BWW Interviews: NICE TIME TO BE ALIVE: The New Christy Minstrels Appear At The McCallum Theatre 11/16

The McCallum Theatre presents "The New Christy Minstrels", with special guest star Barry McGuire for one very special performance, Sunday, November 16, at 3:00pm, Founded by Randy Sparks in 1961, the group's 1962 debut album, "Presenting the New Christy Minstrels", won a Grammy, remained on the Billboard charts for two years, and scored a hit with "This Land Is Your Land". Their 1963 album "Ramblin" was highlighted by the single "Green, Green" which climbed the charts and became a hit single. In 2006, the California State Legislature honored The New Christy Minstrels with resolutions from both the Senate and Assembly. Randy Sparks was recognized for his fifty years in the recording industry, and the group was honored for their contributions to the music industry. In 2009, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to Randy Sparks and The New Christy Minstrels. I had the chance to chat with founder, Randy Sparks, about their upcoming return to The McCallum Theatre and a bit for the history of The New Christy Minstrels. Here are a few excerpts from that conversation:

DG: Can you give me the brief "how and why" you started The New Christy Minstrels?

RS: I was poor. I had no money; I worked constantly, but not enough. I was a single artist and I was doing well for my trade. I absolutely was a goof performer, but I had a limit - I could only get so much done, and my record company was very helpful but I didn't have a hot record - and without a hit record you couldn't get anywhere. And, I just needed to make use of all these songs that I was writing and I read in a book - up in Vancouver, Washington where I came up with the idea - I was in the public library and I found a book about Stephen Foster and it told me, in there, that he had a whole bunch if songs that nobody wanted and nobody knew who he was and he hit on the most popular group of his time - which was Christy's Minstrels or The Christy Minstrels. And I thought, you know that might work for me. And I started my group called "The New Christy Minstrels" - and it became a dream group - okay, if you're gonna start a group you do it however you want to. What do you want in your group, Mr. Sparks? Well, I think I would like to have it be as big as a chorus so I could have all the harmonic possibilities, and I think I want enough people - and by the way, everybody sings and everybody plays - so, my group will be a combination of The Norman Luboff Choir and The Kingston Trio. The Kingston Trio danced around a lot and they had a great time on stage and they were entertaining and The Norman Lubiff Choir just stood there and sang and they were wonderful musically - a lot better than The Kingston Trio - but they were not entertaining, so I combined the two and guess what? We made it!

DG:Why do you think the style you created might still be popular today?

RS: It's not popular today. It's that we have old people that are still around that remember us from a long time ago. It's difficult to get young people even to hear what we do - and, of course, that's what our Foundation is all about. I want young people to know that music - real music - is something more than what vibrates your car.

DG: You left The New Christy Minstrels for a period of time, and then returned years later. What took you away and what brought you back?

RS: Let me tell you how that worked. I put everything together - I put the whole first album together - I hired all the people - of course, that word "hire" is ridiculous because I didn't have any money - I begged them to work with me, and they did. They gave me their time and they rehearsed with me, and our original group was fourteen people. And four people dropped out the night before we recorded the first time for Columbia, because they didn't believe we would go anywhere, and that brought our group to a magical umber of ten. And, I had done all of this on my own - and suddenly, Irving Townsend of Columbia Records said to me "we're gonna drop you from the label if you don't get management". I said "what does that mean?", and he said "we need somebody we can talk to", and I said "you can talk to me" and he said "we can't talk to artists". I should have walked out the door at that very minute, but I didn't. He gave me a shirt list of his favorite people that he liked to work with - it was a list of three people and the first two were a partnership team and he said "these would be our recommendation, but let me tell you they are hoodlums in suits - they are both criminals". And I said, "why would you put me in bed with criminals" and he said, "because they can get the job done". And as frightening as that sounds, they did get the job done and they helped us sell our records.

DG: So, why did you decide to leave the group for a period of time?

