HBO documentary includes song from MSUM graduate, Amanda Nygard

“Bird Flew Hard,” a song from the Fargo-based roots trio Amanda Standalone and the Pastry Shop Girls is featured in the opening credits of the documentary “Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert,” which aired Monday, March 17 on HBO.

“It’s just validating that my song is interesting enough to attract some kind of attention from a film producer and maybe more people,” said Amanda Nygard, a 2013 Minnesota State University Moorhead graduate who wrote the song and included it in the band’s 2010 album “Millions of Blackbirds.”

A producer found “Bird Flew Hard” by entering stream-of-consciousness words related to the documentary’s themes into a search engine. Last fall, a music licensor contacted Nygard through the Amanda Standalone and the Pastry Shop Girls Facebook page.

Photo by Amber Fletschock

“It’s a very metaphoric kind of song,” Nygard said. “That whole album had a theme of birds and it’s about traveling. I wrote it when I had just returned to Fargo and lived above an antique store. I had been so many places and all of a sudden I found myself back where I started. I had hit bottom and I had to come home. It’s also a song about trusting people for the wrong reasons.”

Amanda Standalone and the Pastry shop girls formed six years ago when Nygard, Abby Swegarden and Minda Ringdahl worked together at Nichole’s Fine Pastry in Fargo. The band is known for its beautiful three-part harmonies.

Nygard, the lead songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, fiddle, piano, banjo, washtub bass, etc.), sings and usually plays guitar, while Swegarden and Ringdahl contribute backing vocals.

Executive-produced by Maria Shriver, “Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert,” follows one woman’s struggle with poverty in America. It’s the latest project from The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, which partnered with the Center for American Progress and HBO Documentary Films.

The film debuted last month at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. On March 10, Oprah Winfrey and Eva Longoria joined Shriver for the Hollywood premiere.

With the fragile economy and rampant inequality, Gilbert’s is a story that too many people can relate to, Nygard said. “It’s the best form of reality television I can imagine,” she said. “It’s a real depiction of a person going through life having to take care of other people and probably giving up her dreams. Sometimes, that’s what’s necessary, especially when there’s no one else there to take care of you.”

To celebrate the song’s inclusion in the documentary, Nygard and Ringdahl will perform a free show from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 21 at the Red Raven Espresso Parlor. They’ll be joined by Diane Miller from D Mills and the Thrills and Diane Miller and the Silver Daggers, among other musical projects.