A year ago, Laura Burhenn was part of the Bright Eyes touring band. Flash forward and the 32-year-old Burhenn has gained enough confidence to unleash her own torrent of green-minded, anti-corporate, pro-Occupy Wall Street views. An entire album’s worth, in fact, on Generals (Saddle Creek), her sonically adventurous sophomore outing as one-woman band the Mynabirds. In her previous incarnations as a solo artist and part of Washington, D.C., folk/rock duo Georgie James—and even on her soulful 2010 Mynabirds debut, What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood. Burhenn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our latest feature on her.
Burhenn: We were all obviously heartbroken at the world’s loss of Levon Helm—Nico, our drummer, most of all (he was her favorite drummer). But three things are making us feel better about his passing: listening to the Band endlessly, contemplating Levon’s connection to the original Mynah Birds (Neil Young, Rick James and Levon Helm!?). And, how lovely was it that his family announced his final hours? It gave the world time to send him off into the great beyond on the crest of a wave of immeasurable love. I wish our culture dealt with death in such a poetic way all the time.
Video after the jump.
