Burlington musician Lily Seabird primed for career to take off with new album, 'Alas'

This story has been updated to reflect the change in the date and lineup for the album release event.

Burlington musician Lily Seabird didn’t necessarily plan on a career in music.

She recorded her first album, “Beside Myself,” on a tape machine at home in large part to keep her busy during the COVID-19 lockdown. The Pennsylvania native attended the University of Vermont to study political science, took a job with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, and appeared headed toward a career in the government sector.

But the musical gigs kept piling up. Venues wanted her to play shows with her band. Opportunities arose to tour in the bands of already-established musicians.

One such gig, playing bass for psychedelic folk-rocker Liz Cooper, put Seabird on the road in the summer of 2022. She earned enough on that tour that the career path made an abrupt shift.

“I guess there had to be a ‘quit my job’ moment,” Seabird said in a Jan. 8 conversation over coffee at Scout in the Old North End of Burlington. “That was September 2022.”

Seabird’s career has been climbing ever since. She celebrates the release of her second album, “Alas,” with a concert on Feb. 1 at the Light Club Lamp Shop in Burlington. The event has been rescheduled from Jan. 12.

Her February tour to support “Alas” will hit cities like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Bloomington, Indiana. She’s a road monster.

“I love touring,” Seabird said “I’m happiest when I’m on tour.”

Recording with Benny Yurco

Born Lily Seward, Lily Seabird received that avian nickname by a friend when she was 15. (She turns 25 in February.) Right out of high school, Seabird set out to attend The New School in New York. Her stay in the nation’s largest city didn’t last long.

“I wasn’t really liking it,” she said. “It was too much.”

At age 19 – “young and ridiculous,” Seabird said, as she arrived with no car and almost no personal belongings – she visited a high school friend in the much-less-hectic city of Burlington. Her friend had an acoustic guitar and the two went to an open-mic session. Seabird connected with local musician Greg Freeman and fell comfortably into the Burlington music scene.

“I love the community. I know everyone and I love being in a place where we’re as tight knit as we are here,” Seabird said. “I definitely have never felt a sense of home like I have here.”

While “Beside Myself” opened doors for her to play more gigs, Seabird doesn’t love the album because she was so nervous about wanting it to sound a certain way. She recorded “Alas” more organically with the guidance of producer Benny Yurco, perhaps best known in Vermont as the former guitarist for Mad River Valley rocker Grace Potter.

“He’s just really experimental,” Seabird said of Yurco, who runs Little Jamaica Recordings, a Burlington recording studio and label. “He’s super-creative and really enthusiastic.”

Hints of Squirrel Flower, Sparklehorse

Most of the 10 songs on “Alas,” not unlike the music of Squirrel Flower, unfold on a pretty folk base that explodes without warning into rock 'n' roll fuzz. Lily Seabird’s sound also resembles that of '90s alt-rocker Sparklehorse; that project of the late Mark Linkous formed around a wobbly Appalachian/Americana foundation before the songs often growled and snarled into a dissonant rage.

“Alas” opens with the low-fi folk tune “Angel” and soon slides into “Dirge,” which, as the title suggests, builds and builds until it rocks like a sledgehammer. The confessional “Grace” follows similar suit, showing that the attribute in the song’s title can be powerful, not just delicate.

The album closes with “Waste,” which begins slow and slightly sinister before erupting into graffitied walls of sound. Seabird and Freeman both play guitar on “Alas,” which also features Zack James of Burlington bands Dari Bay and Robber Robber on drums; Seabird even contributes saxophone on the album.

Seabird’s goals for “Alas” have her living a slightly more secure life than she’s already living. She simply wants to play as many shows and spend as little money as possible, working second jobs on an infrequent basis just to bring in extra cash.

She has that situation now at The Farmhouse Tap & Grill in Burlington, where she occasionally waits tables. That money could help fund her next record, which she hopes to record this year. Otherwise, she plans to spend much of her time making music where she’s most happy, on the road.

“I just want to play for people,” she said.

If you go

WHAT: Lily Seabird album release show with Robber Robber and Closeby

WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Feb. 1

WHERE: Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington

INFORMATION: $15 in advance, $20 day of show. www.radiobean.com

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.