Photo: Selwyn Birchwood by Jay Skolnick
Groundbreaking young blues visionary Selwyn Birchwood today announces the premiere of his attention-grabbing new video for his original song, “Searching For My Tribe.” The passionate, thought-provoking track appears on Birchwood’s recently released, third Alligator album, Living In A Burning House.
According to Birchwood, Searching For My Tribe is about his personal journey for self-actualization. “I had always been a loner from a very young age. At 19 years old, I discovered an entire world of blues music that felt like ‘home’. I knew then where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Just when I thought I had found my place in the sun, it appears as though all of the people and sounds that brought me in have been replaced with other trends. This music video allows me to tell that story, visually, from a different perspective as it showcases the state of the ‘art’ in the environment we see today.”
Watch “Searching For My Tribe”
Selwyn Birchwood delivers a ton of sweet, funky blues on his new track and video “Searching For My Tribe.” His guitar work and vocals are both hypnotic and strong and his artistic evolution is impressive and obvious. The video clip enhances the song and puts down a bit of commentary on the music business as a whole. It’s a stance that’s sure to cause some discussion and strong opinions, which is what all great art does. Selwyn Birchwood shows the depth of his talent in a fearless way on “Searching For My Tribe” and uses that depth to fly high.
“Searching For My Tribe” is from Birchwood’s celebrated album, Living In A Burning House, produced by Tom Hambridge and released on Alligator Records.
Birchwood calls his original music “electric swamp funkin’ blues,” defined by raw and soulful musicianship played with fire-and-brimstone fervor. His gritty, unvarnished vocals draw his audience deep inside his unforgettable tales of love, passion, pain and pleasure. No other band on the current blues scene is built quite like Birchwood’s. In addition to Selwyn’s electrifying guitar and lap steel playing, the other featured instrument is Regi Oliver’s driving baritone sax. The group is rounded out by bass, drums and keyboards.
“This singer-songwriter continues to leap forward…intent on both working in the blues idiom and expanding on it. His vocals are as tough as these funky, surprising sounds demand. The 13 original songs are constructed for drama….stories and sounds combine to haunt beyond their specific references, as the best blues songs will.” —The Wall Street Journal
Since the 2014 release of his Alligator Records debut, Don’t Call No Ambulance, Birchwood’s meteoric rise from playing small Florida clubs to headlining international festival stages is nothing short of phenomenal. The album received the Blues Music Award and Living Blues Critics’ Award for Best Debut Album Of 2014, and he won the 2015 Blues Blast Rising Star Award. Rave reviews ran in publications from Rolling Stone to The Wall Street Journal, from The Chicago Tribune to The San Francisco Chronicle. He followed in 2016 with Pick Your Poison. DownBeat said, “There’s a deep-seated power about Birchwood’s singing and six string/lap steel guitar work…and there’s an unmistakable emotion and honesty linking him to forebearers like Muddy Waters.”
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I like the way Selwyn looks now
I hope this song does well. He has something to say. Samantha Fish could have played the female guitaristI met Samantha in Delray in 2013 with a selfie of course!