Jay Sparrow Lead singer Murder City Sparrows www.murdercitysparrows.com

Imagine the rush: singing into the same microphone as Frank Sinatra, playing your guitar in the same room as Ray Charles’ piano, and recording an album at Willie Nelson’s studio in Texas. How cool is that?

Ask Jay Sparrow.

He’s the 25 year-old lead singer of the Murder City Sparrows, a four-person Edmonton band. Sparrow describes their music style as a combination of punk, country and pop.  How did the band get its name? Sparrow was struck by the homicide rate in Washington, DC—250 to 400 people are murdered each year, in a city half the size of Edmonton. The other part of the name—and his own—comes from Charles Bukowski’s printer, Black Sparrow Press. Sparrow has no musical training and can’t read music—he plays by ear. He started playing when he was 14, and wrote the lyrics and music to his first album when he was 16 and 17.

The band has been around since 2002, but 2005 was its best year so far. Sparrow explained that they weren’t particularly thrilled with their first album, so they decided to hone their music style for a year before they released another album. They teamed up with Gordie Johnson, a former member of Big Sugar, to make it happen. The new single, Burn in Water, is getting national air play, and they have a video on Much Music.

Accolades are coming their way. Sonic FM named Murder City Sparrows Band of the Month, and they were written up in the defunct DOSE Magazine as a group to watch in Western Canada. The New Music West festival in Vancouver presented them with the Future Superstars Award.

The second single from their self-titled album will be released this summer. Murder City Sparrows will also be touring Eastern Canada, stopping at the North by Northwest Music Festival in Toronto.