The Ballad of the Red Shoes
extended play by Andrew Bird
The Ballad of the Red Shoes is a self-released extended play. It is a collaborative project between Andrew Bird and his mother, Beth Bird, who is a printmaker. In its original printing in 2001, the artwork consisted of an accordion-folded set of prints illustrating a story tucked inside a sturdy printed / handpainted chipboard folder. The new package is slightly less deluxe, the artwork is now in a booklet instead of an accordion fold—otherwise, all of the images remain the same. The CD contains 12 minutes' worth of instrumental violin pieces.
Track listing
Other appearances
A reworked version of "Dance of Death" appears on the album Fingerlings 4.
The public source identifies “The Ballad of the Red Shoes” as extended play by Andrew Bird. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ballad, Shoes and extended.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Ballad of the Red Shoes”, the useful work is to connect “extended play by Andrew Bird” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7715450. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Ballad of the Red Shoes”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Ballad of the Red Shoes primary sources, The Ballad of the Red Shoes archive and Ballad research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Ballad of the Red Shoes”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Ballad of the Red Shoes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.