Larry Sparks - Way Back When

(Rebel REB-CD-1885) Oct 2025.

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If you only count the albums with new material, by my reckoning, this is Larry's 17th on the Rebel/County label, or his 24th if you add the compilations and reissues of King Bluegrass material.

Needless to say, it's another fine slice of old and new material, with 10 tracks and a 27:14 total playing time.

Of the new material, regular collaborator, Gary Ferguson shares songwriting credits on the title cut, Way Back When and The Fields Of Gettysburg and Estelle V. McKinley Banks provides On The Battlefield For My Lord. The juxtaposition of the two is quite odd, with On The Battlefield... being somewhat at odds to the anti-war message in "the blood-soaked" The Fields Of Gettysburg. Incidentally the latter was co-written by Ireland's Niall Edward Toner.

The older material includes versions of: Jimmie Skinner's (et al) Tennessee Border; Arthur Q. Smith's A Daddy's Lullaby; Gene Autry's Ages And Ages Ago; Flatt & Scruggs' Come Back Darling; Hank Wiliams' How Can You Refuse Him Now?; and a instrumetnal tune Sleepin' Lula, which Larry got from his grandfather.

Larry has never produced a bad album, and this one is well worth picking up...

The CD comes in a 3-fold digipak.

• Larry Sparks: guitar, lead & harmony vocals
• Michael Feagan fiddle
• Tyler Mullins banjo
• Larry D. Sparks: bass
• Ron Stewart banjo, fiddle (a)
• Evan Wilson: mandolin, tenor vocals

NB: (a) on A4 only.

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