Eb & Sparrow - Eb & Sparrow (2014)

Eb & Sparrow are a genre-defying, five-piece folk band that are gaining attention across the country from city bars to folk clubs, festivals to house concerts. They have supported Rodriguez, Pokey LaFarge, Beth Orton, Wagons, Delaney Davidson & Marlon Williams, The Warratahs, Anika Moa, Tami Neilson and Aldous Harding. Eb & Sparrow's new debut album is self-titled and self-assured. The 10 song collection is built on, but far exceeds - their three preceding EPs as it takes the band's parado­xically woven nature to new heights. These songs are proudly soaring and grounded, dark and bright, dreamy and direct, country and Spanish, 1850s and 1950s, delicate and propulsive, all the while lamenting and laughing. "We cast aching crescendoes of a time long gone, into a modern landscape" says singer and songwriter Ebony Lamb. Her impressionistic lyrics are imbued with a simple strength that comes from both heart and heartache. Her voice is unique - a cross between Cat Power and Gillian Welch and seems to resurrect an old-time soul into the here and now. Lamb has worked tirelessly at her craft with a band that has grown organically around her. Lap-steel, trumpet and electric guitars swirl colourfully above solid and sensitive rhythm playing, moving effortlessly between a country shuffle, a Tex-Mex croon and a hazy hooning workout. "Eb & Sparrow" was recorded by award-winning Lyttelton producer and sound genius Ben Edwards (Delaney Davidson & Marlon Williams, The Tiny Lies, Aldous Harding) at The Sitting Room studios.