Migrant Birds is an indie folk outfit from Winston-Salem, North Carolina that combines elements of pop, rock, and Americana to write folk songs for the modern age. Armed with the timeless tools of intimate songwriting and close vocal harmony, their music can shapeshift to fit any music club, noisy bar or hushed living room.
Drawing inspiration from traditional Appalachian folk tunes and modern acts like Shovels and Rope, Brandi Carlile, and Andrew Bird, the group specializes in highly narrative songwriting supported by lush and intentional arrangements.
Migrant Birds is fronted by Spencer McNair Ayscue, a North Carolina native educated in the hills of Appalachia. From 2019 until 2022 the line-up also featured Tara Logue (vocals) and Scott Peters (cello, vocals), and now features a rotating cast of talented musicians who help bring the music of Migrant Birds to life, most recently Sam Amos (guitar, keys), Brian Becker (bass), and Margaret Morton (drums).
In April 2019 they released their debut single "Appalachian Spine", inspired by Ayscue’s youth spent in Western North Carolina, and followed it up with the release of their eponymous EP a month later. Ayscue was soon joined by songwriter Tara Logue and together they began workshopping songs that the two had worked on as solo musicians and playing small shows around Winston-Salem and the surrounding area.
With the addition of cellist and multi-instrumentalist Scott Peters in the fall of 2019, the group began pushing their musical limits to explore the further reaches of the Americana landscape, while also adding depth to the sound of their live performances. After being joined by Peters, the band released a string of singles over the course of 2020 that culminated in the Winters Like These EP in the spring of 2021. Ranging from the folk pop "Feel It All" to the antique protest-inspired "Lay It Down," the songs served as a testament to the diversity of the Americana genre, while also sharing the thread of introspective and sincere songwriting that defined the Migrant Birds EP.
In early 2023, the band released "The Debt", a jaunty murder ballad that marked a turn toward the kind of narrative songwriting exemplified by “Tsar’s Last Waltz” on the Migrant Birds EP. They followed that release with the anthemic "Stonewall // Asherah" and the Sufjan Stevens inflected “Eveline”, before finally releasing their first full-length record, My Honest Face, in September of 2023.
After the release of My Honest Face, Migrant Birds announced the departure of both Peters and Logue, with Peters moving back to Nashville and Logue returning to her first artistic passion of ceramics. Ayscue remains at the helm of the band, continuing to perform regularly throughout North Carolina with the help of a rotating cast of musicians and occasional cameos by Peters and Logue.
