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Larry Sparks - 40

(Rebel REB-CD-1806) 2005.

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Commemorating Larry Spark's 40th year as a musician, this fine collection features guest performances on some of Larry's most well known songs, and several new ones too.

Ralph is featured on one track - a re-recording of Sharecropper's Son which Larry had performed with The Stanley Brothers^[1] and recorded with Ralph on Brand New Country Songs. Personnel for the session, which took place at Maggard Sound Studios sometime in 2004 is:

• Larry Sparks: guitar, lead vocal
• Ralph Stanley: tenor vocal
• Stuart Duncan: fiddle
• Joe Isaacs: banjo
• Kirk 'Jellyroll' Johnson: harmonica
• Don Rigsby: mandolin
• Ricky Skaggs: baritone vocal
• Larry D. Sparks: bass

Also of interest from a Stanley-centric point of view is Melvin Goins' Love Please Stay, which was also first recorded on Brand New Country Songs; and It's Too Late To Walk The Floor by Ozzie Thorpe, who part funded Ralph's The Bluegrass Sound Of....

All the albums I've got by Larry Sparks have been well worth buying, and although I'm not generally a fan of the 'guest collaboration' albums, this is quite a fine effort and well worth picking up.

The album was produced by Don Rigsby, and comes with a 26-page booklet.

^{[1] You can hear a version of Sharecropper's Son by The Stanley Brothers with Larry Sparks on guitar, taken from the 1965 University Of Chicago Folk Festival on the 2xCD 'Folk Festival' (Stanleytone STCD-5003) 2001.}