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World Cafe Nashville: Birdtalker

The members of Birdtalker project balance and warmth in a way that only true friends can.
Gavin Nutt
/
Courtesy of the artist
The members of Birdtalker project balance and warmth in a way that only true friends can.

Birdtalker's music arises at the point where intimate exchange connects with community. Zack and Dani Green were a newly married couple when, one afternoon, the guitarist and singer asked his spouse for input on a song he was writing. Within hours, they realized that Dani's background as a student of literature and inherent talent as a harmonizer brought Zack's music to another level. Soon, the Greens reached out to several close friends who'd attended Nashville's Lipscomb University with Zack and a band was born.

There's a beautiful reflectiveness within Birdtalker's song that comes from Zack Green's soul-searching and Dani Green's skill with story and metaphor. And the band project balance and warmth in a way that only true friends can. Birdtalker found extraordinary success before ever embarking on a national tour — its song "Heavy," featured on the recently released debut album ONE, has 24 million streams on Spotify. Now a full-time endeavor for the Greens, Birdtalker is winning fans and selling out clubs across the country. Birdtalker joined me for a conversation about faith, doubt, love and listening at Sound Stage Studios in Nashville. Hear it in the player.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.