One String Leads to Another is the title of the third solo recording by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 guitarist Tim Sparks

Tim Sparks

Tim Sparks is an American acoustic guitar player, singer, arranger and composer.- Biography:Raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he was given his first guitar when a bout of encephalitis kept him out of school for a year...

 on the Acoustic Music Records label. The title is taken from a quote by John Renbourn

John Renbourn

John Renbourn is an English guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence .While most commonly labelled a...

. While speaking of Davey Graham

Davey Graham

David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham, originally spelled Davy Graham, , was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival...

's travels in Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 "where he came across a tuning used on an exotic, North African string instrument. Davey tried to adapt this to his guitar. Well, one string leads to another and before you know it, he's come up with DADGAD guitar tuning."

Reception

Stacia Proefrock wrote for Allmusic "Tim Sparks has issued another winner. Rather than merely imitating one particular style throughout a certain song, he instead absorbs the techniques and melodies of many different cultures and fuses them together to make them his own." Andy Ellis of Guitar Player

Guitar Player

Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...

magazine stated "There are many skilled solo-acoustic guitarists making CDs today, but few can match Sparks' verve and intensity. On this live and natural-sounding record, we hear a restless, probing mind, rather than a series of refined techniques." The June 2000 issue of Down Beat

Down Beat

Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...

 magazine gave a favorable review stating: "While Sparks' music includes jazz and world music sensibilities, the overall thrust to this set of original compositions (minus one) suggests a blend of folksy, backwoods fingerpicking that's strongly melodic and very intimate. The pacing is very good, and Sparks' fingerstyle, musical sleight-of-hand has one hearing classical technique one moment, flat-out blues the next."

Track listing

All compositions by Tim Sparks except "Eu So Quero Em Xodo" by Dominguinhos

Dominguinhos

Dominguinhos is a Brazilian composer and singer.He has performed with musicians such as Luiz Gonzaga, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa , Zé Ramalho, Toquinho, and Maria Bethânia. Some of his hits were recorded by Bethânia, Gil, Chico Buarque, Elba Ramalho, and Fagner...

.

1. "L'etoile de Mer" – 3:26
2. "Waltz with a Mermaid" – 2:51
3. "Cornbread and Baklava" – 5:35
4. "La Soledad" – 4:02
5. "Mr. Marques" – 3:30
6. "Eu So Quero Em Xodo" – 8:35
7. "Elegy for Max" – 2:56
8. "Trap Hill Breakdown" – 3:57
9. "One String Leads to Another" – 2:19
10. "Pata Negra" – 4:44
11. "The Amersterdam Cakewalk" – 3:45
12. "A Lucky Hand" – 2:32

Personnel

• Tim Sparks - acoustic guitar
• Dean Magraw
  Dean Magraw
  -Biography:Magraw was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in St. Paul. He began playing guitar at the age of 13. Magraw performed in a duo for many years with Peter Ostroushko and has also performed with Tim Sparks, John Gorka and many other artists....
  
   - acoustic guitar on "Eu So Quero Em Xodo"

Production notes

• Produced by Peter Finger
• Engineered by Peter Finger at Acoustic Music Studio in Osnabruck, Germany