The Walnut Room

b.bixler

Website »
MySpace »

b.bixler is essentially singer/songwriter Brian Bixler with an alternating cast of support players. He plays a style of music he refers to as baroque folk rock, which loosely blends his formal training on classical guitar and voice with his love for folk and rock music. His voice, stage presence, and songwriting have warranted complements nationwide by audiences and musicians alike, including John Vecchiarelli, members of The Avett Brothers and recent Portland break-out’s Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside.

b.bixler’s new CD blemished (recorded with Antreo Pukay, who also worked on the grammy-nominated Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips), represents his wide range of songwriting; from quirky compositions like “merry-go-round,” written from the perspective of Lewis Carroll who’s confessing his love to the inspiring child, Alice Liddle, to the beautiful melodies of “jesi’s song” about falling out of love, or even neo-rock-a-billy songs about the human condition like “a way through this.”

In college, Brian gained classical vocal training as a tenor and earned a minor in classical guitar performance while taking a major in creative writing. He has worked as an ensemble member of the NCSU Concert Choir, performed Verdi’s Requiem with Raleigh Oratorio Society and the North Carolina Symphony and joined the ensemble throughout Italy on a short performance tour. He has given guitar recitals in Raleigh and Charlotte as well as working with choirs as a guitar accompanist.
While living a somewhat vagabond lifestyle, he has continued studying guitar and writing songs, traveling and playing well received shows across the country. His songs are best described as the culmination of years of various, concentrated musical studies, but he has not set aside his lyricism, which tend toward storytelling, recalling folksy roots and fiction workshops. His music often strays from the typical I-IV-V-I chord progression to something more tonally complex