Shirey

At one time, Mr. Shirey, a native of Athens, Ohio, who first came to New York in the late-1980s, was a folk-steeped guitarist with a background in physics.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

He has accompanied clowns and acrobats at the Sydney Opera House and on Broadway, toured as a member of the gypsy-punk string quartet Luminescent Orchestrii, and composed for the Boston Pops as well as the screenwriter and novelist Neil Gaiman, who enlisted Mr. Shirey to write the soundtrack for his 2009 short film, "Statuesque."

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

One year when he was living in Denver, Mr. Shirey discovered that clubs wouldn't book him unless he was in a band.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

When last they met, Mr. Shirey demonstrated his mastery of the instrument with "amazing, glorious, magical bell-music," Mr. Gaiman said.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

Mr. Shirey, who demonstrates many of his contraptions on his YouTube channel, calls what he does "overly serious novelty music."

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

On one such excursion to a shop in Grand Central Station, Mr. Shirey came across a batch of canister music boxes, each tuned slightly differently.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

The singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer, a fan of Mr. Shirey who sometimes enlists him for her tours, introduced Mr. Gaiman, her husband, to his music when the couple was still dating.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

Should one be inclined to trivialize what Mr. Shirey does as a kind of neo-Vaudevillian shtick, his résumé doubles as a passport of imposing sophistication and variety.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

"I mute the bells, and you get this thing that sounds like giant crickets singing in a giant cricket chorus," said Mr. Shirey, whose first name is pronounced "Skip."

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011

Such are the creative issues that inspire Mr. Shirey, who will celebrate his 44th birthday onstage Saturday at Joe's Pub, demonstrating the inherent lyrical allure of such items as the "industrial flute," the enigmatic "Sxipenspiel," a stack of "mutant harmonicas" fed into a pitch-shifting device that makes a "fat, greasy, lumbering pipe-organ sound," a guitar doctored with paper clips and a microphone, and a set of desktop handbells.

A Mad Scientist of Musical Machinery Steve Dollar 2011