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TORI SPARKS – BIOGRAPHY
Tori Sparks, like her music, is a study in delightful contradictions. She
has a background in International Affairs and classical music, and
has dual Italian/American citizenship. Steeped in blues from birth,
she originally hails from Chicago. Tori later lived and recorded first in
country music capital Nashville, Tennessee until she moved
overseas to Barcelona, Spain. She spends most of her time on the
road all over the world, playing an average of 200 concerts each year.
In the last two years alone, Tori played has played shows in 23
countries.
A stunning live performer, Tori walks the line between soulful and
hilarious, blending ironic stand-up style humor with inventive songs
written in English, Spanish, and occasionally French. She has played
to thirty people in a house concert, and to 30,000 people at
prestigious music festivals such as Montreux Jazz Festival in
Switzerland and Bele Chere in Asheville. Since 2005, Tori has
released five critically acclaimed albums under the auspices of her
own record label (Glass Mountain Records), including her most
recent work El Mar, a bilingual collaboration with Spanish flamenco
fusion trio Calamento. Called "indescribable, incredible" (Deruting),
"adventurous, pushing the envelope"(Rolling Stone), and "unique, an
amazing work" (Orpheo), the new album El Mar is the culmination of
Tori's varied musical and cultural experiences since she first started
touring over a decade ago - and all this at the age of only 30.
Sparks is no stranger to unexpected musical partnerships. Her fourth album, Until Morning/Come Out of the
Dark, marked her third project with producer David Henry (R.E.M., Josh Rouse, The Cowboy Junkies,
Widespread Panic), and her first with Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Elvis Costello, Velvet Underground, Gypsy
Kings, Rosanne Cash). The recordings featured a cast of world-class musicians such as Viktor Krauss, WIll
Kimbrough and Fats Kaplin, as well as guest vocalists Shawn Mullins, Mike Farris, and Paris DeLane.
Until Morning/Come Out of the Dark was released on September 16, 2011, three months to the day after Tori’s
move to Spain, but the new album’s word-of-mouth success prompted an invitation to appear live on the nation’s
biggest music television broadcast, Los Conciertos de Radio 3 -- which she did, with a brand- new band that had
never before taken the stage together -- a mountain of subsequent accolades, and an even firmer place on the
international rock scene. Her career then took an unexpected turn in 2012, when she discovered flamenco, and
went to live briefly in Granada in order to study with gypsy musicians in the Albaizyn.
Sparks' previous three albums (Rivers + Roads, Under This Yellow Sun, The Scorpion in the Story) each
climbed the Americana and College Radio Charts in the US, UK, and Europe. Songs from these albums have
been licensed by MTV, Lifetime, the Oxygen Network, Lufthansa Airlines, the Travel Channel, the SciFi Channel,
and others, but it was the recent appearance of her song "Cold War" in the American crime drama Criminal
Minds that ultimately made Tori a household name in her native country.
Tori has been interviewed and/or reviewed by Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times blog, NPR, The Village
Voice, Paste, Radio3 Radio 4, Americana UK, Rock in Spain, All Music Guide (5 stars), El Mundo, and many
more. She is known as a champion of the DIY business model, and regularly speaks at universities, performing
arts schools, and music conferences such as South by Southwest, the International Folk Alliance, WOMEX, and
the Indie Music Conference.
She is also known for actively giving back to the community through music, and is the creator of The Feed Your
Soul Guitar Project, a tour and folk art auction benefiting Oxfam America. Tori has organized and/or performed
at benefit concerts on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind, F.A.C.E., the March of Dimes, VH1's Save
the Music, Rett Syndrome International, the One Campaign, Ronald McDonald House, and most recently the
Breast Cancer Research Foundation. She is a strong proponent of social justice and music education.
Tori is also a huge fan of Tom Waits, strong coffee, and venues that support touring artists and young local
bands. She will be on the road throughout 2015 and 2016 in support of El Mar.
www.torisparks.com