SPARKY & RHONDA RUCKER

Photo by Pam Zappardino Click on the photo above for a high-res version	"Sparky and Rhonda put on a good concert, with plenty of heart, soul, and good feeling. It is always a joy to see and hear them." Loyal Jones, Director, Appalachian Center Berea College, Kentucky
	"Sparky Rucker is unique! He'll make you glad to be alive and struggling." Pete Seeger

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker perform throughout the U.S. as well as overseas, singing songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. Sparky Rucker has been performing over forty years and is internationally recognized as a leading folklorist, musician, historian, storyteller, and author. He accompanies himself with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, banjo, and spoons. Rhonda Rucker is a musician, children's author, storyteller, and songwriter. Her blues-style harmonica, piano, old-time banjo, and bones add musical versatility to their performances.

Sparky and Rhonda are sure to deliver an uplifting presentation of toe-tapping music spiced with humor, history, and tall tales. They take their audience on an educational and emotional journey that ranges from poignant stories of slavery and war to an amusing rendition of a Brer Rabbit tale or their witty commentaries on current events. Their music includes a variety of old-time blues, slave songs, Appalachian music, spirituals, ballads, work songs, Civil War music, railroad songs, and a few of their own original compositions.

Over forty years of performing, Sparky and Rhonda have performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as NPR's On Point, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and Morning Edition. Their recording, Treasures & Tears, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award, and their music is also included on the Grammy-nominated anthology, Singing Through the Hard Times.

The Ruckers have been featured tellers at the International Storytelling Center and Festival. Sparky is a natural storyteller, having grown up hearing his father, uncles, and other family members endlessly telling tales. Sparky and Rhonda each tell solo stories, but they also tell stories together (in tandem), always adding life and humor to the characters and tricksters in their Brer Rabbit tales, Jack tales, High John the Conqueror stories, preacher tales, and family stories.

Sparky and Rhonda weave their music into captivating stories that the history books don’t always tell, and they share this knowledge in many schools, colleges, and libraries. Their educational programs span over three centuries of African-American history, including slavery, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, the birth of blues music, and the civil rights movement. Each era is interspersed with stories and popular songs from the time period, celebrating the diversity of the nation's history. They are also available for author visits to schools and libraries.

Sparky and Rhonda's New CD

LET FREEDOM RING

Has Been Released!

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker’s new CD, Let Freedom Ring, is a testament to the ongoing struggle for liberty in the United States. The songs trace this history from slavery and the Underground Railroad, through women’s suffrage and the founding of the UMWA, to the civil rights movement. Rhonda’s song, “Living River,” is included in this collection, thereby continuing her tradition of environmental songwriting.

Sparky got his start in folk music during the civil rights movement, marching shoulder-to-shoulder with SNCC Freedom Singers Matthew and Marshall Jones and playing freedom songs at rallies alongside such luminaries as Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger. He brings an authenticity to the music that can only be obtained by first-hand experience.

Sparky and Rhonda have dedicated this CD to civil rights legends Guy and Candie Carawan, who join them on the song, “We Shall Overcome.” The CD cover and title come from Martin Luther King’s speech at the March on Washington: “Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

This production presents the American Civil War through songs and stories, including the perspectives of both the North and South as well as the participation of the African-American soldiers.

Click on the music staff below for a sample of Sparky & Rhonda Rucker's music in MP3 format. There will be a delay of a couple of minutes before the music begins. (Commercial use of this sample, which is protected by copyright, is strictly prohibited.)

My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains

Click on the link below for Sparky & Rhonda Rucker's NPR appearance on "On Point." (This will take you to the archived "On Point" radio appearance.)

NPR "On Point" Radio Show

Click on the link below for Sparky & Rhonda Rucker's concert at the Kennedy Center. (This will take you to a page on the Kennedy Center's Web site so you can go directly to the concert.)

Kennedy Center Performance

FOR BOOKINGS, CONTACT SPARKY AND RHONDA RUCKER