Today we’d like to introduce you to Minton Sparks.
Hi Minton, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
At this point it’s a pretty long story. I started performing in Nashville in 2000 at Upstairs Bongo Java on Belmont Blvd as part of my brother Greg Webb’s one-man show, Sermons from the Road. Since then I’ve recorded 7 records, toured the country as a storyteller ,been nominated for a Grammy in the Spoken Word category for Middlin’ Sisters that featured a guest performance by the late, great Waylon Jennings. I’ve really enjoyed performance residencies at Nashville’s Station Inn and City Winery; I’ve also performed on the Grand Ole Opry, the Lincoln Center’s Songbook Series, been a featured storyteller many times at the Jonesborough Storytelling Festival. I’ve had the great gift of opening for artists such as the Indigo Girls, John Prine, The Punch Brothers, Nanci Griffith and Ben Folds. Currently I’m hosting a series in Sewanee, Tennessee, Exploring the Space Between Story and Song, beginning this coming Saturday, March 28th at Upstairs Shenanigan’s theater.
The Nashville Writing and Performance Institute was something I founded in 2015. Under that umbrella, I teach a Create Your Story writing workshop internationally. Create Your Story focuses on writing and performing personal narratives.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Struggles along the way, included figuring out what I was doing in the first place. Raising children and being a performing artist. My performance meets at the cross roads of storytelling and performance art. I remember one guitar player in Northern Ireland coming up to me at the Songwriting Festival in Belfast and saying, “you’ve just figured out exactly what you are doing”. This was after my third recording, Sin Sick. I agreed with him.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I carved out a niche in the spoken word world by taking Southern family stories and turning those into performance pieces. For the most part I am spying on Southern culture, mostly women and how they make meaning and survive a world that prefers men. My guitarist, John Jackson, brings a whole lot to the performance. Some of my work is funny and other pieces are quite dark. My writing has definitely evolved. It’s been hard over the years to describe exactly what we do. Historically, I am known for buck dancing, singing, and basically channeling characters from my rural past. I create short stories in the span of about three and a half minutes in the category of Story and Song.
I am most proud of the Spoken Word Award given to me by the Association of Southern Writers. Dorothy Allison, who wrote the novel, Bastard out of Carolina, created the award for me. Also, very proud of myself staying inside this work for the long haul, and having two phenomenal grown children.
When I first started performing, there was no one doing what I was doing. I feel like I created a genre or at least a tributary of one. When my record was nominated for a Grammy in the Spoken Word category, it was up against Jimmy Carter reading his memoir. There was no real category for Spoken Word. Since then, the Grammy’s have made a formal Spoken Word category. My work is still evolving along those lines.
My last two recordings, Where Humans End and Birds Begin, and Turn the Music Up are more blatantly feminist.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Hmmm. The first memory that comes to mind is sitting on the heated bathroom floor with my grandfather when I was about 8 years old, watching a banty rooster hatch in an incubator we bought from the feed store. We stayed up half the night until the beak broke through the shell. The other favorite memory was riding my quarter horse inside my elementary school before the principal forced me back outside.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mintonsparks.com
- Instagram: @mintonsparks
