Tori Sparks CD Release Party

Tori Sparks is one of those independent singer-songwriters who’s so driven it seems like signing with a record label would only slow her down. The Scorpion In the Story—a concept album of sorts, co-produced with David Henry and inspired by a fable about acting according to one’s nature—is the second she’s released on her own Glass Mountain Records (a different indie label released her debut full-length). She’s resourceful too. Her drummer Steve Bowman’s wife is a cheerleader for the Nashville Rollergirls; Sparks sang the national anthem at a match, and the team returned the favor by appearing in a music video to be screened at the release show. Sparks sings with distinct intensity—an expressiveness honed during her college theater studies. The singer we’re most tempted to compare Sparks to happens to share her first name and has a surname that rhymes with “famous.” See if you can figure that one out. Scorpion is bluesy folk-rock in a Tom Waits vein: rough-edged, worldly-wise and potent.
Thu., June 4, 7 p.m., 2009