A Home in Tennessee


	Sparky Rucker A Home In Tennessee These traditional songs that have been "adopted" by children are done here in a bluesy style the whole family will love. Ages 4 through adult GW1003 $14.95 Includes: Froggy Went A'Courtin' Listen Skip To My Lou Listen Candy Man Oh Susannah Listen Red River Valley Listen Crawdad Listen Sail Away Ladies My Home's Accross The Smokey Mountains I've Been Working On The Railroad She'll be Coming Round The Mountain
"It's an absolute must to see Sparky in concert!" U. UTAH PHILLIPS
A Home In Tennessee is also available as part of the Favorite Songs 4 Pack along with Buy the Pack. Four CDs for $39.95

Photo by A. Marc Shamblin

JAMES "SPARKY" RUCKER sings songs and tells stories from the American tradition accompanying himself on guitar, banjo, and spoons. SPARKY grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee and began playing guitar at age eleven. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement, playing freedom songs at rallies, marches, and sit-ins, alongside other folksingers such as Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger.
During Sparky's career as a folksinger and social activist, he has been on the boards of Sing Out! magazine, the John Henry Memorial Foundation, and the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project (SFCRP). He also toured throughout the South with the SFCRP for several years with such luminaries as Johnny Shines, Olabelle Reed, Nimrod Workman, Hedy West, Mike Seeger, and Bessie Jones & the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

Sparky's early blues mentors include Rev. Pearly Brown (who taught Duane Allman how to play bottleneck-style guitar), Buddy Moss (who taught Blind Boy Fuller), and Johnny Shines (who traveled with blues legend Robert Johnson). He also picked up pointers from Babe Stovall, Big Joe Williams, John Jackson, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and many others. The legendary "Blues Queen" Victoria Spivey pushed his career in the 1970s when Sparky joined the Spivey recording family. Sparky’s expert blues and bottleneck style of guitar playing makes him a popular teacher at folk music camps and schools such as Common Ground on the Hill in Maryland and the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia.