Sisters of the Moon, November 15th 2015 •  Brooke Hollis

On November 7th, 2015 MorganEve Swain released a three track EP, The Water Street Demos, as The Huntress and Holder of Hands on Bandcamp. Recording all of the parts herself, she delivered a testimony to her strength as a solo artist and a consummation of her instrumental talents. Though the gentle, fullness of her voice is the most powerful tool at her disposal, she also made exemplary use of the bass, cello, violin, and viola. This included a moving instrumental,“Etude”; a practice in wistful timing that leaves you feeling as though you are close to something, though you are not sure what, and before you can find it, it’s gone.

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WBUR Radio Boston, May 7th 2015 •  Meghna Chakrabarti

Back in 2011, we talked to the Rhode Island band, Brown Bird. The duo, Dave Lamb and MorganEve Swain, had just taken the Newport Folk Festival by storm. They got married and became a fixture in a growing group of musically restless, lyrically honest songwriters.

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Rhode Island Public Radio, April 30 2015 • John Bender

With its distinct, pulsing rhythm, a full drum set and electric bass, Axis Mundi, the new album from Brown Bird represents a departure of sorts. The sound is a retreat from the slower, more pared down music of the duo’s previous albums.

But the gypsy influences and the intertwining voices of husband and wife David Lamb and MorganEve Swain are the same genre-defying sounds that brought the band to prominence just a few years ago.

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The New York Times, April 29 2015 • Jeff Oloizia

In the summer of 2008, MorganEve Swain, a pixie-ish, free-spirited fiddler and singer met David Lamb, a bearded, deeply feeling singer-songwriter, while touring on the East Coast. Just days later, Lamb asked Swain to join his eclectic folk ensemble Brown Bird. The pair fell in love, and over the course of six years — as Brown Bird whittled its lineup down to a duo — they would release four full-length albums, building a faithful following near their home in Warren, Rhode Island. Swaim and Lamb were married in August 2013. On April 5, 2014, Lamb died due to complications from leukemia.

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Portland Phoenix, April 29 2015 • Jakob Battick

“And if this flesh should fade, devour me from within, pray then my soul prevail, free to roam again.” It’s not easy to process these lyrics within the context of a new Brown Bird record, especially when you’ve just pushed play. After founding member David Lamb’s passing in April of last year, Axis Mundi, the duo’s latest and last album, feels even more devastating than you’d expect. The group, formed in 2003 as a solo project of Lamb’s, came with time to become one of Maine’s most cherished musical treasures. From their early days on Portland’s own Peapod Recordings through their time as an internationally acclaimed touring folk act, Lamb could always be trusted to write songs as intense as they were beautiful, and as razor-sharp in vision as they were humble and soulful. It’s a stupefying tragedy that he should have been taken away from the world so soon, but Axis Mundi stands as the most perfect possible parting note Lamb could have left.

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The Boston Globe, April 25 2015 • James Reed

The story of Brown Bird is a love story, and it wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. They are, or were, a band, but Dave Lamb and MorganEveSwain were partners in every sense. Their six-year romance on and offstage caught fire and burned bright when they met in 2008. They moved in together within weeks.

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“Axis Mundi is the album that Dave and I wrote during the year of his battle with leukemia. Excluding ‘Tortured Boy’ which I wrote for him in the first stage of our relationship, these songs were written in the months leading up to his diagnosis, and the months following his bone marrow transplant, when he was confined to our home. As long as he felt well enough to be working, he was. He would spend hours in our home studio, meticulously recording and rerecording his parts – full drums, guitar, vocals, percussion ideas…

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