Mainstay Presents Folk and Storytelling Duo Sparky and Rhonda Rucker

Rock Hall, MD – The Mainstay presents renowned folk and storytelling duo Sparky and Rhonda Rucker Saturday February 8, 2020 at 8pm. Tickets are $20 by phone reservation and $25 at the door and by phone reservation. Information and advance ticket sales are available on the Mainstay’s website at www.mainstayrockhall.org.

SPARKY AND RHONDA RUCKER perform throughout the U.S. as well as overseas, singing songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. They are internationally recognized as leading musicians, authors, and storytellers. They accompany themselves with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, blues harmonica, old-time banjo, piano, spoons, and bones. Sparky and Rhonda will 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, Appalachian music, slave songs, Civil War music, spirituals, work songs, ballads, civil rights music, and their own original compositions. You will hear soulful blues licks, heart-rending gospel, knee-slapping good rhythms, and bottleneck guitar slide. Over fifty years of performing, Sparky and Rhonda have performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as NPR’s All Things Considered, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and Morning Edition. Their recording, Treasures & Tears, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award, and their music is also included on the Grammy-nominated anthology, Singing Through the Hard Times.

The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. It is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit dedicated to the arts, serving Rock Hall, MD and the surrounding region and is committed to presenting local, regional and national level talent, at a reasonable price, in an almost perfect acoustic setting. Information and advance ticket sales are available on the Mainstay’s website www.mainstayrockhall.org.

Upcoming Mainstay performances include:

January 27 – Joe Holt welcomes The WAC Jazz Combo
February 3 – Joe Holt welcomes Van Albert
February 8 – Sparky and Rhonda
February 16 – Hamiltunes Community Singalong
February 10 – Joe Holt welcomes Pres Harding
February 17 – Joe Holt welcomes Scott Silbert, Amy Shook, Steve Abshire
February 22 – The Great Guitars with Gene Bertoncini, Steve Herberman, & Steve Abshire
February 23 – The Hedgelawn Classical Series presents the Ann Street Trio
February 24 – Joe Holt welcomes Dave Robinson
March 8 – The Hedgelawn Classical Series presents L’Abri Trio
March 14 – Hedgelawn Bluegrass Series Kickoff with the High and Wides
March 20 – Celtic Celebration Featuring the Waverly Trio and Irish Dancers
March 27 – The Zach Lambert Quartet
March 28 – Memorial Concert for Neil Tilghman with Vince Lewis, Tommy Cecil, and Steve Abshire