2LP • Gatefold Tip-On Jacket.
(originally released 2002)

Inherent in youth is a kinetic energy, vitality and passion that has the potential to move masses. Every new generation picks a voice that will offer them something to identify with – something to prove to them that the crazy things they’re feeling, and the anger that they’re having, and the disillusionment that’s plaguing them is normal. Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst is that voice.

Born 1980 in Omaha, and recording since he was 13, Conor Oberst owns a voice that quakes with the tumultuous energy that only youth can produce. Oberst’s incredible ability to tell stories with his songs and paint intricate pictures with his words is reminiscent, without being derivative, of mid-period Dylan. And his gift for composing and delivering those songs is pure poetry. As the mastermind behind the acclaimed Bright Eyes collective, Oberst’s genius is found in a pretense-free, orchestral approach to songwriting. His most recent, most musically vigorous and rockin’ project, Desaparecidos, toured the nation and released Read Music/Speak Spanish to enormous amounts of critical acclaim.

LIFTED or The Story Is In the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, is the latest, most significant release from Oberst and the notable cast of Bright Eyes players. Oberst’s mainstay production team of Mike Mogis and Andy Lemaster (Now It’s Overhead) lend performances on the record along with other noteworthy Omaha musicians including Todd and Clark Baechle (The Faint), Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor (Azure Ray), Matt Maginn and Clint Schnase (Cursive), and Jiha Lee (The Good Life).

The Bright Eyes tour in spring of 2002 saw Oberst take the stage in a powder blue suit, surrounded by six beautiful female musicians, his sense of bona fide showmanship entrancing his audience. At his two sold-out Bowery Ballroom performances in New York City, you could have heard a pin drop between songs as hundreds of fans and new converts fell under his delicate spell – proof of Oberst’s virtuosity as the consummate performer.