Sparky and Rhonda Rucker

"Concert in the Gallery" featuring award winning folklorists,Sparky & Rhonda Rucker

March 4, 2008

CORNING, NY - On Tuesday, March 4, the Rockwell Museum of Western Art invites you for a "Concert in the Gallery" featuring award winning folklorists, Sparky & Rhonda Rucker. The performance entitled Heroes and Hard Times: A Black Folk Odyssey will take the audience on a musical journey that spans over three centuries of African-American history. This musical narrative will include the hidden history of the minorities in the American West including slavery, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, the westward migration including the black soldiers who were nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldier" by the Native Americans because of their resemblance to the highly regarded buffalo, the birth of blues music, and the Civil Rights Movement. Each era is interspersed with stories and popular songs from the time period.

The public is encouraged to attend. Seating is limited, so please call for reservations 607.974.2810. Members are free and not-yet-members are $6.50. Students are $5.50. The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with refreshments. The concert will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. in the Visions of the West Gallery.

This event is sponsored by the Society of Black Professionals at Corning Incorporated.

About Sparky & Rhonda Rucker

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 finger-style picking and bottleneck blues guitar, banjo, and spoons. Rhonda Rucker is an accomplished harmonica, piano, banjo, and bones player, and also adds vocal harmonies to their songs.

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, cowboy music, railroad songs, and a few of their own original compositions.

Sparky and Rhonda have numerous recordings, and their 1991 release, Treasures and Tears, was nominated for the W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Recording. They have also contributed music to the syndicated television miniseries The Wild West (directed by Keith Merrill). Sparky's unique renditions of John Henry and Jesse James were used in the National Geographic Society's 1994 video entitled Storytelling in North America. Sparky Rucker has also appeared on numerous radio programs, including National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Prairie Home Companion, and Mountain Stage. He also performed in Carry It On and Amazing Grace: Music in America, two videos produced by the Public Broadcasting System.

Sparky is a natural storyteller, having grown up hearing his father, uncles, and other family members endlessly telling tales. Sparky tells stories by himself, but Sparky and Rhonda 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.

About the Rockwell Museum of Western Art

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Rockwell Museum of Western Art is located in the center of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York Sate and in the heart of Corning's Gaffer District. The Museum is open to the public seven days a week; hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Membership to the Museum includes yearlong free admission.