Larry Sparks

Larry Sparks has said that he's the youngest old-timer around, and the self-description is an apt one. Emerging from the Stanley Brothers' Clinch Mountain Boys band, Sparks carried on with the sounds created by bluegrass music's first generation. His style was no knockoff, however; it had a distinctively bluesy tinge anchored by Sparks' own guitar, a comparatively unusual lead instrument in bluegrass where the triad of mandolin, banjo, and fiddle has defined the musical texture since the genre's early days. Sparks also developed a reputation as one of the most soulful vocalist...