Thomas Dollbaum

The realest-deal storyteller in indie-rock today is the Tampa-born, New Orleans-based singer and poet Thomas Dollbaum, and his second album Birds of Paradise is his most powerful and dynamic work yet.

Accompanied by MJ Lenderman on drums, occasional guitar and backing vocals, here Dollbaum fine-tunes his stroytelling instincts against a backdrop of bracing heartland rock.

Following up his critically acclaimed Wellswood (Big Legal Mess, 2022) and Drive All Night EP (Dear Life Records, 2025), Birds of Paradise is a goodbye letter to lost loved ones and former selves.

These songs find Dollbaum searching for acceptance in the transient in-between places: Florida's pine flatwoods, backroads leading to I-95, where birds fly across the water.

And even though the ghosts of his alt-country predecessors Townes Van Zandt and Jason Molina are definitely present, on Birds of Paradise, Dollbaum emerges from their shadows - waving to the past, sounding all the more like himself.

8 "exceptionally deep and lovely-dusky, melodic, just a little bit dangerous-sounding" - The New Yorker "Dollbaum's lyrics are like Southern gothic short stories, the sort that don't end well" - Mojo ????