RS: I did not decide to leave the group. I was pushed out of the group because these guys wanted me to be distracted from the money trail. They said to me, "we really need you to be doing the writing at home" and "you're so important to the act but you don't have to be on stage, on the road, every night" - but that was just to keep them with their eyes on the money trail and not mine. And after two years of it, I made no money and they were very wealthy - we made more than a million dollars a year, and when I asked for an accounting, because I owned the group, they said "we'd like to buy you out". And there was a threat also with that offer, so I walked away, But it was not my idea. And, eventually, I bought the name back. I bought my group back again and I built it the way I expected it to run the first time and we've had the same people now for almost five years, without any changes, and it's absolutely wonderful and I'm delighted.

DG: Well I'm delighted too - especially that it had such a happy ending to all of that. What did you do during your time away from the New Christy Minstrels?

RS: I was Burl Ives writer and opening act for thirty years. He was my dearest friend in the music business. I wrote songs. I write songs every day. I still do. I'm 82, and I'm so productive and I'm wondering why. It's kind of like a habit. And I have something to say. When I was young I didn't have very much to ay because I hadn't been anywhere. But, by god now, I've been everywhere and I have a lot - but I can't remember - well, I can't remember anything anymore. (he laughs)

DG: What would you consider to be a professional highlight for the group?

RS: Well, I would say the time we were at The Carnegie Hall - or maybe the Latin Quarter. Carnegie Hall was wonderful. I wish we could do it again. We'd be so better prepared now. We went in there as Allen Sherman's companion act - you remember him? "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah". He was at the top of his totem pole at the time and we rode in on his coat-tails, and I 'm every grateful for that, We weren't ready to go into Carnegie Hall at that time - we just hadn't been to too many places yet - we had done The Andy Williams Sow forever, and that helped - but, Carnegie Hall - we could have been so much better. We weren't bad - I'm not telling you that we were really amateurish - but we could really do it now.

DG: What can McCallum audiences expect from the show this weekend?

RS: Well, it's our fourth show there and we've never had a show with any empty seats. And I want a full house and I want it be as good as our other shows, except I want it to be better. This is, at least in terms of theory, my friend Barry McGuire's last show, because he's retiring.

DG: Are you doing your biggest hits or new material, or what?

RS: We always do our biggest hits - we always do what people want to hear - but we make a deal with the audience. We say "if you came to hear a certain song that we do, that's fine. But we want to be able to show you what we are doing now". And people seem to like that. And we sure do, because it proves that we're still alive. You know, you can't go through life as The Kingston Trio and only sing Tom Dooley. You just can't do that.

DG Tell me a little bit about your Foundation.

RS: Well, I want to do something to give back to the industry, You know, we were so lucky - I'm still lucky. We're just - if people know who I am, only because of my music - and I know it's not me and my personality and my looks or anything like that - if I'm in demand at all it's because of music. Well. I'm really happy to be the songwriter for my group. I love the songs we sing. I love the songs that we write. And, I want younger people to understand what we were doing in our time and maybe to inspire them to get back to where was music was good poetry and melodies you could hum when you left the theatre. I want young people to experience life as exciting as it was when I was growing up. I must tell you, we've lost a lot of that wonderful feeling about our lives, our music - and it shouldn't be that way, because we have every tool available to mankind right now. Our new album is called - I guess I should say CD - our new "CD" is called " Nice Time To Be Alive" - and that was penned by my mother who died at a hundred. And she got into computers just before she left the planet and she said "It's a nice time to be alive because we have every tool known to man. We can sit here and communicate with any part of the world and when we write something - we create something - we can instantly give it to somebody else in some other foreign land". And, she loved it. And, I love it too. I think it's just wonderful.

DG: What are some of the dreams or goals you have for The New Christy Minstrels from today forward?

RS: I just want to keep doing what we're doing. And my dream is to fulfill the contracts that we've already written. You know, there are three of us that are eighty and that's ridiculous - we may not be around. (he laughs) But, we'll get her done somehow.

The New Christy Minstrels will appear at The McCallum Theatre on Sunday, November 16 at 3:00 pm. Limited seating is still available. For tickets or more information visit www.mccallumtheatre.com

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