The Golden Griffon Stringtet
Clifford Sparks

Clifford Sparks was born September 08, 1891 in Chippewa Township, Mecosta County, Michigan and died December 15, 1985 at age 94. Clifford played fiddle for local square dances and for a time, operated a dance hall in Evart, Michigan. Clifford was a neighbor of Stewart Carmichael and sold him his first dulcimer in 1922.

The tunes in this book come from a pair of cassette tapes given to me by Stewart Carmichael’s daughter, Edna. The tapes contained 28 tracks of Clifford’s playing. Some tracks were duplicate tunes and on some, Clifford’s playing was drowned out by enthusiastic accompanists. The 15 tunes in this book are the only evidence of Clifford’s repertoire and style that exist.

The Maybe I Will tune book is only 22 pages long. It contains a brief Sparks family history, two photographs of Clifford, three paragraphs of biography gleaned from books and newspapers and fifteen tunes from his repertoire: The Fireman’s Dance, The Irish Washerwoman, Red Haired Boy, Red River Valley, Redwing and 10 other un-named, un-identified tunes. Contact me for ordering information.