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September 12, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VANCOUVER, WA: BIRTHPLACE OF THE NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS
Homecoming Concert September 12, 2003
Under the direction of folksinger and songwriter Randy Sparks, The New Christy Minstrels recorded nine popular albums (most, including the Grammy-winning Presenting the New Christy Minstrels, were runaway best sellers!), were a regular feature of TV's The Andy Williams Show, and toured in concert nationwide and overseas. Members of the New Christy Minstrels included such folk, rock and country notables as Barry McGuire(�Green Green,' �Eve of Destruction'), the late Gene Clark (of Byrds fame), Dolan Ellis (Official Arizona State Balladeer), Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes (John Denver is also sometimes incorrectly listed as a former member of The New Christy Minstrels, however Randy Sparks did give him his start in the music business, and named him!). Among the group's hits were 'This Land Is Your Land' and 'Denver' (1962), 'Green Green' (1963), and 'Saturday Night' and 'Today' (1964).
In the fall of 1961, 28-year-old Sparks, a Kansas native living in Los Angeles, was a recurring performer at Tod McClaskey's Frontier Room on Main Street in Vancouver. At the Vancouver Library, Sparks had been reading about legendary songwriter Stephen Foster, who had achieved success thanks to a group of performers called Christy's Minstrels, led by Edwin P. Christy. Sparks picks up the story:
I needed exactly what Foster had acquired from Christy, performance of my songs. If it had worked for him, why, I wondered, wouldn't it also work for me more than a hundred years later?
That night, I was playing some sort of slot machine at the Frontier Room, and when I knelt down to get money from the cup near the floor, I came up with the name, and it seemed magical to me: The New Christy Minstrels. I said it over and over again, and later when I saw Jackie (my wife at the time, and member of my old trio, the Randy Sparks Three), I told her about my idea. I don't think she was that impressed at the moment, but she quickly became my very first convert. She is now listed as New Christy Minstrel #2. I am #1.
I decided then and there that my group would be called the New Christy Minstrels; there would be fourteen performers, all of whom would both sing and play simultaneously. That very night I recruited my first players. Four young men of college age had driven up to Vancouver from Eugene, Oregon, to meet me and catch my show. They were a quartet, calling themselves The Fairmount Singers. They had a good sound, so I told them I'd help them if they'd help me with my new invention, which was only hours old at this point. They agreed, and that was the beginning.
On September 12, 2003, Randy Sparks will bring Barry McGuire and Clarence Treat, from the 1962-65 New Christy Minstrels, along with some gifted younger performers, to the Royal Durst Theatre at the Vancouver School of Arts & Academics. They'll recreate their Grammy-winning sound, and conjure up the same kind of on-stage excitement one more time, just a few blocks up the street from where it all began!
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Councilmember Pat Jollota introduces the Minstrels
Left to Right: Barry McGuire, Lori Brandon, Cousin Dave Rainwater, Ron Wilburne, Randy Sparks,
Darrell Effinger, Fred Johansen, Becky Jo Benson, Clarence Treat
