Sidewalk Blues
Encyclopedia
Sidewalk Blues is an album by American
guitarist Tim Sparks
, released in 2009. It marks a return to 'roots
' music for Sparks after three albums of klezmer and jazz
recordings on the Tzadik Records
label.
label, Sparks decided to return to his musical roots of North Carolina. In a quote from a story in High Plains Reader
, Sparks said “After Masada Guitars
I wanted to revisit roots music
. This record is something I’ve always wanted to make, but I needed the hindsight of thirty years to work on guitar to complete it... I reached a point where I realized I had a record here and that I had good arrangements of these songs.”
Sparks used a variety of guitars for the recording, including Collings
, a custom-made Hoffman, Lakewood, 1954 Martin
00-17, and a 1917 Gibson
L-3.
noted the wonderful sound of the various guitars used and the "great arrangements and virtuoso performances" wrote "If you think you might go for swinging fingerstyle arrangements of blues tunes... you should take this disc for a spin." Music critic Chip O'Brien praised the variety of the album, writing Sparks "plows, punctuates, and pulses his way through a well-chosen batch of ragtime, jazz, country blues, and gospel with an individual flair and spirit to burn... a master of the instrument. His arrangements and performances of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, and Bix Beiderbecke compositions are flawless, at times playful, and always soulful... A must have for fans of Tim Sparks and for anyone who loves fingerstyle guitar playing."
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...
, released in 2009. It marks a return to 'roots
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
' music for Sparks after three albums of klezmer and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
recordings on the Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...
label.
History
After three releases on the Tzadik RecordsTzadik Records
Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...
label, Sparks decided to return to his musical roots of North Carolina. In a quote from a story in High Plains Reader
High Plains Reader
The High Plains Reader is an alternative newspaper serving the Fargo and Grand Forks metropolitan areas, with an estimated readership of 20,000 to 30,000 weekly between print and online readers...
, Sparks said “After Masada Guitars
Masada Guitars
Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 1: Masada Guitars is the first album in a series of five releases celebrating the 10th anniversary of John Zorn's Masada songbook project.-History:...
I wanted to revisit roots music
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
. This record is something I’ve always wanted to make, but I needed the hindsight of thirty years to work on guitar to complete it... I reached a point where I realized I had a record here and that I had good arrangements of these songs.”
Sparks used a variety of guitars for the recording, including Collings
Collings Guitars
Collings Guitars is an Austin, Texas based stringed instrument manufacturer. Founded by Bill Collings in 1973, Collings today produces acoustic guitars, electric guitars, archtop guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles.- History :...
, a custom-made Hoffman, Lakewood, 1954 Martin
C. F. Martin & Company
C.F. Martin & Company is a US guitar manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. Martin is highly regarded for its steel-string guitars, and is a leading mass manufacturer of flattop acoustics with models that retail for thousands of dollars and vintage instruments that often...
00-17, and a 1917 Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
L-3.
Reception
Guitar PlayerGuitar 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...
noted the wonderful sound of the various guitars used and the "great arrangements and virtuoso performances" wrote "If you think you might go for swinging fingerstyle arrangements of blues tunes... you should take this disc for a spin." Music critic Chip O'Brien praised the variety of the album, writing Sparks "plows, punctuates, and pulses his way through a well-chosen batch of ragtime, jazz, country blues, and gospel with an individual flair and spirit to burn... a master of the instrument. His arrangements and performances of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, and Bix Beiderbecke compositions are flawless, at times playful, and always soulful... A must have for fans of Tim Sparks and for anyone who loves fingerstyle guitar playing."
Track listing
- "Mississippi Blues" Willie BrownWillie Brown (musician)Willie Brown was an American delta blues guitarist and singer.- Life and career :Born Willie Lee Brown in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Brown played with such notables as Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson. He was not known to be a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians...
) – 3:08 - "Sidewalk Blues" (Jelly Roll MortonJelly Roll MortonFerdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
) – 2:44 - "Oriental Blues" (Eubie BlakeEubie BlakeJames Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
) – 3:58 - "Potato Head BluesPotato Head Blues"Potato Head Blues" is a Louis Armstrong composition regarded as one of his finest recordings. It was made by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven for Okeh Records in Chicago, Illinois on May 10, 1927...
" (Louis ArmstrongLouis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
) – 2:43 - "In a Mist" (Bix BeiderbeckeBix BeiderbeckeLeon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
) – 3:06 - "The Alligator Crawl" (Fats WallerFats WallerFats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
) – 2:46 - "How Great Thou ArtHow Great Thou Art (hymn)"How Great Thou Art" is a Christian hymn based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg in Sweden in 1885. The melody is a Swedish folk song. It was translated into English by British missionary Stuart K. Hine, who also added two original verses of his own composition. It was popularized by...
" (Traditional) – 3:49 - "There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt O' My Tears" (Fred FisherFred FisherFred Fisher was a German-born American songwriter and Tin Pan Alley music publisher. Fisher founded Fred Fisher Music Publishing Company in 1907. He was born as Albert von Breitenbach in Cologne...
) – 3:10 - "The Pearls" (Morton) – 3:09
- "Maple Leaf RagMaple Leaf RagThe "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. As a result Joplin was called the "King...
" (Scott JoplinScott JoplinScott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
) – 2:28 - "This Great Caravan Keeps On Rolling Along" (Vep Ellis) – 4:21
- "Goin' Back to Mississippi Blues" (Brown, Arrangement by Tim Sparks) – 2:52
- "Carolina Shout" (James P. JohnsonJames P. JohnsonJames P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...
) – 2:57 - "I'll Fly AwayI'll Fly Away"I'll Fly Away", is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled Wonderful Message...
" (Albert Brumley) – 2:57 - "Victory Rag" (Maybelle CarterMaybelle Carter"Mother" Maybelle Carter was an American country musician. She is best known as a member of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s and also as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.-Biography:...
) – 2:16 - "Jelly Roll BluesJelly Roll Blues"Original Jelly Roll Blues," usually shortened to and known as "Jelly Roll Blues," is an early jazz fox-trot composed by Jelly Roll Morton. He recorded it first as a piano solo in Richmond, Indiana, in 1924, and then with his Red Hot Peppers in Chicago two years later, titled as it was originally...
" (Morton) – 3:42 - "Amazing GraceAmazing Grace"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton , published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God,...
" (Traditional) – :33
Production notes
- Produced by Tim Sparks
- Recorded by Rod Volker, Steve Elliot, Bob Pierce, Bruce Muckala, Phil Kerr
- Design by Lacey Koby
- Photography by Gale Kass