Minton Sparks
In the South, there are certain figures that take on a mythological air. They’re the folks that only have one name below the Mason-Dixon—the Dollys, the Garths, the Rebas of the world. They feel like family even though you’ve never met them; they make you rethink your patch of ground by telling you about theirs; they conjure some old storm inside you that you didn’t even know was brewing.
Nashville speaker-songwriter Minton Sparks follows in the tradition of these legends—but on her own terms.
Though her spoken word/honky-tonk hybrid performances elicit whoops, hollers, and general hell-raising from beer-swilling good ole boys and latte-sipping intellectuals alike; and though she’s been dubbed everything from the lovechild of Flannery O’Connor and Hank Williams to a backwoods Lucinda Williams, no one knows exactly what or who Minton Sparks really is.
Longtime Minton bandleader and guitarist John Jackson—a seasoned road warrior who has played with the likes of Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne, and Tom Jones—channeling Muddy Waters and John Fogerty instead of his usual Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins. If Jackson was picking and grinning on Minton’s previous releases, he’s grunting and moaning on Gold Digger. When paired with Minton, he completes the duo’s country-fried Mick and-Keith dynamic.