Traveling to Scotland, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Space Center in Cocoa, Florida, the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, DC, and New York, to mention a few, is one of Arvel’s favorite parts of touring. He has traveled over 500,000 road miles with symphonies, chamber orchestras, large festivals, and more.
Arvel followed his musical instincts and abandoned classical music to pursue his own sound and garner a devoted fan base. He also experimented with folk, Celtic, bluegrass, and Appalachian music. Arvel spent his years in the Midwest honing a variety of performance techniques and winning the Indiana State Fiddle Contest four times. After Arvel returned to Arizona in 1986, Glen Campbell recruited him to embark on a six-year global tour. He continued touring with Campbell after deciding to move to Nashville, and subsequently added tours with Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, Ray Price, Louise Mandrell, and Clay Walker. Arvel established a master recording studio during his 13 years in Nashville, which aided in the establishment of Singing Wolf Records, his own independent record label. At first, the studio gave him a safe place to compose and record his own music. Later on, it helped independent musicians and songwriters record hundreds of songs and album projects.
A prolific songwriter, Arvel added two EPs and two DVDs to his catalog in 2015 with the release of his 24th and 25th CDs. Five of his releases have earned him international music awards. His classical recording Tribal Music Suite: Journey of a Paiute, a Celtic and Native American concerto for violin and Native American flute, is one of his most treasured achievements. It won him Best Instrumental Album and Best Producer/Engineer at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, alongside Grammy-winning producer Tom Wasinger and Nashville engineer Chas Williams. Numerous Best Instrumentals and the Artist of the Year award, chosen by peers and fans, are among the other accolades.
Arvel Birds’ “Celtic Indian” brand is a reflection of his mixed-blood American Indian and Celtic ancestry. Arvel creates a potent musical and narrative tapestry with his violin, fiddle, Native flutes, and Irish whistles. Audiences are able to witness his Scottish soul and Native American heart at music festivals and concert halls.
Arvels continuously evolving music is delighting audiences worldwide. He released “Celtic Indian” in November 2015, which was an album based on his live performances. Many of the songs Arvel performs and that have been released on other CDs have been collected by him, including two performance songs that were previously unreleased but are now well-known. Animal Totems 3, his most recent album, is a World Music CD that captures the spirit, setting, and cuisine of different parts of the world.