The Unique Voices Club #4: Caroline Glaser, AKA Brother Bird

Every Friday, I write a post about unique singing voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on Caroline Glaser/Brother Bird.

I didn't watch Season 4 of The Voice at all thanks to South Africa getting American show episodes months after they air (getting 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways episodes from the Ellen show in June was particularly comical). But I gathered a bunch of favorites, like Sarah Simmons (basically retired now because she took down her music😢) and Caroline Glaser, as she went by on the show. Now, she goes by Brother Bird.

Her Brother Bird promo pics look remarkably more serious than her ones from The Voice where she's smiling at lot

It was her cover of Of Monsters and Men's "Little Talks" that caught my attention. My brother had introduced me to that song not even a few months earlier after he learned "Dirty Paws" was on my playlist, and so what intrigued me what that Caroline's version of "Little Talks," normally a duet between two of the lead singers, was being sung all by her. And it wasn't just that. The sound that she emitted reminded me of Jewel's yodeling-type belt on the Grammy-nominated "Who Will Save Your Soul?" but will a much softer, breathier tone and barely any vibrato. And from somewhere in a field in Missouri where she's from.

Perhaps it made sense that she's an indie folk singer/songwriter. She covered "Deer," a song by indie rock band Machester Orchestra, whose frontman Andy Hull sounds eerily similar to her. Andy's mom found her cover on YouTube and shared with him, and then he offered to work with Caroline in the future. And they still work together to this day.

Generally vocally Caroline counts Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries and Liz Phair as her influences (I'm listening to Exile in Guyville as I write this, something I should have done before watching A Strange Loop last year). Her debut album is very reminiscent of the acousticism of Jewel's and James Taylor's music. And she's embodied more of the breathier elements of her voice. I've attached "Wolves," one of my favorites, which employs muted electric guitars above. Her incarnation as Brother Bird, though, seems to lean more into the indie rock space like Grouplove and Tame Impala (except for the song "always" on her 2024 EP another year). It's like I'm leaning back on a couch in my garage having a band play live in front of me. And while she doesn't have a huge amount of power behind her voice, as one would think with rock music in general, she definitely has a lot of layers to it, like Joanna Newsom in the previous post. Charlotte Martin is the closest I can compare her to.

I've attached her Brother Bird profile below, since that's where most of her stuff is today, though you can find her Voice covers under her original name. I also think for context I'm going to link her cover of "Little Talks" too (the fact that they match is not intentional but I'm loving it), since that's what compelled me to add her to my playlist in the first place.

So yeah, that's all for this week, firebirds! Subscribe to the blog below so you get next week's Unique Voices Club entry (among other posts) into your mailbox, and don't forget to follow any artists we share here if you love them!

Stay educated,

Alexia