Singled Out: Valley Maker “Beautiful Birds Flying” 

Valley Maker is the project of Seattle songwriter Austin Crane. This latest track off of the forthcoming Rhododendron is a beautiful mix of grungy rock and lilting dreamscapes. There is just enough dirt on the guitar and break in Crane’s voice to let all the emotion settle out, but it casts you into this sort of weightless flight as the namesake of the song may suggest. Really its just some beautiful stuff.

Who: Valley Maker

From: Seattle, WA by way of South Carolina

Song: “Beautiful Birds Flying” 

Latest Record: Rhododendron (out on October 12th)

What About It: “I recorded “Beautiful Birds Flying” in Portland, OR with Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi), who I’ve known since we went to college together at the University of South Carolina. It was the first song we tracked for Rhododendron and I think how it came together, with an atmospheric spaciousness enveloping the core elements of the song, somewhat heralded what was to come for the rest of the recording process. I wrote “Beautiful Birds Flying” several years ago after hearing about the horrible Mother Emanuel shooting in Charleston, SC (which is a place I love, close to where I grew up). So, for me, the song processes the grief and heaviness of living in a place and time where events like this keep happening, and engages the larger question of how to be alive, in relation to others, in that milieu.” – Austin Crane