Lucas Neil’s newest album opens with the line “I wish we were seaward birds.” In an era of intense depersonalization and dehumanization, Neil has tapped into that intense need to escape.

We all want to transcend this nightmarish hellscape we’ve created. Maybe from up above, we’ll see some beauty. Maybe up there, it all goes silent.

‘Birds’ is one of those beautifully unassuming folk records that cuts right to the heart of existence. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself sobbing on your bedroom floor. Neil is a songwriter’s songwriter – using simple language to deliver reflections on modern life on a blanket of classic folk instrumentation. For these songs, Neil and producer Brad Bensko decided to track acoustic to tape and then mix the record in real time. It’s these intentional processes and choices that make Birds feel so lived-in. From Neil’s beautiful falsetto in ‘Grey Hairs’ to the sombre piano of “Brightening Sky,” every second feels natural.

In ‘A Bump In The Road,’ Neil sings, “But I know I’m nothing without hope / Baby we’re strangers or we’re all home / Give up your anger, let it go / We’ve only hit a bump in the road.” Oh, I could cry right now. Neil has found a way to distill all the dichotomies and juxtapositions of life into these songs. All our anger, all our feelings of isolation, all our hope, all our longing – these are just “bump[s] in the road” along the way. To where, you might ask? I don’t think any of us knows. I don’t even think Lucas Neil knows. But, I’m glad his asking is the soundtrack towards that distant destination.

Tell us about that opening line. Do you remember where you were when you wrote it? What spoke to you in that moment?

I was sitting across from my sister Martha, my dearest and oldest friend, as she was nursing her firstborn son. It was during a time of intense political turmoil in our community and there was much to be emotionally charged about, yet here I was, in a moment of intense love and beauty, beneath the pine trees in the summer sun, as someone I loved held new life in her arms, and I could not help but be intensely optimistic. I picked up my guitar in that very moment and sang “soon I will be riding home to Red Hook”.

What did you enjoy about working with Brad Bensko?

Brad Bensko is someone who I never want to record without as long as I live. His brilliance as a recording engineer is only matched by his enthusiasm as a lover of music and creation. Together we had a joyous adventure of experimentation and discovery, seeking to capture live performances of my singer/songwriter centered folk songs, and introduce warm, percussive, and eclectic soundscapes to take them somewhere we could not predict.

There’s a lot of beautiful instrumentation on this record – violins, strings, bells. Did you play everything yourself, or were there other people who helped develop those lush arrangements?

My work on this record was rhythm centric. I played rhythm guitar and sang live, layering all percussion tracks on later. The other bits and pieces were provided by a cacophony of beautiful friends and collaborators. I always have an extremely firm vision for what I seek to capture, but bringing different characters and energies into the fold is extremely important to me, as it brings different perspectives, musical tastes, and ultimately leads the music along pathways I could not travel alone. The credits are as follows; Elizabeth Lyon Beisel on fiddle, Olivia Charlotte on piano, Brad Bensko on organ, bass, and nylon string guitar, Myah Strauser on Wurlitzer piano, Luca Simeone on trumpet, Kathleen Parks on mandolin, and Griffin Keeffe and Telli Quinn on supporting vocals.