Larry Sparks

Larry Eugene Sparks (born September 25, 1947) is an American Bluegrass singer and guitarist. He was the winner of the 2004 and 2005 International Bluegrass Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year Award. 2005, won IBMA for Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year for his album "40," celebrating his 40th year(2003) in bluegrass music. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Sparks was born and raised in Lebanon, Ohio. His family originated from Jackson County, Kentucky in the Appalachians. In his childhood, he used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and to radio station WCKY. He learned to play the guitar when he was quite young influenced by artists such as Wayne Raney, Stanley Brothers, Tommy Sutton and Paul "Moon" Mullins. Although he had played in country music and rock bands while he was in high school, his bluegrass career began when he joined the Stanley Brothers in 1964. At that time he was playing in a local band in Middletown, Ohio: "Irvin MackIntosh and His Band" and a friend of his, banjo player Wilbur Hall, was acquainted with Moon Mullins - who had just arrived to Middletown - and Hall told Mullins about Sparks. Mullins, who knew the Stanley Brothers, recommended Sparks to them and he was hired after an audition. An extensive tour followed and he recorded for the first time in 1965 for a small label in Dayton, Ohio.

En diciembre de 1966, Carter Stanley, de los Stanley Brothers, falleció y Ralph Stanley necesitaba un guitarrista para reemplazarlo. La banda "Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys" estaba compuesta por Ralph Stanley (banjo), Larry Sparks (guitarra), Curly Ray Cline (violín) y Melvin Goins (bajo). Sparks se mudó a Clintwood, Virginia , y se casó. Junto a Ralph Stanley, Larry Sparks grabó las versiones originales de clásicos modernos del bluegrass, como "I Only Exist", "Sharecropper's Son" y "Going Up Home To Live in Green Pastures". A finales de 1969, dejó los "Clinch Mountain Boys", formó los "Lonesome Ramblers" y comenzó a grabar para Pine Tree Records. La primera formación de los "Ramblers" estaba compuesta por Larry Sparks, David Cox, Lloyd Hensley, Joe Isaacs y la hermana de Larry, Bernice Sparks. Tras su paso por Pine Tree Records, pasó por Old Homestead Records y luego por Starday Records, antes de unirse al sello de bluegrass Rebel Records en 1977. A lo largo de los años, su banda ha sufrido numerosos cambios de integrantes. El banjoísta y tenor Dave Evans ha sido uno de los miembros más conocidos de los "Ramblers".

En 2005, Sparks actuó en el Festival de Bluegrass de Gettysburg con los Lonesome Ramblers. ^{[ 2 ]}

• Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music , 2003 (pág.  710)
• Thomas Goldsmith, The Bluegrass Reader , 2004 (págs.  195-198)
• Kurt Wolff, Orla Duane, Música country: La guía básica , 2000 (págs.  249-250)
• John Wright, Viajando por la carretera a casa: Ralph Stanley y el mundo de lo tradicional , 1995 (págs.  117-122)

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• Artículo en rebelrecords.com