Taking on the role of bandleader, Bird released "Thrills" on Rykodisc in 1998 with his group Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, shortly followed by second album "Oh! The Grandeur" in 1999. Both albums were heavily influenced by traditional folk, pre-war jazz, and swing, with Bird relying on the violin as his primary musical instrument, as well as providing vocals along with his trademark verbose lyrics. The Bowl of Fire featured musicians from Bird's home town of Chicago, including Kevin O'Donnell, Joshua Hirsch, Jon Williams, Nora O'Connor, Andy Hopkins, Jimmy Sutton, Colin Bunn, and Ryan Hembrey. During this period, Andrew Bird was a member of the jazz group Kevin O'Donnells Quality Six, for which he was the lead singer and violinist and contributed to arrangements and songwriting for the albums "Heretic Blues" (Delmark 1999) and "Control Freak" (Delmark 2000) (both Delmark albums were produced by Raymond Salvatore Harmon).