The Singer Comes First

Picking bluegrass legend Larry Sparks' brain before this weekend's big festival.

by Mary Armstrong

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Published: Aug 27, 2008

Sparks (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Labor Day weekend is this country's time for honoring working people. It's also the traditional time for the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, celebrating its 37th birthday this year.

The timing is perfect.

Bluegrass is as blue collar as it comes, reaching directly to the heart with acoustic instruments, all sounds produced by the honest work of somebody's hands, no tricks or effects needed — or wanted. The singing wraps listeners in sentiment, from the depths of hard times or cheating despair to joyous, sassy celebrations of making the best of life as it comes at you while looking forward to better days ahead.

As always, Del Val has nothing but top-drawer acts. To focus on singers, consider legendary Del McCoury, who will be spreading out for one extra-long concert-length set on Friday evening. Local hero Dan Paisley will lead the Southern Grass through their paces both Friday and Saturday. Try to catch one of those sets, because his new CD, The Room Over Mine (Rounder), is bound to win plenty of awards at the upcoming International Bluegrass Music Association conference, so it may not be so easy to catch his act in these parts in the future.

For singing on Sunday, Larry Sparks is the man. By this time next year, he looks forward to celebrating 40 years of leading his own band, the Lonesome Ramblers. Before that, his working conditions weren't too bad, either: lead guitar with the Stanley Brothers while he was still in high school. When Carter Stanley died, Sparks took over the lead vocals for the Clinch Mountain Boys for several years. "I treasured the time I had with Carter and Ralph," said Sparks recently, calling from his home during a rare break from touring. You could hear the pride in his voice as he continued, "My 16-year-old son just dragged out those LPs last night and was listening to them." That is a bit of encouragement to a man who worries that there are not enough artists carrying on the traditional country sound.

"A few of us, like Ralph and I were just meant to do this. There are not too many left who just play it acoustic, maybe even despite a bad sound system! You just gotta get out there and do it." In more that 40 years of making his living in bluegrass, Sparks has seen a shift in the music. "It has gotten more progressive, which is OK, I'm not knocking it. There's not many holding to the older sound. But if somebody like myself doesn't hold to this old school, I don't know who will."

Old school? As much we might appreciate blistering-fast picking and imaginative instrumentals, in old school the singer is still the heart of the band. "The singer is the one in charge. The other band members need to build him up and make him sound good, add what those songs need. You can't hotlick it up and over-play the singer. When you've got a stylist out there on stage, somebody recognizable, who has their own way of doing things; if you lose a band member it doesn't hurt you, 'cause you have a style that will always be there."

Sparks sounds wistful as he adds, "The style days are about gone. People like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Ralph — they all had their own way of doing it. People knew what they were going to see and hear." Bluegrass has given Sparks a comfortable living and he freely shares his theories for success in the business. "You gotta keep that look. I always liked to be neat onstage, to lift this music up, make it look like a show. Sometimes I think, man I'd be more comfortable in my Levis, but I don't do it, 'cause you dress for your work." As much as he loves the music, Sparks stresses it is still a business and it needs all the attention to detail that any business commands. "Off stage is as important as onstage." When he comes out to shake and howdy at festivals, he still looks sharp and minds his Ps and Qs. "You gotta keep your walk good, too."

What would he say to appeal to someone who has never been to a bluegrass festival, let alone a Larry Sparks show? Give it a chance and judge for yourself. "People know quality, they know what's real. What I do is real, just straightforward."

Musing again over the shifts in music and how it is made, he says: "Things got too easy. In the studio you can take somebody and make them a singer. ... " He trails off, letting us fill in the blanks with our own list of live-show disappointments. Picking up again, he reminds us of the early days of country recordings, made live to disc. "If you go back to the 1930s and '40s, Monroe Bros, Bill, Flatt and Scruggs, [on through more modern studio recordings] the Osbornes, Jim and Jesse, their music is the real deal. Hopefully I have laid down my part like they have."

(m_armstrong@citypaper.net)

Fri.-Sun., Aug. 29-31, Salem County Fairgrounds, U.S. 40, Woodstown, N.J., 302-635-3001, delawarevalleybluegrass.org, bfotm@dca.net.

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