Listening to the Nashville based poet, Minton Sparks, you quickly get the sense her world view of storytelling and music allows ample room for both literary allusions and simple down-to-earth traditions.
Sparks’ delivery, sometimes sad, often sprightly and always engaging-,speaks readily to the mundane occurrences of Southern living. When bordered by the low-key Appalachian music she was raised on (and readily embraces) those tales become even more appealing. Like many Appalachian folks, Sparks grew up in a household “surrounded by music and story. Dolly and Reba were on the radio while Flannery O’Conner was on the nightstand.”
It was a world both hardscrabble and deeply enriched. Sparks followed in that tradition. She’s been described as a “backwoods Lucinda Williams” but in truth she has taken the traditional framework of Southern storytelling and carved out a niche for herself. Along the way, she’s released a trio of studio albums, a live audio/DVD release (2010’s highly recommended Live at the Station Inn) and contributed to a number of compilation projects. She’s also been recognized as a celebrated poet, playwright and a prose author.
She has been invited to such prominent events as the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and Berry College’s Southern Women Writer’s Conference (where she performed alongside Maya Angelou and Kaye Gibbons) and the Lincoln Center. She served as the storyteller in residence at the Jonesborough National Storytelling Festival, been extensively featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and selected as a Fellow at the Vanderbilt Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy. Since 2014 she’s been an artist in residence at the Banff Performing Arts Center.
On the musical side, Sparks has shared the stage with country and folk heavyweights like Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Nanci Griffith, and the Punch Brothers.
Yet for all of her accomplishments, Sparks, a Tennessee native, former social worker, divinity school dropout, first ever Spoken Word Award recipient at the Conference on Southern Literature and founder of The Nashville Writing and Performance Institute, still loves performing on an intimate stage to an audience that really listens. Her often hilarious, humble and heartbreaking tales of characters like Giddy Up Gibson and Wicked Widow Pots are best told in close proximity. As John Prine (himself no stranger to telling a grand story) aptly puts it, “Minton Sparks is a great storyteller—humanity with humidity, all told humorously with humility.”
Her May 1 performance at The Altamont Theatre in Asheville (and I can think of no better venue for such a show) is your opportunity to hear what Minton Sparks is all about, and watch firsthand a master raconteur doing what she does best.
If You Go: An Evening with Storyteller/Poet/Musician Minton Sparks, Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 7 pm. All ages, general admission, doors opening at 6pm. Tickets are priced at $15 in advance, $18 day of show, with $25 VIP guaranteed best seats. The Altamont Theatre, 18 Church St, Downtown Asheville. (828) 782-3334.