B'eirth

Bobin Jon Michael Eirth (also known as B'eirth or B'ee) is the lead singer, lyricist and sole songwriter in the psychedelic folk band In Gowan Ring and folk band Birch Book.

Biography

B'ee plays the guitar, cittern, harps (both mouth harps and folk harps), harmonica, recorder, reeds and flutes. He is largely self-taught (though says he has didactically studied "16th century polyphony"). He designs and fabricates his own stringed instruments.

As a live performer, B'ee is commonly associated with his pear-shaped and double-necked guitars. The later is a guitar/cittern hybrid made by B'eirth himself in 1998, which he calls the Stringed Spade. It is, in his own words: "a standard 6 string on the top neck and 9 strings in 5 courses (low course single) on the lower neck. I wanted the combination so as to avoid changing instruments between songs during performance. Occasionally I play both necks during one song and sometimes use the cittern neck as resonant strings while the top neck strings are sounding." [1]

In November 2005, B'ee released the first in a series of three albums of his new project Birch Book. These records marked an evolution in sound away from the overtly psychedelic towards a simpler, direct song based approach. They simultaneously brought the older mystical folk into the current and pointed a new individualistic way forward for the artist.

Discography

Studio albums

In Gowan Ring

• Love Charms – (World Serpent, 1994)
• The Twin Trees – (World Serpent, 1997)
• The Glinting Spade – (Bluesanct, 1999)
• Hazel Steps Through a Weathered Home – (Bluesanct, 2002)
• The Serpent and the Dove – (Les Disques du 7ème Ciel, 2015)

Birch Book

• Birch Book – (Lune Music, 2005)
• Fortune & Folly – (Helmet Room Recordings, 2006)
• A Hand Full Of Days – (Little Somebody Records, 2009)
• Tomorrow's Sun Will Rise The Same - (Birch Book Self-released, 2010)

External links

• Official website