By John Estridge
Melissa Spillers went before the Union County Commissioners Friday, October 16, to seek permission to go to the Innkeepers Tax Board for some funding for the planned Union County Bicentennial.
Set for June 27-July 11, 2021, the preparations are in full swing.
To this point, three nationally known entertainers have been booked for that time. The committee is planning to get more.
So far, there are Larry Sparks and His Lonesome Ramblers, Duke Tumatoe and Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers.
Larry Sparks and His Lonesome Ramblers
Set to perform in Liberty on Friday, July 2, 2021, Sparks began his professional career in the mid-1960s as guitarist and lead singer for Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.
He has recorded and toured with his own band, The Lonesome Ramblers since 1969.
His hits include John Deere Tractor, A Face in the Crowd, Tennessee 1949, Blue Virginia Blues among others. He has played at the Grand Ole Opry and TV shows like Austin City Limits and Song of the Mountains. He was named the International Bluegrass Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year with his album “Larry Sparks 40,” which featured Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, Tom T. Hall and more.
Sparks was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and the George D. Hays Hall of Fame. The latter is named after the founder of the Grand Ole Opry.
Duke Tumatoe
He will be in Liberty on Friday, July 9, 2021. His real name is William “Bill” Severen Fiori and hails out of Chicago. Tumatoe is an American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.
He is a self-taught guitarist who learned by watching the Blues legends play in Chicago while he was a youth.
Tumatoe has played with Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, John Fogerty and George Thorogood. He was also a founding member of REO Speedwagon.
With his groups Duke Tumatoe & The All-Star Frogs and Duke Tumatoe & The Power Trio, he has released 15 albums. His 1988 album “I Like My Job” was produced by Fogerty, of Credence Clearwater Revival fame.
After the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis, Tumatoe – who had made the Circle City his home – wrote the tongue-in-cheek song “Lord Help Our Colts.” He has sung more than 800 versions of that song since he first put pen to paper.
Like the before-mentioned song, many of Tumatoe’s songs are full of humor.
“It’s like a comedian turning something sad into something funny,” a press release reads.
Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers
Mullins will also perform at the Union County Bicentennial. The exact show time and date have not been settled as of now.
The group has garnered eight International Bluegrass Music Association awards. He was named the IBMA Entertainer of the Year in 2019 for the collaborative recording of “The Guitar Song.” He also won the IBMA Award for Song of the Year in 2018 for “If I’d Have Wrote that Song.”
He is the owner of several nearby radio stations, including: WBZI Radio in Xenia, Ohio; WKFI Wilmington, Ohio; WEDI, Eaton, Ohio; FM 100.3, Xenia/Dayton/Springfield; and FM 105.5, Eaton/Dayton. They are under the umbrella Real Roots Radio. Mullins also organizes the annual Southern Ohio Indoor Music Festival every March and November at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington, Ohio.
Mullins formed the Radio Ramblers in 2006 as a way of promoting his radio stations. The band has gone international, playing in Canada and Europe as well as the US.
He is currently the chairperson of the IBMA Board of Directors.