The talented fingerstyle guitar duo Tim Sparks and Phil Heywood will be performing at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on May 21. Left: Sparks has been described as a player who is “fresh, exotic and totally cool.” Right: Phil Heywood is an award-winning guitarist, but also draws listeners in with his warm baritone.
Award-winning fingerstyle guitarist Phil Heywood’s playing encompasses an array of styles, from the down-home rhythmic groove of a Mississippi John Hurt and Leadbelly, to the sheer fluidity and melodic flair of such contemporaries as Leo Kottke. The internationally renowned Kottke, in fact, once handpicked Heywood to tour and perform duets with him. A soul-satisfying instrumentalist, Phil draws listeners in with his voice as well, singing in a warm, plainspoken baritone that blends smoothly with his rock-solid guitar work.
In 1986 Phil won the National Fingerpicking Championship, as well as the American Fingerstyle Guitar Festival Competition a year later. Phil has played on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion with guitar legend Chet Atkins, and with fellow acoustic guitar luminaries including Peter Lang, Pat Donohue, and Dakota Dave Hull. He’s opened shows for Norman Blake, Greg Brown, John Renbourn, Chris Smither, and John Hammond. Over his career, Phil has recorded six CDs.
Phil shares the bill with acclaimed fingerstylist Tim Sparks, whose music Guitar Player Magazine has called, “Fresh, exotic, and totally cool.” Acoustic Guitar Magazine calls Tim’s playing “rich and sensuous,” and Leo Kottke says, “He’s really one of the best musicians I know.”
With diverse early influences ranging from blues and bluegrass to jazz, Tim arrived in Minnesota a few decades ago and soon established himself as a journeyman guitarist and session player. Performing with seminal vocal jazz ensemble Rio Nido, Tim became proficient in jazz styles from Brazilian to bebop and arranged Carla Bley’s composition Jesus Maria for Leo Kottke.
In years that followed, Tim diversified even more stylistically—adapting Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to guitar in 1993, the same year he won the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship. Then it was on to European and Mediterranean styles and a new cycle of compositions inspired by traditional Jewish melodies. More recently, in 2005, Tim toured with Dolly Parton. Tim has released 9 albums in many styles over the years.
Both Phil Heywood and Tim Sparks will be at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts May 21, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $20 for adults and $5 for youth (18 and under). To purchase tickets in advance, visit www.tix.com and search “Arrowhead Center for the Arts.”
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