Hard at work in the studio

Photograph by Paul Mueller.

Hello, friends. Kathy and I are hard at work recording the first album of Kathy Sparling songs at Wally Sound in Oakland. Wally and Carol's new terrier, Birtie, helps us to stay relaxed and happy, because there's nothing in the budget for a masseur.

A few studio photos of Kathy

Here are a few shots of Kathy working in the studio at Wally Sound in Oakland, taken by Pip R. Lagenta. Wally Sound photoset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pip_r_lagenta/sets/72157622436442434/

Kathy Sparling singing her own songs at Book Zoo

5pm Sunday 8 March 2009

Book Zoo
6395 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, California 94609
510.654.2665 / info@bookzoo.net

About an hour featuring the original songs of Kathy Sparling, accompanied by Steven Strauss, string bass and ukulele.
More details to follow shortly.

Dodge's Sundodgers present "Under The Sun"

Dodge's Sundodgers, the band Kathy's been singing and strumming in for lo, these many years, has completed their first album of recorded music,"Under The Sun." Kathy strums throughout and sings on eight of the album's fourteen tracks, including "After You've Gone," "Pagan Love Song," and the spooky Cliff Edwards specialty, "Night Owl," written by the fellow who wrote "As Time Goes By," Herman Hupfield. To read more about the recording and perhaps purchase it online, head on over to the Sundodgers' page on CDBaby, using this link here.

Who is Kathy Sparling?

I hope to answer this question incrementally, with artifacts and clues, hard fact and soft rumor. I myself had little to go on when a friend sent me a link to Kathy Sparling's YouTube video. I had heard an old fashioned string band a year or two ago, Al Dodge and the Sun Dodgers, a brace of serious men with mighty banjos and one sunny, smiling blonde with a clear, sweet voice. Kathy stood out.

In part because I knew she was accompanying herself on ukulele, I was unprepared for the modern quality of her original songs. The YouTube video of her song "Embroidery" was a crash course in something unexpected.