The Stray Birds make beautiful bluegrass, a lush sound characterized by tight harmonies and all-encompassing instrumentation. “Sabrina” is no exception, three-part vocal harmonies soaring above mandolin, guitars, and fiddle. It’s more upbeat than some of their other work, a dance song extolling Yuengling and living wild. The song’s bright shuffling is a joy, a tightly-wound chunk of down-south cheer and storytelling.
“Oliver and I were with Sabrina in the green room of the 8×10 club in Baltimore. Oliver stood up from the couch, and without hesitation, Sabrina handed him a Yuengling Lager,” says the band’s Maya de Vitry. “I was holding a guitar, and seeing an opportunity to narrate her intuition, sang the first half of what became the exact chorus to the song. Oliver jumped in right away, and the song was born. Oliver and Charlie and I finished the verses around a kitchen table in Nashville. Sabrina and Cristina are real, and so is the sexi-mexi food truck.”
Magic Fire releases August 19th via Yep Roc Records.