The Sparrows

MAGNOLIA SESSIONS – Now Available online at CD BABY!!!! Click on the picture below!

admin — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 02:46:44 +0000

Click here to buy “Magnolia Sessions” by The Sparrows. Cover art by Coon Hunter.

“Magnolia Sessions” is now available at The Sparrows LIVE SHOWS & at CD Baby for digital download. Check out the schedule below for the Official Release Parties. Keep your ear to the track.

FRI JUNE 14 – Club Cafe – Concert for the Cure – Featuring Scott Reynolds, Luca Brazi & The Sparrows – CD RELEASE – South Side, Pittsburgh, PA. Early show 6:30-9PM.

SAT JUNE 15 – The Ranch – Benefit Concert – Ellwood City, PA.

SAT JUNE 22 – The Keystone – Ellwood City, PA. 9PM. Special Guest TBA.

SAT JULY 27th- ELLWOOD CITY SAXON’S CLUB CHRISTMAS IN JULY BASH, Ellwood City, PA, 8PM – CD RELEASE PARY – Special Guests Jordan Keith Robb & The Redlines. 8PM-Midnight.

SAT JULY 20 – The Edgewater, Beaver Falls, PA. 9PM.

FRI AUGUST 23 – The Keystone, Ellwood City, PA. 9PM.

Photo by Justin Casalandra

SPARROWS FLYING HIGH

Beaver County Time, Scott Tady

Posted: Sunday, May 5, 2013 12:45 am

The Sparrows took their sweet time, but did it right.

The result is “Magnolia Sessions,” the Ellwood City band’s smartly crafted sophomore album that’s a sizable step forward for them as recording artists.

Songs like “Amphetamine” and “Gone Too Long” twang and bang in all the right places, though a larger majority of songs, such as “Truck Driver’s Daughter” and “Hell or High Water,” allow vivid and bittersweet storytelling to unfold more patiently.

Singer T.C. Davis conveys a world-weary wisdom I’d guess was gleaned while gripping a longneck, or else the steering wheel of a dented vehicle barreling down some lonesome side road on a late-night solo ride.

His Sparrows bandmates Corey Gray (bass and vocals) and Chris Gray (guitar and mandolin) find a sashaying groove that’s pure Americana and up to snuff for any Adult Album Alternative radio station. Guest fiddle player Luke Zacherl of country band NoMAD helps root the songs rurally, as fellow session man Chris Leonardi supplies the soul seasoning on B3 and Wurlitzer organ.

I intend to play lead-off track/likely single “Star Crossed Love” in a few weeks when I do my monthly guest stint on 91.3-WYEP. Or if ‘YEP morning co-host Cindy Howes lets me, I might opt for the harder coated “Amphetamine.”

Spectators might have heard the Sparrows sample some new songs this weekend during gigs at Thursday’s in Bridgewater and the Ambridge Eagles Club.

“Official” album release parties are set for June 14 at Club Cafe on Pittsburgh’s South Side, and July 27 at the Ellwood City Saxons Club.

“We worked very hard on this album,” Corey Gray said. “Probably put over a year and a half into it.”

That included 35 days in studio, which ain’t cheap, as any musician will tell you.

“Every time we would run low on funds, we had a series of gigs to replenish the band fund,” Gray said. “We definitely took our time. Some of the tracks we learned in-studio. This is as close to ‘The album’ we always wanted to make’ as we may ever get.”

Their patience paid off, as fans new and old soon will discover.

Photo by Justin Casalandra

Ohio Valley Tonight with Nathan Marshall – Feat. TC Davis of The Sparrows

admin — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 22:57:57 +0000

Click on photo of TC Davis to link to video!

This is the fourteenth episode of Ohio Valley Tonite with Nathan Marshall,and the third season. This talk show segment aired on WTRF on 2/1/13, and was filmed on location at Brooke High School.

This episode features the Pittsburgh, PA band, The Sparrows, frontman, T.C. Davis.

An interview with The Sparrows…

admin — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:41:01 +0000

Click below to see Revolution Three Sixty’s interview with The Sparrows.

Visit www.revolutionthreesixty.com for more great artists and interviews!

The Sparrows in studio…

admin — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:30:51 +0000

TC Davis & Chris Gray at Ampreon Recorder, Youngstown, OH

We’ve been hard at work at Ampreon Recorder in Youngstown, OH. There is much more to be done, but we have a great foundation set by the likes of Mark Tirabassi on drums and percussion.

Going down?

Ampeg B-15R

Dr. Z

“He writes the songs — and sings them, too” – Ellwood City Ledger

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:56:10 +0000

Posted: Saturday, February 25, 2012 12:15 am | Updated: 9:00 pm, Fri Feb 24, 2012.

He writes the songs — and sings them, too By Louise Carroll Ledger Correspondent EllwoodCityLedger.com

Tell Tom “T.C.” Davis a story, and it just might become the basis of a song. The tunesmith from Wayne Township doesn’t just play other people’s songs, he composes his own — both melody and lyrics. “Playing music isn’t my hobby; it’s my lifestyle,” Davis said. His songs tell stories not just about his experiences, but stories that people have told him. The songs touch people in different ways.

