Larry Sparks - Lonesome Guitar

(Rebel REB-1633) 1983.

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This is an excellent instrumental album which was recorded over four days at Riverside Studio, Ashland, Kentucky (3 & 10 June 1984); and Chandler Audio, Ashland, Kentucky (19 Nov & 10 Dec 1984). Featuring Josh Graves on dobro and Stuart Duncan on fiddle/mandolin, Sandy Rothman also appears on The Old Spinning Wheel, whilst the banjo on the remaining cuts is by John Masters.

Larry's guitar style is unlike any other bluegrass act, which prompted James Alan Shelton to comment: "As a guitar player, he has accomplished the one thing that is so hard to do and that is he doesn't sound like anybody else!"^[1]

Larry had previously recorded Bob Wills' Faded Love on Ramblin' Bluegrass (1973) & The Footsteps Of Tradition (1974); plus The Ramblin' Guitar on Ramblin' Guitar (1970).

Other sources of material include Flatt & Scruggs Farewell Blues, Roy Acuff Low And Lonely, Tommy Duncan's Time Changes Everything, and the 1912 hymn In The Garden by Charles Austin Miles.

It's a measure of the calibre of Larry & the other musicians, and Larry's knack for arrangement, that the album flows so well and stands up to repeated listens.

The cover photos by Richard Boyd were taken at The Fret Mill music store in Roanoke, Virgina.

• Larry Sparks: guitar
• Stuart Duncan: mandolin / fiddle
• Josh Graves: dobro
• John Masters: banjo
• Sandy Rothman: banjo (*)
• Larry D. Sparks: bass

NB: (*) banjo on Spinning Wheel only.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] liner notes to the CD reissue of John Deere Tractor.