S.J. Tucker was visiting an Arkansas-focused shop in downtown Hot Springs in 2017 when she picked up the book “Daughter of the White River” by local author Denise White Parkinson. The book tells the tragic story of Helen Spence, a young woman who avenged her father’s murder by shooting the alleged killer in a DeWitt, Ark., courtroom in 1931.
Tucker, a singer-songwriter who attended the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in 1996 and 1997, picked up Parkinson’s book on a whim in the All Things Arkansas gift shop that was located on Central Avenue. Little did she know it would lead to an opportunity to record a soundtrack for a documentary telling Spence’s story years later.
“That night at home, I started reading it aloud to my husband as he cooked dinner, and we found we couldn’t stop until we’d read all the way to the end,” Tucker said. “Shortly after, I wrote my song ‘Girl from the River,” inspired by Denise’s work to preserve Helen Spence’s story.
“Cheekliy, I looked up Denise online, saw that we only live an hour and a half away from each other, and sent her the mp3 of that song with a respectful note. She kindly listened to it right away, and she and her husband both asserted that, should a movie ever come to be, my song ought to be a part of it.”
Parkinson said the unexpected arrival of Tucker’s song fit in perfectly with the pattern she has experienced with her book.
“As with the many serendipitous occurrences that have gone into the making of this book and film, S. J. brought magic and a sense of fate and destiny into the project,” Parkinson said. “She has been incredibly patient and generous throughout the process, and you can see her in the film’s closing scene with her baby, who was born two years ago. I give thanks for God sending us S.J.!”
Parkinson published her book in 2013. She documents the story of Spence, who gained national notoriety when she shot and killed a man named Jack Worls, the man who was accused of killing her father, Cicero Spence, during a fishing trip. The family lived on a houseboat on the White River.
She was convicted of manslaughter for Worls’ death, but she was later paroled. She was sent back to prison after being convicted of the murder of another man. That led to a prison term and a series of escapes. She was eventually killed after escaping from the Arkansas State Hospital.
Tucker grew up in Dumas in Desha County, about an hour from where Spence grew up and spent her life in the Arkansas River Delta. She was unfamiliar with Spence’s story until reading Parkinson’s book.
“I was shocked that this piece of Arkansas history had been unknown to me for my entire life,” Tucker said. “I know those rural highways like the back of my hand. Yet nobody ever taught me about her, and I could only find one living relative who’d even heard about her. It makes a person wonder what other stories are buried in the soil, kept silent for reason known only to the people who witnessed them.”
After she sent Parkinson her song, the two stayed in contact with each other through social media. Someone made a comment on a thread of one of Parkinson’s posts that she should record an audiobook version of the book. Tucker jumped on the idea immediately.
“I basically harrowed her until she agreed to let me meet with her to discuss the possibility of narrating and producing such an audiobook. That was in October 2017, and we released the audiobook through Audible’s ACX program last fall,” Tucker said.
Tucker later visited Parkinson at her Hot Springs home. During the visit, Parkinson had another guest — Dorothy Morris, a Hot Springs philanthropist, founder of the Morris Foundation and a longtime supporter of the fine arts. Parkinson said she and Morris were brainstorming the idea of a documentary about Spence based on the book. Morris had recently helped fund the digitation of Parkinson’s collection of 8 mm color home movies from her years of living in a houseboat.
Tucker played her songs for the duo, including “Girl from the River” that tells Spence’s story. Parkinson said she thought it would be the perfect way to begin the film version of “Daughter of the White River.” Tucker also provided both instrumental and lyric versions of two more songs — “Look to the Water” and “Moving Meditation” — that recur throughout the film, Parkinson said.
Being asked to record a soundtrack for a film was an unexpected opportunity, Tucker said.
“Film scores and soundtracks have always captivated me. I’m not expertly trained to do it, but this is the third film project I’ve had the good fortune to add music to. One of the three involved another ASMS(A) alum, interestingly enough, and it was that project which let me prove to myself that I could produce a film soundtrack, however scrappily and independently,” she said.
Tucker has been writing her own music since she was 14 in 1994. She is an independent recording artist, “which means I can write and record whatever I like without having to answer to a record label.” Her songs are inspired by folklore, book characters, literature and fairy tales, and the natural world, she said.
She said most of her songs could be described as an acoustic sound, but she also lets jazz and blues influences creep in. Sometimes she will write something that sounds closer to “goth-industrial electronic music together, and you can really tell how much of that genre of music I’ve listened to in my life,” she said.
Her first concerts as a songwriter were at the former Poet’s Loft in Hot Springs in 1997 and 1998. After graduating from Lyon College in Batesville, she moved to Memphis with the intent of learning what it would take to start a music career. She worked other jobs while she traveled to nearby states for concerts in 2001-2004. She recorded her first album, “Haphazard,” in 2004. The recording deal allowed her to eventually pay back the costs of the recording and record production. She held her first CD release party on March 27, 2004 — her mother’s birthday.
“Thank goodness the CD release party which I’d booked and paid for all on my own was well attended because that gave me the confidence to start looking for bookings further afield. I reasoned that I might as well be working for myself and be happy, even if I ended up broke, rather than working for someone else and staying miserable. So, it was at that point that I quit the job I didn’t love to throw myself 100 percent into the career I wanted to build,” she said.
She has used that model to build a successful career and staying afloat to a truly loyal fanbase, “and knowing that, if I had ever needed to come home and start over, my mother in Dumas would have taken me in without a word,” she said.
Tucker attended ASMSA, then known as the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences (ASMS), for only her junior year in 1996-1997. She left early to attend college at Lyon, not attending her senior year at ASMSA. The one year, however, helped prepare her later, she said.
“Some things about ASMS were desperately intense and difficult for me, but that year made me very tough,” she said. “College was a breeze after ASMS, which I suppose was partly the point. So, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I am certain that learning time management there has helped me build my business as a performing songwriter, since I have chosen to be the one wearing all the hats: creative output, promotion, social media management, finances, everything.”
Parkinson hopes to have a final edit of the documentary completed soon. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted some shooting and editing schedules. “The editing process has been 90 percent conducted on my porch, outdoors, in order to stay COVID safe,” Parkinson said. A rough cut was shown at the recent Arts & the Park via the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance website in honor of induction of Morris, who serves as an executive producer on the film, into the 2020 Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame.
Regarding Tucker, Parkinson is excited she is receiving some local notice for her artistry.
“I am so happy for S. J. to get recognition in her home state as she is known nationally and internationally as a star,” Parkinson said. She said she also has plans for Tucker to narrate the audiobook on her second book, “The River Sisters.”
To hear songs from the soundtrack, visit riversisters.bandcamp.com/releases. To learn more about Tucker’s music and to hear songs from the film, visit music.sjtucker.com. To read more about Parkinson’s “Daughter of the White River,” visit dwparkinson.com.