“Whatever it means to you is what it means,” Davis said. “I don’t tell you what the songs mean. They mean whatever it means to you.”

For the past five years, Davis has been the lead vocalist and plays guitar with The Sparrows, a musical group made up of Ellwood City brothers Corey Gray on bass and Chris Gray on guitar. The group plays his original music that he describes as nothing too electric — a mixture of rock ‘n’ roll and country.

The Sparrows are affiliated with The Americana Rock Company, a movement dedicated to performance, promotion and management to honor Americana music.

“They take my simple acoustic sounds and the words, the bare bones that I write, and they turn it into a song. It is a great thing. They make it music,” Davis said.

The collective is made up of The Sparrows, The Robbie Joy Band, Katianne Timko and Jordan Keith Robb.

When Davis graduated from high school in 1994, he joined the Marine Corps where he spent four years as a machine gunner. While stationed in North Carolina, he played the drums in a three-piece blues band.

Often, to give the other members or the band a break, he would sing two or three songs behind the drums. “Eventually, I got tired of lugging the drums around. The sets were over, the other guys were walking out the door, and I was still tearing down the drum sets,” Davis said.

At 21, Davis learned to play the guitar when a friend in the band showed him a few chords. From there, he taught himself. He started writing music, but not performing.

In 1998, when he got out of the Marine Corps, he returned home to Ambridge, where he began going to jam nights at Junction Square in New Brighton trying to put a band together.

He formed the band, Rust, popular locally, but a band that never took the next step. Eventually, it fizzled.

“I got deeper into writing and away from performing as I built up a big catalog of my own work,” Davis said.

In 2007, he met the Gray brothers, who had formed the Sparrows.

“I couldn’t believe they were right here and we hadn’t met. The best part is that we get along great,” Davis said.

Davis works at Iron Mountain underground storage in Boyers, Pa., in the communication and video studio.

And so it begins… “Magnolia Sessions”

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:54:04 +0000

We are happy to announce that production of our new album titled “Magnolia Sessions” has officially begun. We will be hunkering down at Ampreon Studios in Youngstown, OH. Joining us as our in-studio drummer will be a Hubbard, OH local veteran percussionist Mark Tirrabassi. Check back early and often for updates, photos and more…

Keep Your Eyes on THE SPARROWS

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:06:49 +0000

The Ellwood City Ledger – Original link for article

Posted: Tuesday, January 3, 2012

By Louise Carroll Ledger Correspondent

A chance discovery walking home from school one day led brothers Corey and Chris Gray to an avocation that’s garnered them notice in the local music community.

Someone in their Franklin Township neighborhood threw a beaten-up acoustic guitar in the trash. They retrieved it, cleaned and painted it, and did what they could to restore it to a semblance of a musical instrument.

“We found it in the garbage, so you know it wasn’t a prize possession, but we made it work,” said Corey Gray, a 1995 graduate of Riverside High School who now lives in Ellwood City.

Chris Gray learned to play the guitar, but Corey Gray said he wasn’t interested until some time later. He decided to play the bass guitar because not many wanted to play it.

“It was a good decision. I get a lot of work because there aren’t many bass guitar players,” Corey Gray said.

Their father, Richard, teased Chris that if he learned to write a song, he would get him a real guitar. As Chris got a better guitar and the playing became better, it became a family joke that someday Dad would get them real guitars.

Five years ago, the joke became a reality when their parents, Richard and Nancy, gave Corey a rare 1973 Fender bass guitar and Chris received a one-of-a-kind, custom-made Girl Brand guitar.

“We are blessed with great parents,” Corey Gray said. “They have always supported us and encouraged us.”

The Gray brothers are members of The Sparrows, a group that plays pure, simple, Americana music.

“We play music that reflects on who we are and it relates to growing up in a small town,” Corey Gray said.

They named the group The Sparrows mainly because they couldn’t settle on a name.

“All year long, even in the winter, you see the sparrows. They are always here. The robins go away in the winter. So we are here and we have to just keep trying,” Corey Gray said.

The Sparrows also include Tom “T.C.” Davis from Wayne Township, who plays guitar and is the lead vocalist, and Dave Cable, a drummer from Patterson Township, who recently joined the group.

“It is hard to find guys devoted to this. There’s no big money in it; you just have to love what you’re doing,” Corey Gray said.

Since 2008, The Sparrows have been opening for nationally known groups and playing all over the tri-state. Upcoming gigs include appearances at Kelly’s Riverside Saloon in Bridgewater Jan. 14 and Feb. 4.

The band is working on a CD due for release soon.

Before The Sparrows, the Gray brothers played with Alisium, a rock group that went on to win the Graffiti Rock Challenge Battle of the Bands in Pittsburgh in 2005.

“Winning that seems to be cursed. We broke up after winning,” Corey Gray said.

Recently, The Sparrows joined The Americana Rock Company, a movement that prides itself on its dedication to performance, promotion and management in an effort to honor Americana music.

The collective is made up of The Sparrows, The Robbie Joy Band, Katianne Timko and Jordan Keith Robb.

Corey Gray said The Americana Rock Company is a musical brand that originated in the Rust Belt — music inspired by country, rock ‘n’ roll, folk, bluegrass, and soul, with a touch of the blue-collar work ethic of northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.