Armed with string instruments, a new album and a love for the Gainesville music community, the Wire Birds took center stage at Santa Fe College Friday to perform for the college’s Visiting Artists Series.
Patrick Wiggins, a 76-year-old Gainesville resident, joined a crowd of locals watching the Gainesville chamber folk group, which kicked off the weekend at 7:35 p.m. He said the band acted as a channel to express “beautiful and good” qualities.
“Listening, I was reminded of how much genius there is in the world,” Wiggins said.
In between songs, the band’s founder and Santa Fe College professor Dan Stepp joked and discussed with the audience.
The show was a combination of original songs from the band and covers of songs from famous artists, such as “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” by Willie Nelson.
“I like some good old hardy folk music,” said Ben Heggie, a 31-year-old Gainesville resident. “I like the violin, and I like this type of music. It's just something that you just don't really hear nowadays anymore.”
Ben Heggie and his wife, Vittoria Heggie, came to the show to support one of Vittoria’s coworkers in the band, Andre Cox.
Cox, who is a violinist for the band, said he was excited to play at Santa Fe.
“It's probably the biggest venue that we played at as a band,” he said.
Cox is one of the seven members of the Wire Birds who played Friday night.
Stepp created the band name “Wire Birds” as an homage to Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire” according to Dan Hardwick, the band’s cello player.
Stepp, who founded the band in 2022, said the creation of the band happened organically. It stemmed from him knowing a few musicians and enjoying the sound of string quartets.
“Dan does the songwriting, and Gabi Shapiro (the band’s bassist) does the sheet music arrangements for the string ensemble,” said Cate Hancock, the band’s viola player.
The Wire Birds released its first album called “The Wire Birds Vo. 1” on Sept. 12 and is working on two other albums.
The band performed some songs from both upcoming albums at the show and received a standing ovation.
“Thank you guys for coming out,” Stepp said to the audience. “This is a great venue. The sound is incredible.”
Sarah White, the fine arts hall’s theater manager, said Santa Fe wanted to highlight a local band and picked the Wire Birds, who have previously played at the college’s convocation in August and at the Spring Arts Festival.
The Wire Birds visited the Santa Fe campus on Thursday to teach a workshop and perform some songs for students at the fine arts hall.
“Our students that are studying the arts, they get a great education from their professors,” White said. “But, it's nice to be able to get that reinforced by professionals in the field.”
Contact Timothy Wang at twang@alligator.org. Follow him on X @timothyw_g.
Timothy Wang is a junior journalism student and the Fall 2024 Santa Fe College Reporter. He was the University Administration reporter for Summer 2024. His hobbies include gaming or reading manga.
