Pontiac native, national country music star and long-time promoter and talent agent for the Shawville Fair, Ron Sparling, is set to be honoured at the upcoming fair.
Born in 1940 in Campbell’s Bay, Que. Sparling went on to be a major part of not only the Ottawa Valley country music scene, but also an . . .
international success as member of the country music group Family Brown as a drummer and the group’s manager.
Sparling said that growing up in the Ottawa Valley had a significant influence on his music career, and he has fond memories of listening to the two hours of country music on the CFRA radio station and listening to the fiddle players of the region.
He was honoured by both the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and then the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame for his contributions as both a musician and a manager.
As his career progressed, Sparling became a promoter and talent agent in the Canadian country music scene, and each year would book the musical acts for the Shawville Fair.
“As a kid in the 1950s, it was my hometown fair. We didn’t have one in Campbell’s Bay. You would count the sleeps before the fair started,” said Sparling about what the fair meant to him in his childhood.
Over the course of his work with the fair, which began in 1985, Sparling booked musical acts ranging from Michelle Wright in 2004, Stompin’ Tom Connors in 2005, Terri Clark in 2012, Kix Brooks in 2013, Trooper in 2013 and April Wine in 2017, to just name a few.
“We also made sure we had a good representation of local and valley talent the best we could; Phil Denault from Fort-Coulonge, Mick Armitage, Howard Hayes, just to name a few,” added Sparling.
Sparling was essential to bringing all of this talent to the fair, according to Elwyn Lang, former president and entertainment director of the fair board.
“The Stompin’ Tom show wouldn’t have gone on without him. [Sparling] had to go personally to Quyon and talk Tom into doing it,” said Lang. “Stompin’ Tom was an icon but he was kind of an eccentric guy and didn’t like big crowds, and there was a tremendous crowd that day.”
Sparling said it was not an easy job to attract such big talent to the Shawville Fair.
“You can’t just give them $50,000 and say see you at the fair,” said Sparling. “You have to set everything up. They want a certain type of sound, you have to make sure you have a certain kind of lighting, you make sure they can fly in from where they’re coming from. You made sure you picked them up from the airport, then got them to their hotel, then to the fair and then back again. All things you have to work out are probably hard for people to understand.”
Sparling said that planning and prep-work was the key to managing and coordinating acts so everything went as smoothly as possible.
Yet sometimes things couldn’t be planned for, as an incident from the 2002 Shawville Fair highlights. That year the fair lacked entertainment for a night but at the last minute managed to get Paul Brandt.
“We ended up flying Brandt from a previous engagement on a float plane,” said Mavis Hanna, long time Shawville Fair board member and at times, president. “He actually flew in and he was met at the Norway Bay dock and then driven to Shawville to perform half-an-hour later. Ron made that happen. Ron went the extra mile for us and made it possible for us to have Paul Brandt.”
Sparling said the Shawville Fair board always knew what acts they wanted, which made his job a lot easier.
“They’d listen to the radio, they would ask who people wanted to see, so they were very easy to work with,” said Sparling. “Sometimes they’d ask for someone who would cost $1 million or $150,000 which we couldn’t do, but once they got into the price range we could do, they knew what they wanted.”
“He gave good insight as to who are the people that are easy to work with, and who are the people that aren’t and that is worth its weight in gold,” said Tyler McCann, the current entertainment director on the fair board. “We’re a small fair and, you know, we can’t always offer the kind of entertainment that every other big show out there could offer. And so Ron was able to help navigate those kinds of dynamics as well.”
Sparling retired from booking acts and promoting last year after his wife passed away. “There’s a lot of paperwork now when it comes to booking acts,” he said. “My wife was a lot better with the computer than I am.”
According to everyone THE EQUITY spoke to about Sparling, he was an extremely well-liked and respected part of the Shawville Fair team.
“He made a tremendous difference for the fair,” said Lang. “Along with us he grew the fair. We had a good working relationship over the many years and he’s always the first guy to come and talk to you when he comes to the fair. He’s very easy to get along with.”
“He’ll be sadly missed because he went over and above his job,” said Vaughn Bastien, current president of the fair board.
“The Shawville Fair board could not have asked for a better promoter and a better supporter of our fair, and his advice was always right on the mark,” said Hanna. “And his knowledge of the performers and the industry definitely was a key contributor to our fair’s entertainment successes.”
“For 30 years he was a big part of the fair,” said McCann. “He is one of the unsung heroes that makes the Shawville Fair possible.”
For his part, Sparling still fondly remembers his contribution to the fair and holds the Pontiac close to heart.
“I’ve always appreciated how the fair dealt with me,” said Sparling. “Part of it was because I was from the Pontiac, I guess, but part of it was that I did a decent job and kept doing it, “said Sparling.
Despite his retirement, Sparling said he plans on continuing to attend the fairs.
The fair board plans on honouring Sparling for his decades long contribution to the fair during the Ottawa Valley Show at this year’s fair, according to Hanna.
