To all the armchair critics shouting "Too fast", haven't you ever heard a "boogie blues" or "ragtime shuffle" before? This performance is, to use Emily Remler's expression, as "damn near close to perfect" as it gets. Try closing your eyes & just listening to the feel, while snapping your fingers on the 2 & 4 beats, & youll see, it's a freakin' SHUFFLE; it's just that the naysayers are simply unprepared to digest Tim's intricate contrapuntal onslaught at this familiar boogie tempo. It's not too fast at all; rather, some folks are unequpped to compute what the master is doing quickly enough before he moves on, leaving them behind in a cloud of dust, which he's not necessarily trying to do intentionally, but not every listener is up to his game. He doesn't need to slow down his playing; listeners need to perk up their listening. Go listen to some driving bluegrass for a while, then come back to this & you'll think it's laid-back; it's all relative. This rhythm is a steady ragtime 2-step with plenty of wonderful embellishment, not a note of which is superfluous. Ever since he charmed my heart with his astounding requinto guitar arrangements of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite", Tim Sparks has consistently proven himself again & again as a guitarist of mastery, innovation, refinement, taste, & exceptional versatility. Trust him, he's a champion picker, he knows his stuff... Roll with it.
@markmanning2921 This is a perfect ragtime/shuffle/brisk 'walking blues' tempo, it's on its toes & the tempo is steady throughout, real toe-tapping stuff, it struts beautifully, I could walk down the street to this at 1 step per beat very happily. You want 1/4 of this tempo? That would be a crawling dirge. For example, if champion fingerpicker Tim Sparks is playing here at 136 beats per minute, & you're saying it's 4x too fast, then you think the tempo should be 34 bpm, which is impossibly slow. Perhaps what you really meant to say is that you'd enjoy hearing the piece played 2-4 bpm slower, but you surely wouldn't like to hear it at 1/4 of this tempo, which would make this piece running 2 min. 48 sec. instead take 11+ minutes. Tim Sparks is a phenomenal, award-winning guitarist who knows exactly what he's doing. This tempo doesn't race at all, it boogies, & it's just quick enough to be challenging for him to play & delightfully dazzling to listen to.
Really great playing and interpretation, thanks . I thought the guitar itself didn't do the playing justice- how about a viintage Gibson or Martin to make it pop a lot more? Take care, Kevin
