Public Tracks

Release Date: 1/31/2023
Written by Erin Zindle
Performed and Recorded by Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds 
The Ragbirds are TJ Zindle, Shannon Wade and Loren Kranz
Produced and Engineered by Jamie Candiloro
Vocals recorded at Big Sky by Geoff Michaels
Ann Arbor, MI

Lyrics by Erin Zindle:

I'm happy 

When I don't think of you

And that's getting easier to do.

I'm writing a new story

And it has nothing to do with you

Out of the triage to the montage of the scenes of my life

As I'm getting it together

Out of the mind games to the reframe with a new name

I'm good and I'm only getting better

Cause you are not a part of my new story

You are not a part of my new story

I'm dancing around my diamond

Clearer and more dazzling than I've ever been

I'm building a new temple

And all of my friends are welcome in

Out of the triage to the montage of the scenes of my life

As I'm getting it together

Out of the mind games to the reframe with a new name

I'm good and I'm only getting better

Cause you are not a part of my new story

You are not a part of my new story

New Story (single)

New Story

Buy on BandCamp

Lyrics and music written by Carolyn Striho and Erin Zindle

Engineered by Geoff Michaels at Big Sky Recording (Ann Arbor, MI)
Mixed by Jamie Candiloro
Mastered by Greg Calbi - Sterling Sound 
Cover Art by Erin Zindle

Lyrics:
Are you starstruck singing with the birds of wonder
Are you day drunk sipping on the grace of thunder
As the waves are dancing in their secret circles
Don't you drown yourself in their games

In the haze of aching you become your shadow
But you can't stay hiding in your grief forever
There's a new path forward past the dumb-struck water
Once you give yourself a new name

Take your wooden crutches
Build yourself a bridge
Offer up your grudges
The ocean will forgive
When the tide is rising
Rise above it
Make your way across
to where your new life lives

When I find myself
I'll be the only witness
To the strength and power
Of my wild soul's fitness
All the bones and muscles
Of my heart are broken
But I made it here to the shore

Take your wooden crutches
Build yourself a bridge
Offer up your grudges
The ocean will forgive
When the tide is rising
Rise above it
Make your way across
to where your new life lives

You can't see it
From where you are
You can't feel it
From where you are
You can't trust it
From where you've been
But you'll never go back again

Take your wooden crutches
Build yourself a bridge
Offer up your grudges
The ocean will forgive
When the tide is rising
Rise above it
Make your way across
to where your new life lives

The Bridge

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: June 21, 2023 (Solstice)
Performed by Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds
The Ragbirds are: TJ Zindle, (guitar) Shannon Wade (bass), Loren Kranz (drums) 
Produced by Jamie Candiloro
Engineered by Jamie Candiloro and Geoff Michaels (Big Sky Recording)
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Erin Zindle (photo by Joe Gall)

It’s a down-tempo, alt-country rock song of deep longing and nostalgia for a lost feeling, produced by Jamie Candiloro (Ryan Adams, REM, Willie Nelson, Courtney Love) and mastered by Greg Calbi (Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, etc).

Lyrics:

If I could find a holy moment with a quiet pen
I could recall the words you said, I could remember when
We almost broke through each other's wall
We almost lost our balance to the fall

These little triggers - a funny word, a subtle shift of wind
Sends me swirling around the spiral of your memory again
I was brave enough to let love go
But my strong heart has a mind of its own

Refresh my memory
How your wild eyes flashed like lightning when I made you laugh
Remind my senses how intense it was
To be running beside you, feeling easy, moving so fast
What did it feel like?
The deep echo in my chest when we were pressed,
Body to body as you sang to me
Lest I forget - please
Refresh my memory

Yeah, I can hear your muddy thoughts, I hear your bloodshot words
But through the hungry telephone your heart can’t be heard
And I wonder how you feel
Cause I’m aching for something real

Refresh my memory
How your wild eyes flashed like lightning when I made you laugh
Remind my senses how intense it was
To be running beside you, feeling easy, moving so fast
What did it feel like?
The deep echo in my chest when we were pressed,
Body to body as you sang to me
Lest I forget - please
Refresh my memory

Wasn’t that something?
Wasn’t that something?
Wasn’t that something?
Wasn’t that something?

