Bird has announced her new single “Havana Garden”, a cinematic folk duet that serves as the fourth and final preview of her forthcoming EP “Strange As Folk”, due for release on May 1, 2026. Featuring a collaboration with Jane Ellen Bryant, the track also arrives ahead of her upcoming album “Held Here Together”, set for release later this summer. This acts as the follow-up to her previous single, “The Boy and The Swan”.
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Arriving as part of a carefully unfolding rollout, the track sits within a wider release schedule that has already included an exclusive vinyl 7” edition for Record Store Day, with its full digital release now available. The single marks another step in Janie Price’s (known professionally as Bird) evolving catalogue, which continues to blend classical instrumentation with contemporary folk storytelling.
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A cross-continental collaboration rooted in storytelling
“Havana Garden” is co-written and performed as a duet with Texas-born singer-songwriter Jane Ellen Bryant, with production handled by Pete Davis, whose previous credits include work with Dido and PJ Harvey.
The track itself was developed across multiple locations, including Texas and Italy, where Janie Price hosted the Austin Florence Alliance songwriting camp at her Tuscan studio in collaboration with House of Songs USA. That transatlantic creative environment plays directly into the single’s identity, with its themes and arrangements reflecting a sense of shared artistic perspective across borders.
Built on Bird’s signature blend of classical strings, guitar-led folk textures, and cinematic production, “Havana Garden” unfolds as a reflective and atmospheric piece. It leans into a more visual style of songwriting, where narrative and instrumentation work together to create a vivid emotional landscape.
Emotionally resonant in its delivery, the collaboration turns inward, creating an atmospheric, cinematic folk sound that casts a clear spotlight on both artists’ vocals and their technical harmonies, particularly in moments of vocalise. The rich instrumentation further enhances the track’s narrative, adding greater depth and nuance to both the lyrics and the emotional impact of their performances.
Folklore, memory, and emotional weight
At the heart of the single is a story drawn from Cuban folklore, centred around a cemetery believed by some to be a site of miracles. The narrative explores themes of faith, grief, and the unexplained, focusing on how local devotion transforms mourning into something more spiritual and communal.
Rather than presenting folklore as distant myth, the song frames it through an emotional lens, shaped by a specific story Janie Price encountered in a UK newspaper. That real-life account became the foundation for the track’s lyrical direction, grounding its themes of faith, loss, and the unexplainable in a deeply personal narrative.
Janie Price reflected on the creative process behind the track, saying, “I co-wrote this with Texan musician Jane Ellen Bryant on the Austin Florence Alliance camp I hosted at my studio in Italy with House of Songs USA. My lyrics are about a cemetery in Cuba. It’s based on a ‘true’ story that I read in a UK newspaper about how the local people there go to that cemetery to worship love and miracles rather than mourn the dead after a miracle apparently happened there.”
She continued, recalling the story behind the song: “A mother was buried with her young child, with the child at her feet, as was local tradition to do. For some reason, they had to exhume the bodies, and when they did, they found the child in the mother’s arms. It was such a sad but beautiful thing to read, and as soon as I finished the article, I sketched the idea for the lyric. I finished writing it with Jane, who played guitar, and it actually made me cry. I love that Jane is singing with me throughout the song; it’s the first time I have recorded another female voice with mine like this.”
The collaboration with Jane Ellen Bryant adds another emotional layer to the single, marking a notable moment in Janie Price’s recording history as she shares lead vocal space in this way for the first time. Alongside the release, an official music video has also been unveiled, directed by Bird and Jane Ellen Bryant, with both artists serving as directors of photography, while Simon Ellis handled editing. The visual follows the two artists travelling by car—driven by Bird—as they make their way to a cemetery, performing the track in the car and at the cemetery. Filmed on location in Tuscany, Italy, it complements the song’s narrative and atmosphere.
Release strategy and EP rollout
The release of “Havana Garden” is closely tied to the wider rollout of “Strange As Folk”, the upcoming EP from Bird. The project will be released digitally across all major streaming platforms on May 1, 2026, and includes previously released tracks such as “The Film”, “Lay Lady Lay”, and “The Boy And The Swan”.
Ahead of the EP’s release, fans were given early access to a limited 7” vinyl edition of “Havana Garden” on April 18, 2026, as part of Record Store Day. The release was made available in participating record stores and online while stocks lasted, offering collectors an exclusive early physical edition.
Following the EP, attention will shift toward Janie Price’s forthcoming full-length album “Held Here Together”, which is scheduled for release on June 26, 2026. The album continues the thematic and sonic world that Bird has been building across recent releases, expanding her blend of folk storytelling, classical arrangement, and emotionally driven songwriting.
A UK album launch show is also planned for June 25, 2026, at The Camden Club, marking a live celebration ahead of the record’s release.
Bird’s evolving artistic landscape
Janie Price has built a career that moves fluidly between solo artistry, composition, and collaboration. As Bird, she has released five studio albums alongside an award-winning film soundtrack, “Wider Than The Sky“, while also contributing string arrangements and recordings for a wide range of major artists across the industry.
Her background as a classically trained multi-instrumentalist continues to shape her work, particularly in how she integrates orchestral elements into contemporary songwriting structures. Alongside her recording output, she is also active within the wider music community as a voting member of The Ivors Academy and a contributor to the Musicians’ Union Music Writers Advisory Board.
Jane Ellen Bryant is an Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter known for her blend of folk, rock, and Americana influences, as well as her emotionally direct songwriting and expressive vocal style, with her 2013 track “Lover” amassing over half a million Spotify streams. She is also one half of the indie duo Jane Leo, alongside fellow musician Leo Rondeau, a project that further showcases her range through a more stripped-back, collaborative approach. Alongside her solo work, Bryant has performed across major US festival stages, including South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival, building a reputation for her compelling live presence and narrative-driven writing.
With “Havana Garden”, Bird continues to evolve her creative identity through collaborative storytelling, blending classical instrumentation with folk tradition and cross-cultural narrative influence. The duet with Jane Ellen Bryant further expands this approach, adding a shared vocal dynamic that deepens the emotional and cinematic qualities of the track.
As “Strange As Folk” approaches its release and “Held Here Together” follows shortly after, this single forms part of a wider artistic chapter for Janie Price—one that draws together folklore, personal interpretation, and atmospheric storytelling, while continuing to shape a body of work defined by its emotional depth and narrative detail.
“Havana Garden”, by Bird and Jane Ellen Bryant, is available to download and stream, right now, across all platforms. Look out for Bird’s forthcoming EP “Strange As Folk”, set to be released next week, as well as her upcoming album “Held Here Together”, which will be dropped shortly after on June 26, 2026.
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