collaborative DISCOGRAPHY

THE STRAY BIRDS (2010-2018)

THE STRAY BIRDS : A trio from Lancaster, PA, Maya de Vitry, Oliver Craven, and Charlie Muench released 2 EPs (Borderland, Echo Sessions) and 4 full length albums (The Stray Birds, Best Medicine, Magic Fire, Let It Pass). The trio toured from house concerts to festival stages, and was known for passionate performances and powerful vocal harmonies. The group parted ways in 2018, and their final record Let It Pass, which they wrote entirely collaboratively, was released the same year. For more information, music, and lyrics, visit thestraybirds.com.

AS A SONGWRITER:

  • Bronwyn Keith-Hynes - “Up For Losing Sleep”, “Answers”

  • Lindsay Lou - “Nothing Else Matters”

  • Phoebe Hunt - “Nothing Else Matters”, “The Archer”

  • Wood Brothers - “Heart Is The Hero”

  • Caitlin Canty - “Odds of Getting Even”

  • Lauren Balthrop - “Thank You”

  • Steve Poltz - “Miles In My Heart”

  • Miss Tess - “Real Change”

  • Rachel Baiman - “The Distance”

  • Freddy & Francine - “Stand To Lose”

  • The Sweet Water Warblers - “Turn to Stone”

  • The Sweet Water Warblers - “Something More”

  • The Sweet Water Warblers - “Do You Know The Chorus”

  • The Sweet Water Warblers - “Mother’s Voice”

  • Della Mae - “Odds of Getting Even”

  • Molly Tuttle - “Light Came In (Power Went Out)”

  • Courtney Hartman - “Hollow”

  • Lula Wiles - “What Will We Do” - album liner notes

  • Courtney Hartman & Taylor Ashton - “The Nature of Us”

  • Rachel Baiman - “Gettin Ready to Start”

  • Jordan Tice - “Live On The River Til I Die”

  • Michaela Anne - “What Good Is Water”

  • Michaela Anne - “One Love Song”

AS A GUEST VOCALIST/INSTRUMENTALIST:

  • Langhorne Slim & John Craigie - “Out on the Road” (fiddle, harmony vocals)

  • Lyle de Vitry - “Goldenrod” (harmony vocals)

  • Charlie in the Question Mark - You Were Dreaming (harmony and background vocals, violin, acoustic guitar)

  • Nina de Vitry - “If We Didn’t Have Night” (harmony vocals)

  • Austin Plaine - “Bearwalker” (harmony vocals)

  • Lindsay Lou - “Don’t Go Back”, “Still Water” (fiddle, harmony vocals)

  • Aspen Jacobsen - “Arsonist Daughter” (fiddle, background vocals)

  • Anthony da Costa - “Sometimes” (harmony vocals)

  • James Paul Mitchell - “Live With It” (harmony vocals)

  • Lauren Balthrop - “Thank You” (harmony vocals)

  • L.A. Edwards - “The Crow” (harmony vocals)

  • Steve Poltz - “Miles In My Heart” (harmony vocals)

  • Josh Rilko - Side B: Rock & Roll (harmony vocals)

  • John Mailander’s Forecast - Look Closer (lead vocal)

  • A Tribute to the Songs of John Lilly - April In Your Eyes (vocals, acoustic guitar)

  • Anthony da Costa - What Plans? (harmony vocals)

  • Mark Erelli - Jackpot EP (duet vocals)

  • Front Country - Impossible World (background vocals)

  • Clare Brown - And That’s Ok (harmony vocals)

  • The Sweet Water Warblers - The Dream That Holds This Child (fiddle, banjo, vocals, associate producer)

  • Monica Rizzio - Sunshine is Free (fiddle, harmony vocals)

  • Birds of Chicago - American Flowers (fiddle)

  • The Mae Trio - Take Care Take Cover (fiddle)

  • Miss Tess - Baby, We All Know (harmony vocals)

  • Ana Egge - Bright Shadow (fiddle, banjo, harmony vocals)

PRODUCTION:

  • Joel Timmons - Psychedelic Surf Country (Feb 7, 2025) - production, harmony vocals, synth

EARLY PROJECTS

OLD TIME LIBERATION FRONT : A band from Lancaster, PA, Maya de Vitry, Monica de Vitry, Becca Rast, Jordan Rast, Peter Reist, Laura Dyck, the band of childhood friends won the 2007 Neo-Traditional Band Contest at the Clifftop Festival in West Virginia, Old-Time Liberation Front and recorded a batch of original acoustic music to bring back to the festival for their set the following year. Available here.

Note from Maya: This very short-lived band remains really important to me. The people in this band have gone on to become art teachers, lawyers, community organizers, psychologists, and campaign managers, as well as continuing to play music in many forms! I wrote “Might Rain”, which The Stray Birds eventually recorded on the album Best Medicine, to sing live on stage with OTLF in one of our only shows. But one of my first adventures in writing music was making up fiddle tunes. Many of these tracks start as a song and morph into one of those fiddle tunes. We also recorded an original fiddle tune of mine called Rainelle! That’s the last town we would drive through on the way up the mountain to Clifftop. I really adore my sister Monica’s songwriting and singing, especially on the track “Different From The War”.

ROCK CREEK CIDER, THE NOVEMBER PROJECT, etc…

We never made any official recordings, but whcn I was 18 and 19 I spent a lot of time traveling around and busking on the street, with Hannah Seng, Cory Shenk and Ellie Shenk, Nick Martin, and Jacob Kraybill, and I was also really inspired by my friend Hannah Seng (who is also an amazing visual artist) to start writing songs and playing the banjo. Hannah and I had a very short lived band with my sister, Monica de Vitry, called The November Project. I’m surprised and amused that our myspace pages still exist!