Hands of Glory

Andrew Bird follows March's poppy, elegant Break It Yourself with Hands of Glory, a set of rustic songs recorded during loose sessions at his western Illinois barn. Bird and his band cover country tunes, strip down their own originals, and explore weighty Biblical themes.

Assuming the Mayans and your particularly obnoxious Facebook friends were right all along and the world is actually ending…

Arriving just eight months after the whistling bard's sixth studio album, 2012's Break It Yourself, the eight-track companion piece Hands of Glory forgoes its predecessor's predilection for quirky, albeit homey, slabs of stately, professorial indie folk-pop in favor of a more authentic and rootsy approach.

All his rock posturing, live sampling, and Doctor Seussian linguistics has failed to hide one simple fact: violinist Andrew Bird is a folkie.