Sometimes what seems like the end of a story is simply the beginning of a new one.

 

Our story is like that. We are James and Lisa Sparks. The last chapter of our individual stories closed out in heartache, but by God's grace and redemption, we are writing a new story together. We met and married a few years ago, and then not long after, quit our jobs, sold everything, and moved to Branson, MO in an RV to start a new adventure-: to write, record, and perform music that would glorify God.

 

Together, we tackled the challenge of learning to write music together. We both have musical backgrounds, however, they are quite different. James grew up in West Virginia in a small coal camp called Allen Junction, nestled between two mountains and the Guyandotte River. When he was just a young boy, his grandparents took him to church, and one night, during a lively church meeting, someone placed a guitar in his hands and sent him up to the stage to play. In that moment, God gave him a gift of music. He never had lessons, it was a true gift.  He played in bands all up and down the East Coast, but tragedy put a sudden halt to his growing career. After a ten year period of feeling stuck, he finally put his grief behind him and wrote the song, "Movin' On."
 

We met just a few months later. Lisa was homeschooled, the oldest of eight children, and all of them could sing. Together they sang at church and in homeschool choir, and sometimes in community theatre, and their most noteworthy accomplishment was being able to sing the complex harmonies of Handel's Messiah. She was also newly single, as her marriage had tragically ended in divorce. Reflecting on that time as a single parent inspired the song  "Man Like You." 

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We released our album,  "My Place in Your Story," on July 10th, 2024. The title track speaks to those times in our lives when we don't understand what God is doing, but we learn to trust Him anyway. We've also included a love song called "Dance With Me," a song inspired by some of our adult prodigal children called "Child of Mine," and a song about the second coming of Jesus called "The Lion's Gonna Roar."  They were released under the name James and Lisa Sparks and are available on all major platforms.

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Recently, we changed our name to Salt and Light. We believe we are called as Christians to be salt and light in the world, and we want our music to reflect that. Salt is a preservative, and we want to always push back against the moral decay in our world. We also want to be light, as we point the way to the Light of the World, Jesus, the Son of God. Our prayer is that God will continue to open up doors of opportunity to continue to do that.

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This year, we have several shows booked through the summer and we are continuing to add them. If you would be interested in having us at your church or venue, please shoot us an email at jamesandlisasparks@gmail.com.  Lisa is also a certified Assembly of God minister and we would love to minister at your event. 

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