Remembrances from friends and fellow artists
By PORTLAND PHOENIX | April 10, 2014
On April 5th, David Lamb of the Providence band Brown Bird died of leukemia at the age of 35. Lamb lived in Portland from around 2003 until 2011, during which time he founded Brown Bird as a solo project that evolved into a collaborative one, most notably with his wife MorganEve Swain. Their music had a large following in Maine, selling out two record release shows at One Longfellow Square last April (for their excellent sixth LP Fits of Reason), while being covered several times by the Phoenix, most recently for the cover story “Brown Bird Is Not a Folk Band.” In his memory, we compiled a modest list of remembrances from fellow artists.
From Jeff Prystowsky of the Providence band Low Anthem: Today our dear friend Dave Lamb passed away. He was 35 years old and had been fighting leukemia for the past year. I was lucky to spend the day with his family and close friends gathered together from the hospital to support each other and share stories and memories of his life. The vibe in that room was inspiring. Many of the people I met for the first time, since Dave had so many friends, and not one did I find who wasn’t a) an incredible human being full of love and heart and b) didn’t have great little-known stories about Dave, like how he could keep a beat at the drums while walking around the kit! I felt immediately comfortable and welcomed into Brown Bird’s extended family. As heartbroken as we were, it was attest to how Dave’s spirit still lingered on that such a community could spring forth naturally from his loved ones of different periods of his life.
From Boston/Bar Harbor musician Audrey Ryan: In 2008 Dave Lamb and I went on a solo tour in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and back up thru New England. One of my most vivid memories of that tour was sitting at a bar in Albany before a show with Wye Oak and Dave saying to me, “I just want to make music and travel like this, that can’t be that hard, can it?” He wanted me to affirm him but at the time I was starting to be convinced that maybe it was too hard. Part of me really wanted to set Dave straight, tell him it wouldn’t be easy for him to make a living at his art. But he had those smiling eyes that seemed so innocent and quietly determined; I just couldn’t play his devil’s advocate. Looking back now I just feel so glad that he got to live his dream despite the odds. He made beautiful music, wrote timeless songs, and got to travel and live off of his art. That night he played “By the Reins” and had people stomping their feet and dancing, I thought to myself, “this is a hit,” and it is the first song of his I’ve ever learned to cover. Now it is my job, and every other musician who knew and loved Dave, to learn Brown Bird songs and keep playing them during our sets as a tribute, to give our old friend a voice.
In September of 2011, I played a show with Brown Bird at the Lompoc in Bar Harbor. Before the show we were hanging out eating dinner there and my friend and old boss Thistle Brown (who ran Wingspread Gallery in Northeast Harbor) joined us. Thistle was about 87 years old at the time (she actually passed away that winter) and was a true original hippie artist. She sat drinking a glass of Chardonnay, sipping her soup, and kept smiling at Dave across the table. She then turned to me and said quite bluntly, “your friend is so handsome, I always like a man with a beard.” It was a true Harold and Maude moment. Somewhat startled, I made eye contact both with Dave and MorganEve and we tried to keep our smiles from becoming a full-blown laugh. After the show when Dave and MorganEve were packing up the van I said to Dave, “I bet you haven’t been hit on by an 87-year-old woman before, have you?” Dave chuckled with his smiling eyes and said, “nope, that was a first.”