Sparrows are among the most familiar and populous birds on Earth. They are also among the most undervalued; their great numbers, generally drab appearance and unexceptional song have made them targets of neglect or derision. In the late 1950s, China even declared them a danger because of their grain diet and included them in the Four Pests Campaign, leading to their near extinction, a subsequent rise in the locust population and, at least tangentially, the Great Chinese Famine.
Arleigh Kincheloe obviously has a very different opinion of the sparrow. She chose the unremarkably amazing bird for her nom du rocque, Sister Sparrow, and dubbed her band with a name more often attached to the voluminous species: The Dirty Birds. For the past eight years, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds has defied the reputation of its namesakes with a visceral and blood-boiling presentation that includes Blues, Rock, Soul and R&B, played at a volume and intensity that could be dangerous for anyone with a heart condition.
Sister Sparrow’s music career began in New York’s Catskill Mountains, where she sang with her family’s band at age 9. Nine years later, she relocated to New York City with brother Jackson Kincheloe, a mind-blowing harmonica player, armed with the songs she’d been writing for years, and formed The Dirty Birds, a powerhouse live outfit that immediately attracted a fervently loyal fan base.
The band’s gifts were effectively displayed on its 2012 studio debut, Pound of Dirt, and its follow-up 2013 EP, Fight. But shortly after, the bulk of the original Dirty Birds flew the coop for other projects, leaving Sister Sparrow and brother Jackson to rebuild their Blues/Rock dynasty. Against all odds, The Dirty Birds returned stronger than before — last year’s The Weather Below was the group’s best album to date. And its first official live recording, the just-released double-disc Fowl Play, is a stunning testament to the concussive power of the Dirty Birds as a band and of Sister Sparrow as a raspy Blues howler with the conviction of Janis Joplin in her Big Brother & the Holding Company days and the contemporary nuance and range of Grace Potter.
If you’re a fan, you know what’s coming. If you’re merely curious, prepare to be baptized in Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds’ holy birdbath.
Click here for more info about Thursday’s free show with Holy Ghost Tent Revival.
This article appears in Jun 22-29, 2016.
