalist of the duo, Dakota Rose, who just so happens to have a Master’s Degree in Psychology. Jenell is about a foster child who wanders from circus tents to redemption while her mother wonders where she is. The song seems to be written from the mother’s perspective. It is haunting, original, and my personal favorite.
The rest of the album is like a painting by Marc Chagall, swirling with colors and houses and brides. On The Night You Were Born (the title track) gives you a peek into the birth of the secretive male singer, who calls himself: THE MASKED FANTASTIC (he’s also a professional artist named Wolff www.wolffantastic.com). You get to hear about his mythical grandfather, from whom he inherited (simultaneously) a dog and a guitar. According to his bio, the dog taught him to “sing” but it sounds more like howling to me. This album is heavy on howling, since he howls on 3 tracks. Luckily, Dakota Rose doesn’t howl. She sings with a warm, soothing voice reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and chooses to end the album with a lullaby. She also plays a powerful violin, an instrument she picked up at age six.
These songs are real. From a song about a comatose woman dying (Oh, Mary) to an account of The Masked Fantastic’s Father’s fight with cancer (Bethlehem) to the song for which the band is named, in which two orphans find new homes on farms of the west (Orphan Trains), this duo holds a sustained and very creative note all the way through.
For More Information: WWW.THEORPHANTRAINS.COM
Sebastian Carr
Folk Guru Review
Corvallis, OR
- Sebastian Carr, The Alchemist Magazine
Discography
On The Night You Were Born (2008)
PERFORMING SONGWRITER MAGAZINE DIY FINALIST
The Animal Groom (Release Date Summer 2010)
On The Night You Were Born has been described as “Really Stunning Stuff” (The Patriot-News) and features 12 Songs and a Lullaby. This album takes you on a journey with: orphans on an 1850’s train, laughing trees, a lion-loving foster child, a shotgun-wielding father, a runaway bride in New Orleans and a man who imagines he is a record spinning beneath the needle of time.
For More Music please visit:
sonicbids.com/AMANDABIRDSALL
WWW.THEORPHANTRAINS.COM
Photos
Bio
The Orphan Trains met on the wild savannahs between the countries of poetry and song. Amanda Birdsall had spent the previous decade performing on stages from Florida to Canada, recording three acclaimed albums along the way, playing with such powerful voices as Sloan Wainwright and Edie Carey. Wolff Bowden had published two full-length books of poetry, including nearly thirty poems which had appeared in literary magazines. He had won several major poetry awards, booked a reading with former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and had been named ARTEXPO ARTIST OF THE MILLENNIUM in Miami for his mixed-media paintings.
Inspired by American history, the duo adopted a new name, The Orphan Trains, and has been roaring along ever since, playing festivals, art galleries, conferences, libraries, listening rooms and botanical gardens. With songs forged in the haunting fires of life, and music which moves with its own secret pulse, The Orphan Trains take listeners on strange, uplifting journeys through the grit and glory of time.
Jon Connelly, PHD, who booked The Orphan Trains as headliners at his psychotherapy conference, said their songs were, “Like Leonard Cohen on a roller coaster.” Delivering their well-crafted lyrics with both male and female vocals, two guitars, a ferocious violin, harmonicas, harmonies, piano, banjo, drums and tambourine, The Orphan Trains have warmed the ears of thousands of discerning listeners.
While touring with their debut album: On The Night You Were Born, The Orphan Trains have dropped in for live performances on radio and television shows and performed with great singer/songwriters, including folk legend Danny Schmidt. And they’ve been garnering beautiful reviews from Portland to Port St. Lucie, where NPR’s Willi Miller said their music, “Took me way back to the old kind of folk music (Woody Guthrie & Bob Dylan). The music is great! People are going to enjoy this.”
THE ORPHAN TRAINS take their name from the 1800’s trains that ferried orphans from New York City to farms of the west.
AMANDA BIRDSALL WON 3RD PRIZE IN THE SUSQUEHANNA MUSIC FESTIVAL'S SONGWRITING COMPETITION
THE ORPHAN TRAINS' ALBUM On The Night You Were Born WAS A PERFORMING SONGWRITER MAGAZINE DIY FINALIST
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VIDEOS AND SHOW DATES, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE:
WWW.THEORPHANTRAINS.COM
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