This Bird Has Flown is a tribute album to the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. The CD contains all the songs the Rubber Soul album contained in the same sequence. The difference is the performances are all from various artists in various genres. The only bluegrass representation on the record is a contribution from the Yonder Mountain String Band. They performed the tune Think For Yourself. I went online looking for a review of the album and found a couple. Here’s one from Rolling Stone Magazine for you to enjoy. But this one from houstonpress.com made me wonder what the reviewer meant by this statement.
The Yonder Mountain String Band’s “Think For Yourself” sounds the most like the Beatles’ original of any song here, albeit with bluegrass instrumentation, and it’s more or less innocuous.
I’m not sure if he felt it wasn’t that offensive in spite of the “bluegrass instrumentation” or because of it. I sent him an email asking just that, but have yet to hear back from him.
An interesting aspect of this CD is that the producer has a podcast in which he talks about the…well I’ll just let you read it.
Join producer Jim Sampas, as he talks about creating the new tribute album “This Bird Has Flown – A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul.” On the “This Bird Has Flown” Podcast, Jim talks about working with artists like The Donnas, Ted Leo, Sufjan Stevens, Ben Harper, The Fiery Furnaces, Dar Williams and Mindy Smith, and previews songs from the new album. Jim also brings incredible insight into the recording of the original “Rubber Soul,” and talks about The Beatles as they enter a new phase of their career.
The podcast can be round at thisbirdhasflown.com.
