Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers

Join us on November 14th, 2025 for Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers!

Emerging from the Stanley Brothers‘ Clinch Mountain Boys band, Sparks carried on with the sounds created by bluegrass music’s first generation. His style was no knockoff, however; it had a distinctively bluesy tinge anchored by Sparks’ own guitar, a comparatively unusual lead instrument in bluegrass where the triad of mandolin, banjo, and fiddle has defined the musical texture since the genre’s early days.

His skills put him in demand not only for bluegrass but also for country and rock bands while he was in high school, but after sitting in as lead guitarist with the Stanley Brothers, bluegrass took first place among his musical interests. Around 1970, Sparks formed his own band, the Lonesome Ramblers, and it’s a rare bluegrass festival or concert series that hasn’t played host to Sparks multiple times in the years since.

In 2014, Sparks celebrated a half-century as a headliner in bluegrass. In 2015, he was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.