Andrew Bird continues 20th Anniversary of The Mysterious Production of Eggs
International orchestral tour extends with dozens of US dates added
Expansive box set available, featuring 3LPs, book of unseen photos, essays & new artwork
Standard vinyl reissue hits record in stores now, digital accompaniment now streaming here
Detroit, (March 4, 2026) – Andrew Bird continues a year-long celebration behind the 20th Anniversary of his era-defining album, The Mysterious Production of Eggs with a concert with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall on November 17.
Recorded and scrapped three times in three different places, it is the album that cemented his enigmatic style into the indie music canon, shaping the sound of the moment and inspiring decades of imitation. This season, Bird kicks off an international tour accompanied by some of the world’s foremost symphony orchestras, including stops in Detroit with the DSO, San Francisco, Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Milwaukee, his native Chicago, and Minneapolis. A full list of dates can be found at andrewbird.net/home#tour; tickets to the DSO performances start at $39 and can be purchases by clicking here.
Ahead of the orchestral tour, Bird is further presenting The Mysterious Production of Eggs as it has never been experienced. A revelatory new box set features previously unheard demos, live takes and alternate versions of each track on the original record—as well as an album’s worth of unearthed rarities and rearrangements performed with Nu Deco Ensemble—all presented in an expansive collection of 3LPs, 54 pages of unseen photos, reflective essays by Bird and Anders Lindall examining the circuitous, fascinating process Bird and collaborators took to make Eggs, and brand new artwork by original cover artist and longtime collaborator, Jay Ryan.
The Mysterious Production of Eggs (20th Anniversary Box Set) is available now, alongside a special digital accompaniment—Borrow or Rob, available on digital platforms—where listeners can hear previously unreleased singles “Blood” and “Capital I,” as well as orchestral renditions of favorites like “Fake Palindromes,” “Tables and Chairs,” “Happy Birthday,” “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left,” and more. Fans can also find the reissued vinyl of The Mysterious Production of Eggs at their favorite local record store today, featuring brand new cover artwork by Jay Ryan, before The Mysterious Production of Eggs (20th Anniversary Box Set) hits retail shelves on April 10.
Order The Mysterious Production of Eggs (20th Anniversary Box Set), listen to Borrow or Rob via Andrew Bird’s own Wegawam Music Co. and Secretly Distribution, and see what’s under beastie’s blanket on the interactive Eggs site: HERE
Born from a barn in rural Illinois, and now played with the world’s finest orchestras, The Mysterious Production of Eggs crystallized the ingenious live-looping, poetic whimsy, whistling melodies and emotional connection that would inform the nearly 20 albums and hundreds of concerts that Andrew Bird has crafted since.
“I was playing all day and night in a kind of fever, throwing in pop, jazz, violin, guitars, and polyrhythms, while wrestling with some demons,” says Andrew Bird, in a new interview with The Guardian. “I was 29 and had been feeling like a has-been, but suddenly I felt like an artist, not someone just channeling my record collection. The title comes from an old magic catalogue from the 1920s that said, ‘the mystic production of eggs.’ I changed ‘mystic’ to ‘mysterious,’ but it just seemed to capture the thrill of creating something that didn’t previously exist.”
Two decades later, the mystery has only grown richer, as Eggs’ influence still resonates across the indie world and Andrew Bird’s solo work. Earlier this month, he released “Need Someone,” the first original song written for HBO Max’s The Pitt (“it’s perfect” – Esquire, “it is so beautiful” – NPR Music, “sweeping, emotional” – Stereogum, “haunting, tear-jerking” – Collider, “heartbreaking” – Mashable). The track marked Bird’s latest in a long streak of film and TV collaborations, and a career that has included everything from a GRAMMY® nomination to acting stints in FX’s Fargo and Disney’s The Muppets, recent ventures into jazz and a full cover album of Buckingham Nicks with Madison Cunningham (Cunningham Bird), TED Talks and New York Times op-eds, and duets with everyone from Fiona Apple to Phoebe Bridgers.
About the DSO
The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a robust performance schedule that features classical, pops, jazz, and family concerts, plus community performances. Enrico Lopez-Yañez was named Principal Pops Conductor in 2023, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard serves as the orchestra’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair, and Tabita Berglund began her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor in the 2024–25 season. A dedication to broadcast innovation and technology began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.
The DSO’s distinguished history of recordings—many led by its renowned music directors—spans nearly a century, beginning with the orchestra’s first 78 rpm singles with Ossip Gabrilowitsch released on the Victrola label in 1928. A steady recording output has continued since then, with highlights including more than 20 releases with Paul Paray for Mercury’s Living Presence series, and 27 under the baton of Neeme Järvi, mostly on the Chandos label. In the 1970s, the DSO took part in the historic Black Composers Series for Columbia Records led by its then-Associate Conductor Paul Freeman and later made several acclaimed recordings with Antal Doráti for the Decca label. More recently, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the DSO recorded music by Rachmaninoff, Copland, and John Williams for the Naxos label, earning its first GRAMMY® nomination in 2017 for Copland’s Third Symphony / Three Latin American Sketches. The first recording with Jader Bignamini, of Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony, was released in March 2025 on the Pentatone label.
Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.