With its white suburban soul and pleasant, midtempo pop, Diane Birch’s debut sounds like a relic from the ‘70s singer/songwriter era.
Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King are obvious touchstones here, and the twentysomething Birch (who wasn’t born until the mid-‘80s) approximates their vintage flair by aligning herself with the likes of R&B singer Betty Wright and producer Steve Greenberg, both of whom helped launch Joss Stone’s career several years prior.
While Stone’s debut focused on the sheer power of her vocals, however, Bible Belt functions instead as a showcase for Birch’s songwriting.
She pens every song here -- a marked difference from Stone, who performed cover songs on her own debut -- and sings them with understated grace, adding a touch of grit to the sustained high notes of “Fire Escape” and some coffeehouse sass to the sprightly “Valentino.” Few rookie songwriters play to their strengths this well, and that’s the charm of this record, which doesn’t blow your socks off as much as whet your appetite to fill your glass, recline your chair, and enjoy the record from start to finish.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fire EscapeDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 04:00 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | ValentinoDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 02:50 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | FoolsDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 03:54 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Nothing But a MiracleDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 04:26 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | RewindDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 06:10 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Rise UpDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 04:30 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | PhotographDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 05:20 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Don't Wait UpDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 03:00 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Mirror MirrorDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 04:47 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | ArielDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 03:55 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | Choo ChooDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 12 | ForgivenessDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 05:07 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 13 | Magic ViewDiane Birch | Diane Birch | Play | 03:10 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 54 mins | 125 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John R. Angier | Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements |
| 2 | Ray Angry | Organ (Hammond) |
| 3 | Howie Beno | Engineer, Mixing |
| 4 | Diane Birch | Bells, Composer, Farfisa Organ, Fender Rhodes, Finger Snaps, Guitar, Handclapping, Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Primary Artist, Vocals, Wurlitzer |
| 5 | Cindy Blackman | Drums |
| 6 | Adam Blackstone | Bass |
| 7 | Eugene Briskin | Cello |
| 8 | Eva Burmeister | Violin |
| 9 | Tomas K. Carney | Violin |
| 10 | Minyoung Chang | Violin |
| 11 | David Creswell | Viola |
| 12 | Sumyia Dabney | Handclapping, Vocals |
| 13 | Desiree Elsevier | Viola |
| 14 | Chris Gehringer | Mastering |
| 15 | David Gorman | Packaging |
| 16 | Steve Greenberg | Executive Producer, Finger Snaps, Handclapping, Producer |
| 17 | Steve Greenwell | Engineer, Mixing |
| 18 | Dawn Hannay | Viola |
| 19 | Jim Hines | Trumpet |
| 20 | Tim Ives | Photography |
| 21 | Bobby Jay and the Hawks | Handclapping, Vocals |
| 22 | Shan Jiang | Violin |
| 23 | Vivek Kamath | Viola |
| 24 | Joel Katz | Handclapping, Vocals |
| 25 | Lenny Kaye | Guitar (Electric) |
| 26 | Lisa Kim | Violin |
| 27 | Sumire Kudo | Cello |
| 28 | Jeanne LeBlanc | Cello |
| 29 | Elizabeth Lim | Violin |
| 30 | Frank London | Trumpet |
| 31 | Michael Longoria | Vocals |
| 32 | Kuan Cheng Lu | Violin |
| 33 | Tom "Bones" Malone | Flugelhorn, Horn Arrangements, Trombone |
| 34 | Michael Mangini | Mixing, Producer |
| 35 | Lou Marini | Saxophone |
| 36 | Karen Marx | Violin |
| 37 | John McCurry | Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric) |
| 38 | Melodie McDaniel | Photography |
| 39 | Eileen Moon | Cello |
| 40 | Stanton Moore | Drums, Percussion |
| 41 | Jose Moro | Handclapping, Vocals |
| 42 | Angelo Morris | Bass (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric) |
| 43 | Maxim Moston | String Arrangements |
| 44 | Phil Myers | Horn |
| 45 | Sarah O'Boyle | Violin |
| 46 | Fionn Ó Lochlainn | Guitar (Electric) |
| 47 | Suzanne Ornstein | Violin |
| 48 | Daniel Panner | Viola |
| 49 | Sandra Park | Violin |
| 50 | Lenny Pickett | Saxophone |
| 51 | Eugene Pitt | Handclapping, Vocals |
| 52 | Annaliesa Place | Violin |
| 53 | George Porter, Jr. | Bass |
| 54 | Shannon Powell | Tambourine |
| 55 | Erik Ralske | Horn |
| 56 | Michael Roth | Viola |
| 57 | Sophie Shao | Cello |
| 58 | Sheldon Steiger | Engineer |
| 59 | Jenny Strenger | Violin |
| 60 | Arnaud Sussmann | Violin |
| 61 | Alicia Svigals | String Arrangements |
| 62 | Cole Williams | Handclapping, Vocals |
| 63 | Mary Wooten | Cello |
| 64 | Betty Wright | Finger Snaps, Handclapping, Producer, Vocals |
| 65 | Jung Sun Yoo | Violin |
| 66 | Wei Hong Yu | Cello |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |