When Laurel and I first began dating, we made each other a series of mixtapes, not the most original idea, but it was an important part of our getting to know each other. For me, I decided to make a series of four discs BULL WORK BIRD SONG that were both a play on Laurel’s last name (Bastian = bastion = bulwark = BULL WORK) and presented a collection of connected, themed songs.

The first two discs (BULL and WORK) featured only songs about animals (bulls, etc.) and the second two (BIRD and SONG) featured songs about birds and singing, respectively. Here’s the third disc, BIRD:

[Note: The disc contained a few tracks that are not part of Spotify’s library. The disc began with a 30 second recording of hermit thrushes, Arlo Guthrie’s cover of Lead Belly’s “Red Bird”, my friend Spencer Gardner’s recording of “Ostrich”, Sufjan Stevens’ “The Lord God Bird“, and David Gray’s version of “One with the Birds“.]