Tori Sparks - Until Morning/Come Out Of The Dark

Tori Sparks is based Barcelona, Spain, after having recently relocated from Nashville - but she spends most of her time on the road all over the world. Tori At the age of 27, she has already released four critically-acclaimed albums under the auspices of her own record label (Glass Mountain Records). She walks the line between soulful and hilarious in her electrifying live performances, singing in English, French and Spanish. She is known as the hardest working woman in the music business, booking and playing well over 200 concerts each year. Tori Sparks' upcoming fourth release, Until Morning/Come out of the Dark, marks her third musical collaboration 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, Paula Cole, Rosanne Cash). The recordings feature a cast of world-class musicians, as well as special guest vocalists Shawn Mullins (Grammy nominee, #1 on the US Americana Charts), Mike Farris (Americana Music Association Artist of the Year, Dove Award Winner), Paris DeLane (Sonia Dada), and indie folk favorite David Mead. Until Morning/Come out of the Dark is not a traditional album, but a study in dichotomy. Sparks chose to release the 13 new songs as two conjoined mini-albums, or a double EP. The first disc, Until Morning, reflects the dark, sensual, even diabolical side of Tori's vocal and songwriting skill. The second disc, Come Out of the Dark, is tumbleweed Americana meets fragile folk, or Tori's ability to show us the dawn that follows the darkness - in a word, the hope that love can bring. This record also marks the first Spanish-language song that Tori has recorded, a classic Cuban tune from the 1940s called "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás." The album art is a design by noted New York visual artist Joe Petruccio, best known for his work with the Elvis Presley Estate and Graceland in Memphis. As always, Tori's lyrics are the golden thread that runs through this artistically ambitious project. In the heart-stopping ballad "Until Morning," her voice soars on the line, "I love you the way the tide loves the sand, just like the gun loves the trigger-happy hand." Never one to shy away from heavy topics, Tori's irreverent side is also present, in lines such as "I could have been your compass, if you'd learn to read a map" -- and in referencing biological facts about sharks -- in the song "Judge a Book." Sparks casually comments in "On My Mind" that she and a lover were made for each other... in the same way that a pair of mafia-style "cement shoes" are custom-made for their victim. The tone of both halves of this project is distinctly personal in a way that surpasses even the intimacy of Tori's previous three records. We as listeners get the sense that she is letting us in on a very private conversation, especially on the minor epic "Come Out of the Dark." Sparks' last three albums (Rivers + Roads, Under This Yellow Sun, The Scorpion in the Story) climbed the Americana and College charts in the US and overseas, have been licensed by MTV, Lifetime, Oxygen, and Life Beyond Breast Cancer, and featured on the compilation Country Vol. 2 released by Universal Music France (over 40,000 copies sold). Scorpion was featured prominently in the book Mobile Web Design for Dummies (Janine Warner/David LaFontaine), and was listed in "Best-Of" lists for 2010 in the US, the UK, Germany, Sweden, more. Tori has been interviewed and featured by television and radio stations, magazine, newspapers, and blogs across the globe. Notables include The Los Angeles Times, NPR, the Village Voice, Starpolish, Americana UK, CMJ.com and Paste magazine. The All Music Guide gives her five stars. She is known as a champion of the DIY business model, and the author of two courses for roaming music business education organization ProMusicU. Sparks is interviewed monthly on the subject of DIY in the music business by Dream Row magazine. Tori regularly speaks on similar topics at universities, performing arts schools, music conferences and festivals (SXSW, Folk Alliance, Woodsongs, Bele Chere, many others). She was a guest on a panel as well as a performer at SXSW 2011 on the topic of booking and touring, and will be speaking at the Kansai Music Conference in Osaka, Japan in September 2011. The young performer-slash-entrepreneur is also known for actively trying to give back to the community through music. She 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, Gilda's House, and many more. She donated the proceeds of her song "Leaving Side of Love" to Paste's "Songs for Haiti" initiative in 2010, and is a strong proponent of social justice and music education. Tori will be touring non-stop throughout 2011 and 2012 in support of Until Morning/Come Out of the Dark, as well as consuming as many tapas as possible, and continuing to work on her salsa dancing.