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On Penny Arcade:
iTUNES 20 BEST INDIES OF 2007-The second album from Busch is an utterly entrancing collection of songs.
AMERICAN SONGWRITER- According to the geriatric tastemakers over at Travel & Leisure magazine, Philadelphia has the largest number of ugly people per capita of any city in the U.S. Apparently, no one told local girl Birdie Busch, who manages to chirp her way through the entirety of her very compelling Penny Arcade (Bar None) as if she were singer/songwriter in residence at Xanadu University. This brand of optimism might become annoying if not couched in the wry insinuations of Busch’s strikingly evolved lyrics, which share far more in common with Eudora Welty than Richard Simmons. A bewitching combination, to be sure.
NO DEPRESSION-Thirteen songs that display Busch's ear for the gnomic. And just to proves she's a rocker, she covers Steve Miller, and it works.
ALL MUSIC GUIDE-Its earnest delivery makes it one of the most affecting altos around. "My heart, well, it's worn on the outside," Busch sings during the upbeat "Hold Ya." "And if I see something good, I'm gonna show ya; and if I hear something sweet, I'm gonna tell ya." That's a raison d'être shared by the world's best singer/songwriters, and Penny Arcade sets Busch down the right path to join their ranks.
FEMINIST REVIEW-There are those who create their own music and those who perform someone else’s music. This is not Birdie Busch. Birdie Busch is her music. Put her in your mix. She is the perfect rut remover.
On The Ways We Try:
VILLAGE VOICE - The Ways We Try is one of the slyest neo-folky records in recent memory, its blues loopy and eccentric, and its simple melodies often as inspired as say, SydBarrett's.
NASHVILLE SCENE- On her debut, The Ways We Try, Emily “Birdie” Busch marries the folkie aesthetic with something altogether more rhythmic, felt and astringent. The record stands as one of the year’s strongest. She displays the born songwriter’s structural knack and flair for the unobtrusive hook. It’s an endlessly charming and magical record.
ALL MUSIC GUIDE -From the gentle swing of "Cup" to the bluesy Randy Newman-esque closer "Room Above the City," The Ways We Try is so subtle in its execution that it may get lost among the bevy of louder, lamer, and more opulent acts of 2006, but if the business were fair, and the cream really did rise to the top, there would be one less employee doing the serving. 4 STARS/5
HARP - Combining Gillian Welch's congregational hush and folk reverence with Sara Hickman's sly sidelong observational humor and pop ebullience, Philadelphia singer-songwriter Emily "Birdie" Busch distinguishes herself with a quietly expansive sound and a quirky, intimate songwriting style on her debut CD. | 
