A Face in the Crowd, issued by Old Homestead Records in 1985 as OHS 90161, is a reissue of the Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers LP Kind’a Lonesome, first released in 1979 on Lesco Records (L 101). The Old Homestead LP keeps that record’s ten tracks and adds two: the instrumental “Blue Ridge Ramble” and “Sitting in This Lonely Prison.”
The ten original tracks were recorded in 1979 at Programme Audio’s Studio A in Greenfield, Indiana. Larry Sparks plays guitar and mandolin and sings lead, with Glen Duncan on fiddle and baritone vocals, Tommy Boyd on banjo, Dobro and tenor vocals, and David Bowling on bass. The program includes “Somehow Tonight,” the title song “A Face in the Crowd,” “Guide Me Lord,” “Girl at the Crossroads Bar” and “Love of the Mountains,” along with the instrumentals “Lesco” and “Carter’s Blues.” “Sitting in This Lonely Prison,” one of the two added tracks, has a different lineup: Larry Sparks and Bernice Sparks on guitars, Joe Isaacs on banjo and David Cox on mandolin.
Tracklist
- 1 Blue Ridge Mountain Mornings 3:25
- 2 Nobody’s Business alt version 1:52
- 3 Too Late to Worry 2:24
- 4 Lesco 3:06
- 5 Somehow Tonight alt version 3:09
- 6 Guide Me Lord 3:48
- 7 A Face in the Crowd alt version 4:30
- 8 Girl at the Crossroads Bar alt version 2:35
- 9 Carter’s Blues alt version 2:35
- 10 Love of the Mountains alt version 2:58
- 11 Blue Ridge Ramble 1:51
- 12 Sitting in This Lonely Prison 2:16
