The Nightbird

soundclick.com/thenightbird

thenightbird.com

Grand Junction, CO USA

World • New Age

April 17, 2001

1,198 plays
25,887 views

The Nightbird, Susan Cypher, is a singer/ storyteller hailing from Grand Junction, Colorado. She brings forth a sound that combines keyboards, vocals, and guitar. Her music has arisen from the celtic style with emphasis on the poetry and meaning of the song. The melody derives from the words and dictates the rhythm. Her music has a very european feeling and latin rhythms often dance along with the words.

Band/artist history

Well, yes I am a "band." Though a band with one person is kind of special :) I actually tried the group scene (bandwise, get my mind out of the gutter) several times. At the point I began writing seriously my path led away from that scene. I actually had been working alone as The Traveling Troubador for a lot of years soooo it was just another step to move into the bardic style of singing and playing and becoming The Nightbird. My inspiration for the naming came from my favorite writer, Mercedes Lackey, another songstress/storyteller. She wrote several books, like The Robin and The Kestrel on bards and what it meant to be one. The fit feels right :)

A couple of new additions to my "Band of one" have been very cool. Recently I have added in some performances featuring the belly dancer, Jodi. She has now written at least 5 dances in what she calls "Primitiva" dance style to three of my songs off the first album, "Songs of the Dark"--"Imaging", "To Dance (heard on Radiopositive.com)", and "Nighttime." She has also written choreography to "Siren Song" and a new one that I will be coming out with in the future called "Moonflight Fantasy."

I also have been priveleged to have conga drummer Troy Douglas play with me on some of my bigger gigs. He has quite an extensive background with a variety of bands down through the years, not only here but in the Denver area.

Have you performed in front of an audience?

Yes, I play locally mostly but am looking, now that my children are grown have started playing ouf of my valley and looking to go as far as I can. I play for coffee shops, special occasions, art shows, and festivals (and of course the occasional moonlight walk HA!). This year I was invited to play at a couple of wonderful events, our Alzheimer's walk and also performed at the New Artist Awards Show in last March and actually snagged the award for "Arisen Female Artist 2002. I absolutely love playing live and got to play with some wonderful artists there. Even more recently I traveled to Pennsylvania to meet with a producer there and auditioned live. It was wonderful but frightening and has resulted in what I am hoping will be a change in the music's direction, keep watching :)

Your musical influences

My greatest influence is probably celtic music and its emphasis on minor keys and dominant sevens. I also love the sound of electronic flutes, bottles, and other "misty-sounding" instruments (for lack of a better way to describe it." This all lends a haunting flavor to my music. I am strongly influenced by the polyrhythms found in Latin, African, Celtic, and other world music and have been heavily influenced by people like Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Enya, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Janice Ian, Carole King, along with many others. All of their music utilized melody, rhythm, and words in a style that lifted the soul up. The fairy tales I told as a storyteller before becoming a songwriter also touched my music and J.R. Tolkein with his whole world of middle earth, which danced and teemed with creatures of noble and ignoble grace heavily influenced all my writing. You hear a type of "magic" through all I write, inviting you to dance with the fairies. 

The music I have written has been alternately called "wiccan-type folk music" (on the CD from CD review) and/or neomedieval music, but I also write a lot of spiritual music and have been priveleged to write music with my friend Reverend Michael Torphy as well in a New Age Style. We have hopes that there will be a CD release in the future with this music as well.

What equipment do you use?

I actually have my a fairly old classical guitar that you will hear on the CDs but just recently bought an acoustic electric Ibanez I am calling "Traveler" that I love. I play on both but also have keyboard songs that are all played on Yamaha keyboards, a PSR 410, a small analog synthesizer, and a PSR 640.

Anything else?

Enjoy the music, life, and that joyful thing we call love and all should unfold well for you. Also, may you always allow the dance that is your life to unfold fully and carry you to the heights.

#folkBardMagicWiccaEur

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