Rick Sparkes + the Enablers are trying something new for their latest single, with Sparkes taking a backseat to the Enablers on “Frank Munroe Digs a Hole.” Metaphorically, that sounds dangerous and we have both questions and concerns, but in practice it sees Ruth Ann MacMurdo stepping in on lead vocals to deliver what Sparkes describes as a decidedly feminine tale.
Sparkes, who is also known for his creative fiction writing, paints a picture for us of a few stones cast and the challenges moving away and moving on. Of course we’re wondering how much is based on fact.
“I rarely, if ever, sit down with the specific intention to write a song, let alone a song for someone else to sing, but that’s how ‘Frank Munroe Digs a Hole’ began,” explains Sparkes. “I wanted to write something that would both feature Ruth Ann’s vocals a bit more prominently, but also to tell a story whose voice was uniquely feminine.
“Regardless of what the specifics of the narrative are, the song was incredibly cathartic to write because ultimately it was a way for me to have the narrator reclaim her sense of pride and self-worth after having gone through a very difficult time in her life.”
Sparkes is rather unspecific about said specifics – there’s not much detail on who Frank Munroe might have been beyond Sparkes’ unflattering lyrical speculation on how he got that way. Despite penning the lyrics himself, the female perspective makes it seem unlikely that Sparkes was a firsthand recipient of such unpleasantries. The lesson here, however, is clear: don’t piss off a songwriter – directly or indirectly – it’ll come back to haunt you.
“In the second verse, there’s a reference to the song ‘City of Lakes,’ from Matt Mays’ first album, which, for me, is not only a beautifully rugged and honest album, but also reflective of a much simpler time to which that second verse in ‘Frank Munroe Digs a Hole’ harkens back.
The song is the first to be released from his upcoming Rick Sparkes + the Enablers upcoming album, My Mind After Seeing All the Replies, following up from their 2017 album The Trouble With the Light.
“I have my 8-year old daughter Erin to thank for this song being the first release from our next record. I recorded a bunch of demos last fall and so just through the process of listening back to them over the past few months, my kids became very familiar with a lot of them, and this was the one that Erin asked to hear over and over again, so I figured I must be on to something good with it. Perhaps an unconventional way to choose a single, but it felt right to me, so I went with it.”
My Mind After Seeing All the Replies is expected, rather unspecifically, to be released sometime in 2020.