Biography

TORI SPARKS is: a road warrior

Tori Sparks originally hails from Chicago; she later lived and recorded in Nashville, but has always spent most of her time on the road. Since the age of 18 she has played over 150 concerts every year (not including the pandemic years) and has performed in a total of 24 countries. A force of nature onstage, Tori walks the line between intensely soulful and stand-up-comic-style hilarious. No two of her concerts are ever alike.

FROM NASHVILLE TO BARCELONA

From 2007 to 2011, Tori put out four albums on her own label, Glass Mountain Records, featuring some of Nashville’s top musicians: Viktor Krauss, Will Kimbrough, Fats Kaplin, Matthew Burgess, others, as well as guest artists such as Grammy Award winner Mike Farris and nominee Shawn Mullins.

In 2011, Tori Sparks moved from Nashville to Barcelona, and in just a few years had already left her mark on her adopted country. In 2018, rock magazine Popular1 put Sparks on the list of the five most important female voices in Spain; in 2019 she received the award for Rock Artist of the Year by No Solo Cine magazine; her voice can be heard on soundtracks (Criminal Minds, Félix, Sky Rojo, others), and in numerous commercials (Marcilla Coffee, Kids&Us TV, Festina Watches, ING Bank, more).

AMERICAN ROOTS MEETS FLAMENCO FUSION

Tori’s fifth album, El Mar (Glass Mountain Records, 2014) was her first collaboration with Barcelona-based flamenco fusion trio Calamento and electric guitarist El Rubio. Their unusual bilingual mix of blues, rock, folk, and flamenco started out as a side project, but quickly grew to international success, called "adventurous, pushing the envelope" (Rolling Stone), and “pure art” (Los Conciertos de Radio3).

In 2016 Tori and the band returned to the studio to record their highly-anticipated follow up record, La Huerta (Glass Mountain Records, 2017). Smashing traditional concepts of genre, the band continued to experiment without sacrificing the unique sound that won them fans the world over with El Mar. They toured in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, and beyond, headlining their own tours as well as opening for artists as diverse as guitar legend Joe Satriani, indie rock icons Eels, revered Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, and Latin Grammy-winning flamenco divas Las Migas.

Their strength as live performers lies in their ability to seamlessly blend musical genres and to connect with audiences of all walks of life, be it playing for 100 people in a small club, or for 30,000 people at prestigious festivals such as Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Bele Chere (USA); Festival Jardins Pedralbes (Spain); Su La Testa (Italy); others.

Wait No More: The Live Album

Their most recent full-length album together, titled Wait No More, was released on Record Store Day 2019. It was Tori’s seventh album — her third since embracing the rock-blues-flamenco fusion that has become her signature sound, and her first recorded live onstage. “A flawless live album… an extraordinary fusion of styles,” said La Vanguardia in its review. (Listen to Wait No More here.)

Love in a Time of Quarantine

During the pandemic, Tori stayed busy. She lent a hand on the production of the new albums by artists such has The Mothercrow, Alma de Boquerón, and Richard White. She made international headlines from Thailand to the U.S. with her #BalconyConcerts initiative, a weekly series of free concerts that lasted throughout the quarantine. Tori was also one of three artists selected to represent Catalunya/Spain in Global Music Match, an international music export initiative between 17 countries on 4 continents connecting artists around the world.

In response to the impact of the quarantine on the musicians in her community, Tori spearheaded the solidarity project and compilation album Amor en los Tiempos de Cuarentena (“Love in a Time of Quarantine”). The limited-edition album featured songs by various artists, each of a different musical style, and raised money for musicians affected by the global pandemic.

And while she and the band had to put most of their tours in support of Wait No More on hold, they put their time in lockdown to good use and released a single and music video while in quarantine, “The Man Who Sold the World.” The song was included as a bonus download in the new, limited-edition color vinyl version of their album El Mar, released in on Record Store Day 2021, celebration of Tori’s 10th anniversary in Barcelona.

EL MAR ELECTRIC + ROOTS MUSIC REVIVAL

And in Spring of 2023, Tori debuted her new live show, El Mar Electric along with a live EP of the same name, in a series of not one, but five sold-out concerts in Barcelona. The project was an homage to the mix of cultures and musical styles —  Spanish, Catalan, American, Arabic, Latin, and more — that have marked Tori’s 20+ year career. She and the band took the blues, rock, and flamenco fusion show on the road in tours in Germany, Spain, and Morocco, before their travels were cut short by an unexpected injury to her vocal cords, compounded by a severe case of COVID. As a result, Tori — who can usually play through anything — lost her voice completely, and had to go through nine months of vocal rehabilitation before finally returning to the stage in March 2024.

Now, she’s back and stronger than ever. In 2024, she and the band presented their second, separate live project: Roots Music Revival. The repertoire draws on tunes from Tori’s first four albums from her Nashville and Chicago days, and reflects a return to her musical beginnings. This is a musical “revival” to be sure, in the sense that the style of music is pure Americana, but it's also a personal revival as Tori remembers and pays tribute to the music that inspired her in the first place. These high-energy concerts show off a different side of the band, whose roots and blues sensibilities run deep.

Tori was busy on the road presenting both projects throughout 2024; now, she’s working on material for their next studio album in 2025.

BUSINESSWOMAN, PUBLIC SPEAKER, ACTIVIST

Sparks is also known for giving back to the community through music, and has organized and performed at numerous benefit concerts for local, national, and international nonprofit organizations.

She is also a sought-after public speaker at universities, schools, and professional conferences such as South by Southwest, International Folk Alliance, WOMEX, PrimaveraPro, Desert Women Summit and many others, and regularly presents talks at the Santako School of Rock (Santa Coloma de Gramanet, ES) and audiovisual production school SAE (Barcelona, ES). She is a mentor through the online music business education program Dotlinesdot, and also works with independent artists on a one-on-one basis. Sparks is also known for her work as an activist; she was the Secretary of the Musicians Union of Catalunya until 2020, is a spokesperson for the Spanish freedom of speech movement No Callarem, and is a strong proponent of social justice and music education.

Tori Sparks is proud to be endorsed by D'Addario Strings since 2007, and by Thembe Fashions since 2016.