Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds

A few weeks ago, while raising celebratory glasses with Seint and Dave to celebrate a great two hours of rock climbing, we met Jackson, the bartender at the watering hole we'd chosen. He was great, and as there wasn't a lot of traffic in the bar - it being a Sunday night and all - he spent a lot of time chatting with us. As we were leaving, he mentioned that his band was going to be playing a few shows in the next few weeks and that we should check them out.

Normally, these words make me cringe. I've known a lot of people in bands, and for the most part, they're terrible. After spending at least 30 minutes of your life, that you'll never get back, enduring their performance, you have to deliver one of your own (which, one hopes, is of higher quality) when the person says "So, whaja think?" at the end of the set. Shudder.

I was not immediately turned off, however, because, of all the gin joints in all the world, I had stumbled into one staffed by a musician whose work I had seen before and actually loved. My friend Frank had a birthday party at a place in Brooklyn a few months before this, and there was live music there. Jackson's band, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, was the only one I really remembered because they were fantastic. The vocalist is his sister, and there's also a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist, a harmonica (Jackson) and a horn section made up of a trombone, trumpet, tenor sax and baritone sax. They've got a really incredible sound that is somewhere between rock and blues. I read a review that said they're influenced by music from New Orleans, which mostly fits, I think.

Anyway, it was a few weeks before I managed to make it to one of their shows, but I ended up going to two in a row. The first was a dress rehearsal of sorts for the release party for their first album, and I enjoyed it so much that I went to the release party the following night as well. I'd never been to a release party, and it was great. I had trouble deciding which band member I enjoyed watching the most - they were all having such a great time and were all so talented. Arleigh, Jackson's sister, is a phenomenal performer with a voice that I would literally kill for, and she writes most of their songs. The crowd was beside itself from the moment the band started to walk onto the stage, even before Bram, Jackson's cousin, hit the first few beats on the drums. I was settled at a high-top table next to the trombonist's parents, a sweet couple from San Fransisco, who beamed the whole way through the show. At one point, his dad couldn't hold back anymore and leapt off his stool, crewneck sweater, starched collar and all, and started doing a bizarre, swaying little dance against the wall. It was fantastic.

It was great to be able to go talk to some of the band members afterwards as well; I felt like quite an insider, although a lot of the people were there because they knew someone in the band. I highly recommend checking out their website where you can listen to clips of their music. They're much more fun live, and they've really matured a lot since they recorded the album a year ago (drama with the record label apparently) so check out the video clips which are more recent, particularly "Pound of Dirt."