Last Birds
Last Birds is the offspring of Canadian Folk Music Award nominated artists, Lindsay Arnold and Mike Davis. Using their small prairie hometown as a backdrop, Last Birds weave together rural legends and current day experiences to form a modern prairie gothic. Their songs veer away from overly romanticized views of small town life to peer into the dark corners of the local bar, peek in the windows of an abandoned house down the street and pine for something or someone beyond the veil. Their two voices two guitars approach is steeped in early country folk influence and providesan intimate storytelling experience audiences have repeatedly described as mesmerizing.
The couple formed Last Birds in November of 2019 and quickly gained momentum. The duo was nominated for multiple awards in 2021 and 2022, including Saskatchewan Music Awards’ Roots/Folk Artist of the Year. Last Birds released their first full length album, Endless Turn of Day into Night, October 20th, 2023. The recordings are simple and direct, featuring the couple’s close vocal harmonies. In response to the album’s release, Paul Russel of Americana UK wrote “This is a great album – it has strong songwriting, gorgeous harmonies, incredible guitar playing and a feeling this duo worked really hard to get it to sound so intimate and immersive that in the end you want to snuggle up to it.” Endless Turn of Day Into Night won Alternative Country Album of the Year at the 2024 Saskatchewan Country Music Awards.
Although they have been married for sixteen years, Mike Davis and Lindsay Arnold have been writing and performing together for only six of them. They each bring a lifetime of creative experience to their partnership. Lindsay has worked as a visual artist and filmmaker for over twenty years. Her stop motion video for Alexis Normand’s song, Tous les matins, won a Saskatchewan Music Award and Sask Independent Film Award for Best Music Video in 2023. She is also the administrator for the Village of North Portal. Mike has been working as a professional musician since the age of sixteen when he toured the eastern United States with The Continentals. Mike juggled a music career with operating his own construction business for 10+ years but now uses his skills to make signs for a local business. When he has a spare moment, Mike is an avid metal detectorist. One of his favourite finds is a Portal High School class ring he returned to its owner seventy years after it was lost.
Last Birds live in North Portal, Saskatchewan (pop 113) with their young daughter in a house they built with their young daughter in a house they built with their own hands.
