{"id":143845,"date":"2024-03-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=143845"},"modified":"2024-03-23T20:17:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T03:17:47","slug":"review-tim-sparks-lost-and-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/review-tim-sparks-lost-and-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Fingerstyle Virtuoso Tim Sparks Reinvents Classic Tunes on Brilliant New Trio Outing \u2018Lost and Found\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Though he once described himself in AG<\/em> as \u201ca redneck from North Carolina<\/a>,\u201d Tim Sparks has long been one of the fingerstyle guitar world\u2019s great eclectics\u2014an inventive and prodigiously skilled stylist adept at playing everything from folk, jazz, ragtime, bluegrass, and early blues to classical, Greek, klezmer, Latin, Brazilian, and more. Lost and Found<\/a><\/em> is his first solo album in nearly a decade, and not surprisingly it draws on a broad range of styles on a selection of well-known folk, jazz, country, and pop tunes from the \u201960s\u2014including four by the Beatles\u2014and three solid originals. [Editor’s note: Check out Tim Sparks on our Beatles Roundtable episode<\/a> of the Acoustic Guitar Podcast.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tim Sparks, <\/em>Lost and Found (Acoustic Music Records)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This time out there are only four true solo tunes on the all-instrumental album. The rest are by a trio: Sparks on his Tim Reede Alouette archtop, Ben Abrahamson on a C\u00f3rdoba C7-CE nylon-string and a Salvador Castillo flamenco model, and Ted Olsen on upright bass. (All three are based in Minneapolis, as is the luthier Reede.) And what an ensemble it is! The archtop and nylon-string combination works beautifully, and the two guitarists definitely share the load throughout, tossing solos back and forth and supporting each other rhythmically when the other is soloing, both anchored by Olsen\u2019s steady and supple bass work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, when I first looked at the lineup of cover tunes\u2014all songs I love, but most fairly simple, mainstream classic rock (plus one jazz and one country number)\u2014I wondered what Sparks and company could do to liven them up instrumentally. Well, the answer is plenty<\/em>. Don\u2019t be married to the original\u2019s structure or even the chords. Work out new harmonies for familiar passages. Figure out new ways to get into the tune. Why can\u2019t \u201cMe and Bobby McGee\u201d sound like it\u2019s being played on the porch of a Mexican ranchero? Why not give the Beatles\u2019 \u201cTicket to Ride\u201d an opening that has a Brazilian samba flavor and then start the long solo exposition by quoting extensively from George Harrison\u2019s \u201cWithin You Without You\u201d? How about \u201cMichelle\u201d with an off-kilter Spanish opening and Django-esque solo? Why not go way out on part of \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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