Almost feels like nothing
Almost feels like nothing
Almost feels like nothing
Almost feels like nothing

Refresh my memory
How your wild eyes flashed like lightning when I made you laugh
Remind my senses how intense it was
To be running beside you, feeling easy, moving so fast
What did it feel like?
The deep echo in my chest when we were pressed,
Body to body as you sang to me
Lest I forget - please
Refresh my memory

Refresh My Memory

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: August 1, 2023
Performed by Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds
Featuring: Jess Merritt on Background Vocals
The Ragbirds are: TJ Zindle, (guitar) Shannon Wade (bass), Loren Kranz (drums) 
Produced by Jamie Candiloro
Engineered by Jamie Candiloro and Geoff Michaels (Big Sky Recording)
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Erin Zindle (photo by Elise Kutt, Mod Bettie Portraits)

______________________________________________

LYRICS

It’s such a dirty habit 
Always looking around     
Checking the quo of the status 
In Status Quo town
Keeping up with the rules 
Always being laid down
Tiptoeing inside the lines 
Being drawn on the ground

It’s an impossible dance 
It’s out of my control
But I came here for the music 
Where’s the rock and roll?

I built this city 
Now I’m repaving the streets 
‘Cause I am the only one walking 
On these two feet
So I cut the connection
For my own protection
Who are you to question
My insurrection
In this new regime 
I am the only police
I am the law and the order 
And I’m keeping the peace

I’ve been a good girl
I’m not a rule breaker
I mind my own business
I’m not a risk-taker
Yeah I can roll with the flow
I’m not one to rock the boat
All the ways that I have changed
Now I’ve got a rebel in my veins

(interlude - “oh oh oh oh”)

This could get ugly 
And I don’t even care
I’m calling out the lies 
I’m clearing the air 
It’s the subtle slipstream 
Keeps us stuck in our lives
It’s the dumbed down daydream 
That hypnotizes
You tricked me to trade my power 
For the safety of your little box
Now I’m gonna kick you the fuck out 
And I’m changing the locks

Yes I’m a good girl
But sometimes I’m a rule breaker
I’ve got my own business
I guess I’m a risk-taker
Yeah I can roll with the flow
Sometimes you gotta rock the boat
All the ways that I have changed
Now I’ve got a rebel in my veins

     
Oooh I don’t care what you think
Oooh  Doin it anyway
Oooh  I don’t care what you say
Ooooh  Anyway 

CHORUS 
Yes I’m good girl
But I can be a ballbreaker
I take care of my own business
Cause I’m a risk-taker
Yeah I can roll with the flow
But I know when to rock the boat
All the ways that I have changed
Now I’ve got a rebel in my veins
Yeah I’m still a good girl
Even if I’m a rule-breaker
I’ve got a kick-ass business
‘Cause I’m a money maker
I make my own flow
And I’m gonna rock this boat
All the ways that I have changed
Now I’ve got a rebel in my veins

(interlude - “oh oh oh oh” / Ah Ah Ah / Ooh Ooh Ooh”)

______________________________________________

Rebel In My Veins

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: September 14, 2023 (New Moon, National Sober Day)
Performed by Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds
The Ragbirds are: TJ Zindle, (guitar) Shannon Wade (bass), Loren Kranz (drums)
Produced by Jamie Candiloro
Engineered by Jamie Candiloro and Geoff Michaels (Big Sky Recording)
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Erin Zindle

LYRICS:
You had to make it past the liquor store
To get to the Alano Club
You set out each day, war paint on your face
And the memory of someone you love

You had to go straight where the sidewalk turned
Count the feathers on the birds above
If you were gonna make it past the liquor store
To get to the Alano Club

You said “Grace is new every morning”
As you stared into your black coffee cup
Today you’re gonna make it past the liquor store
To get to the Alano Club

You had to make it past the liquor store
To get to the Alano Club
You set out each day, war paint on your face
And the memory of someone you love

Liquor Store

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: September 29, 2023 (Full Moon)
Performed by Erin Zindle 
Produced by Jamie Candiloro
Engineered by Jamie Candiloro
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Erin Zindle (photo by Joe Gall)

Lyrics:
You’re easy on my eyes
I could look at you all day
Watch the sunset tame the shadows
As they move across your face
And everything is easy


You’re easy on my mind
I think of you all the time
Like a secret oasis
I’m escaping to inside
Where everything is easy

Haven’t we suffered enough?
In our complicated lives we’ve been crushed
We tied our ties, we made our cuts
We worked so hard, lost so much

Woah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Woah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

You’re easy on my heart
I can breathe and be myself
Like you’ve known me all along
Like we came from somewhere else
Where everything is easy

Easy

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: November 27, 2023
Performed by Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds
The Ragbirds are: TJ Zindle, (guitar) Shannon Wade (bass), Loren Kranz (drums)
Horn Section arrangement written and performed by Ross Huff
(trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, & french horn)
Produced by Jamie Candiloro
Engineered by Jamie Candiloro and Geoff Michaels (Big Sky Recording)
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Erin Zindle

Written for Mary Beth & Tom Alban

LYRICS:
I remember how you danced
Like your hands could tell a story
You outshone all the sunflowers
In their summer glory
You sparkle with a charm
That could make a strawberry blush
With a smile that could disarm a soldier
You’re easy to love

All the doctors and the angels raise their eyebrows
To sing your praise
Through the valley of the shadow of prognosis
All those who gather round you are amazed
But none more than me
‘Cause I get to be the one to witness your miracle
I see it everyday
I get to be the one to witness your miracle
Your love will find a way

Our house has many rooms
You illuminate them all
Your spirit’s unconfined by the limits of the roof and walls
Blessed be the tie that binds
Blessed be the daily bread
In gratitude and wonder every day my life is blessed

All the doctors and the angels raise their eyebrows
To sing your praise
Through the valley of the shadow of prognosis
All those who gather round you are amazed
But none more than me (more than me)

‘Cause I get to be the one to witness your miracle
I see it everyday
I get to be the one to witness your miracle
Your love will find a way

Miracle

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: November 17, 2023 (New Moon / first day of National Trans Awareness Week)
Performed by Erin Zindle 
Produced & Engineered by Jamie Candiloro
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Lane Zindle
TJ Zindle - (guitar) and Jordan Hamilton (cello)

LYRICS:
He was shooting a self-portrait
In a glass window looking on a starless world
The desert night was dark enough
To reflect back a boy who was once born a girl

He had outgrown the teenage skin
The first born baby of a Scorpio
Who was carried across America
To a neon paradise far from the snow

Camera Camera open your eyes
Capture your childhood as it passes by
You’ve seen so much that you shouldn’t have
And you keep on smiling for the photographs

He envied the old black cat
Who sleeps and never has to think or choose
Which bathroom door to open up
To suffer the least amount of abuse

Camera Camera open your eyes
Capture your childhood as it passes by
You’ve seen so much that you shouldn’t have
And you keep on smiling for the photographs

The photographer’s heart is a dark room where truth is exposed
Choosing which memories develop and which are disposed
It’s a harsh chemical - filter your life
With great self-control
Focus the light through a pinhole

Camera Camera open your eyes
Capture your childhood as it passes by
You’ve seen so much that you shouldn’t have
And you keep on smiling for the photographs
Camera Camera open your eyes
Capture your childhood as it passes by
You’ve seen so much that you shouldn’t have
And you keep on smiling for the photographs

Camera Camera

Written by Erin Zindle
ASCAP Ebirdlove Songs
Release Date: October 28, 2023 (Full Moon)
Performed by Erin Zindle 
Produced & Engineered by Jamie Candiloro
Recorded also in part at Big Sky Recording in Ann Arbor, MI
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover art: Erin Zindle (photo by Joe Gall)
TJ Zindle - guitar (e-bow) and Jordan Hamilton (cello)

LYRICS:

I told my songs to go away
I said “Nobody needs you, there are too many of you,
And no one will hear your quiet message in all this noise”

But the songs keep coming
They don’t give up so easily
The songs keep coming
With words of hope for me

I told my songs I wasn’t good enough 
I said “Find someone better who can sing you to the top of the world
Where you deserve to be”

But the songs keep coming
They don’t give up so easily
The songs keep coming
With words of love for me

I can’t stop these songs
Cause somebody needs them
Even if it’s just me and nobody else
Can sing my story

The songs keep coming 
They don’t give up so easily
The songs keep coming
They seem to have a plan to me
The songs keep coming
I hope they don’t give up on me
The songs keep coming
With words of love for me

Songs Keep Coming

Written by Dylan Charles and Erin Zindle
Horns and Strings Arranged by Ross Huff
Live at The Ark in Ann Arbor, MI - December 9, 2023
as part of the Ebird & Friends Holiday Show

