“I grew up in quite a musical home. My parents met one another while playing in bands in San Francisco in the early ’80s, so it’s not a shock that their vinyl collection was pretty sweet.”
“My siblings and I would spend hours listening to records with our parents. Not only were we excited and entranced by the music, but I can also remember studying the album covers—the pictures, the words I couldn’t read yet, thinking ‘how could anyone get THIS cool?’ Of course, they switched over to CDs once they had saved enough to buy a CD player, and then I taught myself to read by singing and reading along to the liner notes of Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time and Emmylou’s Brand New Dance, among others.
And like any vinyl loving kid could tell you, I almost died (of joy) on my first trip to Amoeba records in SF. I was shocked and, frankly, appalled that I could buy a nearly perfect copy of Joni Mitchell’s Blue for $3.50. But something happened recently that really reminded me of just how big an impact those early years of vinyl listening had on me and my siblings.
We recently played Jam Cruise and I was lucky enough to be able to bring our eldest sister along for my moral support and general enjoyment. One night we were dancing and singing along in the crowd to one of our favorites, George Porter Jr. He started playing “Eyes of the World” by the Grateful Dead. My sister and I were singing every word without even realizing it. She leaned over to me and said, “Oh my God, remember when dad would play Wake of the Flood on vinyl when we were little?”
Now it must sound trivial, but to me this flooded back (no pun intended) that irreplaceable memory that was lodged in the very back row of the library of musical memories in my head. It made me realize how much we retain from so young and how music can stay with you forever in all these glorious forms.
It made me feel so close to my siblings and so thankful for our shared experience. We most definitely are who we are because of those records, and listening to them together. Long live vinyl.”
—Arleigh Kincheloe
Sister Sparrow’s full-length release, Gold is in stores now—on gold vinyl, natch.
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PHOTO: SHERVIN LAINEZ
