If there is a defining characteristic of Fort Collins, Colorado singer/songwriter Nathaniel Riley it is that he writes and plays for the sake of the song. Period. In this, he is entirely focused and you can hear that intent. His music is thoughtful, sometimes sparse and sometimes lush in its soundscape. Just as the COVID pandemic gripped the world, he sat down with Darren Garvey, producer of Riley’s latest release Bird Songs, to begin the process of building his record. Riley remembers that their collaborative focus was singular, “We had to ask ourselves, ‘Why are we doing this?’ and the answer was easy, we were doing it for what music gives to us.” With that, preproduction of the new record started in the summer of 2020. Together, the two fleshed out the bones of songs as they picked guitars on porches. Live tracking began in the fall and in addition to Garvey on drums, they gathered a sympathetic group of musicians made up of Bridget Law (fiddle), and Charlie Rose (banjo, pedal steel) from Elephant Revival as well as Steve Varney from Gregory Alan Isakov’s band on banjo, and Emma Rose lent harmonies just to name a few.