AUBURN - As James “Sparky” Rucker's 63-year-old fingers plucked away at the strings of his worn and faded guitar, his music provided visitors a chance to experience American history through the music of people who were alive to experience the Civil War or the Civil Rights movement.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Rhonda Rucker and her husband Sparky perform an “old testament” song with Rhonda using an instrument similar to ones used at the time called bones at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn on Sunday. The wooden percussion instruments were shaped to imitate animal bones.
Rhonda Rucker and her husband Sparky perform an “old testament” song with Rhonda using an instrument similar to ones used at the time called bones at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn on Sunday. The wooden percussion instruments were shaped to imitate animal bones.
“The music ties us to our ancestors,” Rucker said. “With folk songs, the music arose from people's experiences. It's like our ancestor speaking to us, it's a direct link from them to us.”
Rucker's passion for music and history was evident as he danced back and forth in the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn Sunday playing the guitar or banjo, or when he entertained a request for an encore where he pulled his chair up to the audience in order to talk to them as he played.
Ginger Sheffey, of Auburn, said she was excited to get the personal experience with Rucker and his wife Rhonda Rucker after they finished their stage act.
“I liked all the history and knowledge that he has on the Civil War or Harriet Tubman,” Sheffey said.
“He has got so much in his head and I want to sit down with him and just hear it. It's a history lesson without the pain of a history lesson.”
One of Sheffey's favorite moments of the event was when the husband-and-wife duet began singing “Swing Low Sweet Harriet,” a song that some people believe is dedicated to Harriet Tubman and is the original version of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”
As he sang the lyrics, “Swing low sweet Harriet, comin' for to carry me home,” Rucker said the words referenced Tubman's
involvement during a Civil War operation where she freed more than 700 slaves as she removed Confederate mines from a river.
As the couple sang, the audience tapped their feet to the beat or sang along if they knew the words.
With many folk songs becoming lost in history, Rhonda Rucker said it was important to help remind the next generation of Americans what the lyrics mean.
“A lot of people know these songs, they just haven't sung them in a long time,” Rucker said. “People love to sing, and they just need to be reminded to keep singing (the songs).”
As he continues to tour the United States singing at various historical events and fairs, Rucker said he has gotten a chance to travel to several rural communities that he believes represent the spirit of folk music.
“A majority of our nation is rural, and it's those areas that these songs come from,” Rucker said. “These songs are the slaves' experience or our historical ties to the past. These songs are written by the people who lived and experienced our history as it was made while living in places like this.”
Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net
Rucker's passion for music and history was evident as he danced back and forth in the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn Sunday playing the guitar or banjo, or when he entertained a request for an encore where he pulled his chair up to the audience in order to talk to them as he played.
Ginger Sheffey, of Auburn, said she was excited to get the personal experience with Rucker and his wife Rhonda Rucker after they finished their stage act.
“I liked all the history and knowledge that he has on the Civil War or Harriet Tubman,” Sheffey said.
“He has got so much in his head and I want to sit down with him and just hear it. It's a history lesson without the pain of a history lesson.”
One of Sheffey's favorite moments of the event was when the husband-and-wife duet began singing “Swing Low Sweet Harriet,” a song that some people believe is dedicated to Harriet Tubman and is the original version of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”
As he sang the lyrics, “Swing low sweet Harriet, comin' for to carry me home,” Rucker said the words referenced Tubman's
involvement during a Civil War operation where she freed more than 700 slaves as she removed Confederate mines from a river.
As the couple sang, the audience tapped their feet to the beat or sang along if they knew the words.
With many folk songs becoming lost in history, Rhonda Rucker said it was important to help remind the next generation of Americans what the lyrics mean.
“A lot of people know these songs, they just haven't sung them in a long time,” Rucker said. “People love to sing, and they just need to be reminded to keep singing (the songs).”
As he continues to tour the United States singing at various historical events and fairs, Rucker said he has gotten a chance to travel to several rural communities that he believes represent the spirit of folk music.
“A majority of our nation is rural, and it's those areas that these songs come from,” Rucker said. “These songs are the slaves' experience or our historical ties to the past. These songs are written by the people who lived and experienced our history as it was made while living in places like this.”
Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net
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