Featuring: 
Ross Huff - trumpet
Tim Haldeman - sax
John "T-Bone" Paxton - trombone
Jona Vibrato - violin
Aaron Jonah Lewis - violin
Brad Phillips  - violin
Loren Kranz - piano
Shannon Wade - bass
Dan Piccolo - drums
Jon Brown - vibes/percussion

Recorded and Mixed by Mark Allen
Mastered by Tony Calabro

(c)2023 Dylan Charles Music / Erin Zindle
_______________________________

The sidewalks are overcrowded
Everywhere an endless line
There's simply no doubt about it
It's the holiday time
There's bound to be a long unanswered
List of wishes
Isn't it just another Christmas

Can you help me hang this holly?
String the colored lights up high
Take your focus off the folly
Of a world out of it's mind
I know you're not the kind 
Who sits around and reminisces 
Doesn't have to be just another Christmas

So tonight 
           (I'm listening)
Let's keep it light 
           (Maybe you're right)
I'd love to see things differently
Enjoy each other's company

I just can't get in the spirit
Don't want a partridge or a pear
I think you're gonna wanna hear it
There's carolers out on the stair
You and I could be singing, dancing, blowing kisses
Doesn't have to be just another Christmas

So tonight 
           (I'm listening)
Let's keep it light 
           (Maybe you're right)
I'd love to see things differently
Enjoy each other's company

The sidewalks are filled with shoppers
Buying gifts for ones they love
Toys and games, confetti poppers
Watching for reindeer up above
Back in the kitchen we're preparing
Our most favorite dishes
Doesn't have to be just another Christmas

Not Just Another Christmas

Lyrics and Music Written by Dylan Charles and Erin Zindle
Recorded and Produced by Dylan Charles and Erin Zindle
Mixed and Mastered by Tony Calabro

lyrics:
Oh what would it take
Just to see your eyes?
Do you realize
You haven’t looked up in years?
Oh what would it take
Just to see your eyes?

Six diamonds on a silver heart
12 keys on a golden chain
You know all the doors they open
Every window blurred with rain
Every drip down the drain

Salt shakers on a wooden shelf
Dollar bills in a mason jar
Are you saving your sight for a new place
That’s prettier than where we are

Oh what would it take
Just to see your eyes?
Do you realize
You haven’t looked up in years?

Oh what am i to make of
Seeing blindness
In the
Mirror?
Make it clearer_____

What would it take
Just to see your eyes?

Forgot in the doorways of aimless periphery 
Somebody please for god’s sake look at me
Look at the moon it's ripe as a cherry
I spit out the pits of the stars 
into a galaxy
lost in the corners and trapped in perpetual apathy
Look at me, Look at me, 
why are you afraid of me?

Oh what would it take
Just to see your eyes?
Do you realize
You haven’t looked up in years?

Oh what am i to make of
Seeing blindness 
In the
Mirror?
Make it clearer_____

What would it take
Just to see your eyes?

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE - Erin Zindle & Dylan Charles

Highlights from the ebird & friends Holiday Show live at the Ark December 2024

Favorite Things (feat Jess Merritt)

Walking in the Air (featuring Erin Zindle).wav

Oh Holy Night (arr Ross Huff)

Led by dynamic, multi-instrumentalist Erin Zindle, The Ragbirds create music that is equally danceable, intelligent and vulnerable – a rare combination in an increasingly marketing-driven industry. Since 2005 they have gathered and maintained a passionate, grassroots fan base by continually reinventing themselves with an ever-evolving sound, while remaining rooted in the high-energy, world-inspired folk-rock that they have become known for.
A genre-bending hybrid of indie-pop melodies, global-infused beats, rock guitar riffs and folk sensibilities, this is music that comes to life on stage, leaving every listener in a higher place than when it began. The Ragbirds are constant travelers, impressed upon by a global consciousness, with lyrics that point to the daily paradox of intentionally cultivating hope in the midst of a crazed and jaded world. 
Like a mix tape made by a well-traveled friend, The Ragbirds music is diverse and foreign, yet somehow familiar. The voice at the front of The Ragbirds carries the freshness of the journey itself, and the lyrics point out the scenery like a friendly tour guide.
-------------------------
BAND MEMBERS: Erin Zindle, TJ Zindle, Shannon Wade, Loren Kranz
-------------------------
- Erin Zindle - vocals, violin, mandolin, accordion, banjo
- TJ Zindle - electric and acoustic guitar, vocals
- Shannon Wade - bass, vocals
- Loren Kranz - drum set, vocals
-------------------------

Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks