Album Notes

Writer Dorothy Allison says, "Minton Sparks sounds like my momma, my Aunt Dot, my Aunt Grace and even a bit like my Uncle Jack-only better and wilder and heartbreakingly more powerful. If I could have heard poetry like this as a girl, I wouldn't have had to waste all those years thinking we were dumb as dirt."



Nobody strikes the very core of rural southern women like Nashville performance poet, Minton Sparks. Sparks brand new CD, THIS DRESS, wears perfectly. The wildly original spoken word artist pens and performs deep, dark poetry collaborations that may literally curl your hair, and shock your shoes off. Each piece casting a Southern spell over listeners; they arrive square in the middle of an unforgettable people and place!



Sparks collaborates with the best in the business. Grammy winner, Keb Mo', lends his unmistakable chops on "Ambulance Chasers," where a young girl stumbles upon "the first dead body I ever saw, stinking fish-white beneath a sheet." Irish singer/songwriter Maura O'Connell haunting voice threads the needle for THIS DRESS behind "Sorrow Knows This Dress." and "Put Her To Rest." Producer, Steve Conn, creates conversations with his powerful piano chops. Sparks' debut on Dualtone, Middlin' Sisters, was "one of the finest spoken word recordings issued in America in more than ten years" according to reviewer Thom Jurek.



Sparks unique brand of poetry has appeared on National Public Radio's, Weekend All Things Considered and the internationally syndicated WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, which is heard in over 13 countries world-wide as well as being cybercast on the internet. Performed at Oxford, Mississippi's Thacker Mountain Radio Show, Nashville's Bluebird Café', Douglas Corner, Sutlers' Talkabilly Theater, Davis Kidd Book Sellers, the Southern Festival of Books.



Minton Sparks travels extensively, performing at various Universities, clubs, and music and poetry festivals sharing her brand of performance poetry with audiences nationwide. Earlier this month she brought down the house at My Sister's Room in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the Women's Music and Art Festival LADYFEST SOUTH and received wide spread praise Exoterica's reading series in the Bronx. She showed her slip alongside performance artist, Karen Finley, at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.





Minton is available for personal appearances by contacting mintonsparks@mindspring.com