Silver Reflections was recorded at Chandler Audio in Ashland, Kentucky, in three sessions on 30 October 1986, 12 January 1987 and 2 April 1987, and released in 1987 as Rebel REB-1654. Larry Sparks produced it and plays guitar and sings lead on every track. The Lonesome Ramblers lineup was Barry Crabtree on banjo, David Harvey or Randy Jones on mandolin, Art Stamper on fiddle (Glen Duncan plays fiddle on “Natural Thing to Do” and “Old Faded Picture”), Tim Sargent on dobro and Larry D. Sparks on bass.
Pete Goble and Leroy Drumm wrote four of the twelve songs: “Tennessee 1949,” “I’d Like to Be a Train,” “Natural Thing to Do” and “Blue Virginia Blues.” The rest range from Charlie Moore’s “Kentucky Girl,” A. P. Carter’s “You’re the Girl of My Dreams,” Flatt and Scruggs’s “Please Don’t Wake Me” and Ernest Tubb’s “I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye” to Scott Vestal’s “Richmond” and the instrumental “Cruisin’ Timber.”
Sparks, born in Lebanon, Ohio, in 1947, joined the Stanley Brothers at the end of November 1964. After Carter Stanley’s death on 1 December 1966 he took his place in Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, playing Carter’s 1954 Martin D-28 until he had his own guitar, and he left around the end of 1969 to lead his own band. The Bluegrass Hall of Fame biography, written by Gary Reid, names Silver Reflections among the highlights of his Rebel recordings; he was inducted in 2015.
Tracklist
- 1 Tennessee 1949 Source Recording 3:25
- 2 Kentucky Girl Source Recording 2:53
- 3 Please Don't Wake Me 2:43
- 4 Richmond 2:28
- 5 Don't Neglect The Rose 3:15
- 6 You’re the Girl of My Dreams Source Recording 2:16
- 7 I’d Like to Be a Train Source Recording 4:03
- 8 Natural Thing to Do Source Recording 2:55
- 9 I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye 3:28
- 10 Blue Virginia Blues Source Recording 4:06
- 11 Old Faded Picture 2:35
- 12 Cruisin' Timber 2:58
