Legendary musicians David Byrne and Brian Eno collaborate on new album, bring tour to Charleston

The title exclaims "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today." However, for David Byrne and Brian Eno, it's actually been happening for 30-plus years.

Their past collaborations resulted in some of the most influential music of the '70s and '80s. So it was with good reason the pair of legendary songsmiths met up for dinner two years ago in London to quietly celebrate the re-release of their critically acclaimed project "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."

First released in 1981, "Ghosts" was the last time the two had worked together.

With so much catching up to do, Eno, who has produced artists from David Bowie and Geoffrey Oreyama to U2 and Coldplay, invited Byrne to join him at his studio the next afternoon, where he played the one-time Talking Heads founder some of his recent material — much of which was largely instrumental.

"In his words, he 'hates writing words,'" said Byrne, who then suggested, perhaps, he could write "some words and tunes over a few of them and we (can) see what happens."

That's when everything started to happen — it just didn't happen, as the title says, today.

In fact, after Eno sent Byrne a CD of rough mixes, it took him nearly a year before he sent a note to his longtime friend that his interpretation was a folk, electronic and gospel soundscape, and suggested that his "lyrics and melodies might reflect that."

The two began a long distance collaboration. One song at a time, they began writing what would eventually become "Everything That Happens."

"I'd just finished reading Dave Eggers book 'What is the What,'" Byrne said, "about (a boy named) Valentine and his hallucinatory and horrific journey as a very young man that took him from his destroyed village in Darfur to Atlanta, Ga., and beyond. Valentine's story was harrowing but also beautiful, uplifting, and at times, even funny. I think I might have still been under the influence of his story when I sat down in front of my microphone."

According to Byrne, the words had some Biblical allusions, but nothing too overt, and the two agreed to continue working together.

In the coming months the two continued the process and, not surprisingly, the songs had similar elements to their previous work. Along with his most infamous stint with Talking Heads, Byrne, 56, also works as a photographer, film director, author and has published and exhibited visual art for more than a decade. Eno has been described as an ambient pioneer, glam-rocker, hit producer, multi-media artist, technological innovator, world beat proponent and self-described nonmusician.

"Some of the lyrics and melodies, as I hinted at earlier, were an emergent quality of the music," Byrne explained. "So my writing was a response to what I sensed lay buried in the music. My work was to sing and speak what was originally nonverbal. In the end we have made something that neither of us could have made ourselves."

Initially available through iTunes and special Web site, www.everythingthathappens.com, the album is now available in stores. Byrne is now supporting the effort with a six-month long world tour, which comes to Charleston on Tuesday.

The album and his performances have been heralded by critics. The Chicago Tribune said he's "as weird and wonderful as ever," while the Washington Post called the thought-provoking collaboration "the most open-hearted singing of (Byrne's) career."

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Colorado-based journalist.