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One String
Leads to Another:
Reviews
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The Toledo
Blade
If you've had a tough time finding simple,
melodic, virtuoso guitar music devoid of
showy percussive fireworks, fret no more.
Sparks weaves bits of diverse tunes,
usually intricate and most often foreign,
into a soothing sort of original world
music that alternately dazzles and
relaxes.
- Ken Rosenbaum
Guitar Player
Magazine
December 1999
A fingerstyle wizard, Tim Sparks draws
from many musical traditions on One String
Leads to Another. Strains of Celtic,
country blues, ragtime, Appalachian,
Turkish, Indian, and Italian melodies all
find their way into Sparks' solo
originals. It takes a skilled muscian - as
opposed to guitarist- to weave such
diverse rhythmic and harmonic threads into
whole cloth, yet Sparks makes it
happen.
Whether thumbing a
bass-note drone against bluesy
double-stops and sitar like bends,
plucking sheets of rippling arpeggios, or
playing counterpoint lines at breakneck
speed, Sparks is remarkably
adventurous-and that's what separates him
from the pack. 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.
Andy Ellis, Senior Editor GP
Acoustic Guitar
Magazine
January 2000
On his latest release for Acoustic
Music, One String Leads to Another, Sparks
returns to his North Carolina roots for
some musical inspiration... [the]
multicultural spirit unifies the album's
diverse offerings. Even the familiar
Brazilian classic "Eu So Quero Em Xodo"
fits in with nary a hitch.
Teja Gerken
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