Thomas Dollbaum – Birds of Paradise

Description

The realest-deal storyteller in indie-rock today is the Tampa-born, New Orleans-based singer/songwriter Thomas Dollbaum, and Birds of Paradise is his most powerful and dynamic work yet. Following up his critically acclaimed Wellswood (Big Legal Mess, 2022) and Drive All Night EP (Dear Life Records, 2025), Birds of Paradise is a goodbye letter to lost loved ones and former selves. These songs find Dollbaum searching for acceptance in the transient in-between places: Florida’s pine flatwoods, backroads leading to I-95, where birds fly across the water. And even though the ghosts of his alt-country predecessors Townes and Molina are definitely present, on Birds of Paradise, Dollbaum emerges from their shadowswaving to the past, sounding all the more like himself.

This momentthis albumis long overdue. Both of Dollbaums previous releases had taken way too long to record, due to circumstances out of his control, leaving him frustrated. And after having been away from his home for eight years, the place he had left was no longer the place he remembered, and the unchanging of the natural world felt like a constant he wanted to write about. With a sense of immediacy, he wrote Birds of Paradise in three months. Called up the musicians he trusted and admired the mostNick Corson, Josh Halper, and Jake Lendermanand asked them to meet him at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi with producer/engineer Clay Jones. They learned and tracked the album in four days, capturing lightning in a bottle, a sonic revelation Dollbaums writing has always been waiting for.

With the help of Lenderman, Halper, Corson, and Jones, Birds of Paradise is Dollbaums hard-won breakthrough. Alive and echoing like the poems and short stories you cant shake: coyotes howl, birds fly south, kids chase rabbits through the sugar cane, and cigarettes are four dollars a pack. Birds of Paradise reminds us where we come fromthe things inside ourselves weve forgottenwe just needed Dollbaum to show us. Heres how to look back without fear or shame. Heres authenticity.

Tracklist

1. Visitation2. Dozen Roses3. Rabbits4. Coyote5. Waterbird6. Big Boi7. Pulverize8. Kings Landing9. Scrub Jay10. Blue Meets Blue