Larry Sparks - Sings Hank Williams

(County 759) 1977.
Also released in the UK (Fundamental SAVE-28) 1977,
reissued on CD (Rebel REB-CD-1694) 1991.

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This is a heatfelt tribute to one of Larry's main musical influences, with sympathetic renditions of a few of Hanks's well known songs & many other deep-catalogue items.

Larry's soulful vocals suits Hank's material well, and Chubby Wise's fiddle work fits perfectly. Tommy Boyd also provides dobro on most tracks, which adds yet more country flavour to the proceedings, only switching over to banjo on an instrumental version of I Saw The Light. Although the overall sound is quite different to Larry's other works, it is still a fab album which pays dividends after repeated plays.

The album was scheduled for release early in 1977^[1] and Ricky Skaggs also makes a guest appearance playing mandolin.

Larry had of course recorded a handful of Hank Williams' songs on his earlier albums: Six More Miles on Ramblin' Guitar & The Footsteps Of Tradition; Faded Love And Winter Roses & Mother Is Gone on The Lonesome Sounds Of...; I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry on Pickin' And Singin'; and I'm Gonna Sing, Sing, Sing on Thank You Lord. He continued to include other Hank Williams material on his subsequent albums too with: Pan American on Travelin' (1992); California Zephyr on Special Delivery (2000); I'm Gonna Sing, Sing, Sing on Lonesome & Then Some (2014); I Saw The Light and House Of Gold on Ministry In Song (2021); and How Can You Refuse Him Now? on Way Back When.

• Larry Sparks: guitar, vocal
• Tommy Boyd: banjo, dobro
• Jerry Schieber: bass
• Ricky Skaggs: mandolin
• Chubby Wise: fiddle
• Art Wynder: bass

Other artwork / related images:

[1] 'General Notes' section of the Jan 1977 edition of 'Bluegrass Unlimited'.