Page 26 - The Hunt - Spring 2020

Sinclair’s hand works a vintage steel guitar.
Now 68, James C. McComb Though Frederick Klair Sinclair was in the
Sinclair II comes from a prominent family with local roots dating back to the Revolution,
including genealogical branches that spread into the South and Midwest and include a 19th-century railroad baron. Originally from Scotland, the Sinclair family settled on a 300-acre farm south of Kennett Square, Pa.,
“Some people associate collecting with clutter, but it’s not the same. It’s really about a passion for something you love, and you want to have other things like it.”
in the 1700s. They’ve been a part of Chester County life ever since. Although not Catholic himself, a distant relative donated land to Irish-American settlers to build a Catholic church. “When the church opened on Dec. 25, 1869, he sat on a chair outside to greet the first congregation,” says Sinclair. The church congregation, St. Patrick Church, has since moved to Cypress and Meredith streets in Kennett Square and celebrated its 150th anniversary last year.
construction business, his son started work fresh out of West Chester University as a foreman at the National Vulcanized Fiber manufacturing facility in Newark, Del. Evenings and weekends, he played pedal-steel guitar for local Kennett Square bands, picking up the stage name James “Sparks” Sinclair.
In 1977, the late Howie Wyeth, Bob Dylan’s drummer and pianist on his Rolling Thunder Review tour, asked Sinclair to join him in New York. He got a room at the Chelsea Hotel, an iconic lodging spot for various famous rockers. “Later, I was a house player at the Lone Star Cafe and got to work with people like Dr. John and Carl Perkins,” says Sinclair.
With great pedal-steel players in short supply, Sinclair landed work as a studio musician and toured with Gordon Lightfoot and other big names. “I was once told to meet the band at Lincoln Center, and I asked the cab driver if he knew where it was,” Sinclair recalls. “He couldn’t believe I’d never heard of it—the same thing with the Kennedy Center. I was just a 27-year- old kid. It was all like magic to me.”
Sinclair moved to Los Angeles in 1980. “While I was driving out to L.A., I stopped somewhere in the Southwest and bought three or four pre-Columbian Native American
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THE HUNT MAGAZINE
spring 2020