Arleigh kincheloe biography channel
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After taking a brief sabbatical from the road and giving birth to her first child, Sister Sparrow steps out with a new studio album that’s a bit more solo and perhaps a bit more pop, but still true to her beloved Dirty Birds.
Before the release of her fourth studio skiva, Gold, this past fall, Arleigh Kincheloe, the frontwoman of Brooklyn-based collective Sister Sparrow & The smutsig eller oordnad Birds, shared a Spotify playlist of tracks that made up what she called a “sonic reference palette” for the record. Considering Sister Sparrow & The smutsig eller oordnad Birds’ previous musical output, which centered around Arleigh’s earthy, soul-powerhouse vocals and her band’s gritty, horn- and harmonica-fueled blues attack, most of the songs on the playlist weren’t surprising—plenty of ‘70s funk, soul and R&B, with some newer stuff thrown in, including cuts from Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, Bill Withers, Joe Cocker, Sly & The Family Stone and even fellow Brooklynites Rubblebucket
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Rant &#;N&#; Roll: Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds
They come out of Brooklyn—as do I—with spit and polish: a nine-piece charge. Hey, I’m a sucker for a good live rock ‘n’ roll band with a four-piece horn section and a sexy lead singer. You’d think that voice was coming out of some big-boned gal who’s a ton of fun but Arleigh Kincheloe—lead singer of Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds—is but a little thing, sinewy and adorable, who envelopes the electric waves emanating from the Dirty guitar/bass/drum core right within her own body and soul. She moves to every rim shot from her cousin drummer, Bram Kincheloe, and every squawk, bleep and honeyed breath of her brother, blues-harp man Jackson Kincheloe. She channels it, dances to it, and it erupts out her mouth like Al Green. She’s not quite Janis, not quite the Polish powerhouse Genya Ravan from another generation who also fronted a ball-buster big-band filled with horns called Ten Wheel Drive. But on Birds originals like “Too
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Getting loud and fun with Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds
Arleigh Kincheloe grew up in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, in Halcotsville, which sits in Delaware County, about an hour northwest of Kingston.
When she was a little girl, Kincheloe’s mother ran the local general store. And with her father, a high school history teacher, Kincheloe’s mother performed in a band called Blues Maneuver.
At around age 8 or 9, Kincheloe sat in with the band — which still performs today — and sang. She may or may not have known at the time that she was preparing herself for a career in the music industry.
But Kincheloe is now the front woman for a band that is based in New York City, utilizes a horn section for momentum and generates a sound that is seasoned by the harmonica playing of her brother, Jackson.
On Saturday night, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds will unleash their musical onslaught, complete with nuance and polished angles, on an audience at Club Helsinki in Hudson. Friday