Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird's violin rarely stays in one place for long. Set against loop and effect pedals, it is joined by whistling and his own vocals, building layered pieces that can move from swing to indie rock to folk within a single album. Born in 1973, he grew up on Chicago's North Shore, trained in the Suzuki method from age four and learned bird-calls and whistling from his grandmother, a background that shows in his idiosyncratic approach.

Bird's first commercial exposure came through Squirrel Nut Zippers, on three albums between 1996 and 1998. His group Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire released Thrills in 1998 and Oh! The Grandeur in 1999, then The Swimming Hour in 2001, before the band unofficially disbanded in 2003. Weather Systems that year marked his move into solo work, and in 2006 he signed to Fat Possum Records. His 2019 album My Finest Work Yet earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album at the 2020 Grammys. He composed the score for the television series Baskets, released in 2016, and was cast as Thurman Smutny in the fourth installment of Fargo.