A few weeks ago I went to one of my favorite concerts to date. It started out with our featured duo The Bird and the Bee, She & Him and ending with one of my all time favorites, The Swell Season. It was a night at the Hollywood Bowl dedicated to male/female writing duos which I have to say are my favorite. To describe The Swell Season's performance would be impossible except to say I actually cried when they did their Oscar winning hit, "Falling Slowly" which is a first for me. The evening started off well with The Bird and the Bee also known as Inara George and Greg Kurstin. I had heard a few of their songs here and there on soundtracks and such so they were familiar but I had never really delved into their music. Inara, dressed in a fabulous retro, silver dress provides the vocals while Greg produces and backs on the keyboard.
Inara and George met back in 2004 when she was working on her debut solo album. They quickly bonded over a love of jazz standards and soon wrote and recorded their debut EP in 2006 and a full self-titled album in 2007. Greg as a keyboardist and producer has worked everyone from Britney Spears to The Flaming Lips to KeSha. The man has to have some skills, no? With several other EPs under their belt and two recent albums,
Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future in January 2009 and
Interpreting The Masters Volume 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates in 2010 as well as other individual projects you'd have to say these two are quite the busy pair. Let's also address that Inara just had a baby. (Insert witty joke about the birds and the bees).
As much as I would like it Greg and Inara are not a couple as she is actually married to someone else. That didn't matter to Greg though who brought the baby out of stage for the last song while he played piano with one hand. He was probably just trying to pick up girls. I hear babies work really well for that... I however cannot be fooled! I was slightly jealous though that this child has made it up on stage for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl while I still sit in the audience... I'm working on accepting that.
With a recent performance on Ellen as well as the Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel The Bird and the Bee are well on their way to becoming a household name. You can hear their music on
Grey's Anatomy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Sex and the City: The Movie and
Funny People.
I hope you have enjoyed this week's feature after my long absence. Be sure to leave your comments below with what your think of their music and make sure to share it with friends if you like it! Happy Monday!
Photo 1 & 3 – by Autumn DeWilde
Live Photo by Gabi Porter
As much as I would like it Greg and Inara are not a couple as she is actually married to someone else. That didn't matter to Greg though who brought the baby out of stage for the last song while he played piano with one hand. He was probably just trying to pick up girls. I hear babies work really well for that... I however cannot be fooled! I was slightly jealous though that this child has made it up on stage for a performance at the Hollywood Bowl while I still sit in the audience... I'm working on accepting that. 
2 comments:
I heart she and him! I will check out the others too.
So jealous that you got to see She & Him and The Swell Season. I'm a cryer, so I DEFINITELY would have bawled at "Falling Slowly." To coin one of your terms, gonna "delve" in to The Birds and the Bees now. I have heard "Again and Again" before and I like that song, so I'm guessing I'll like some of their other stuff to. Thanks for sharing, Mary! Hope to see you soon!
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