Mark Erelli
| Mark Erelli | |
|---|---|
 Erelli performing at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in July 2009. | |
| Background information | |
| Born |
20 June 1974 Reading, Massachusetts United States |
| Genres |
Americana Folk Pop Country |
| Occupations |
Musician Songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica |
| Years active | 1999 – present |
| Labels | Signature Sounds |
| Website | www.markerelli.com |
Mark Erelli (born June 20, 1974) is an American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist,[1] and touring folk musician from Reading, Massachusetts who earned a Master’s Degree in evolutionary biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst before pursuing a career in music. Erelli has released nine solo albums and three collaborative albums. His self-titled debut album was released in 1999, the same year that he won the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Award. His first recording for the Signature Sounds label, Compass & Companion, spent ten weeks in the Top Ten on the Americana Chart.[2] Erelli has worked as a side musician for singer songwriters Lori McKenna and Josh Ritter.[3] He has performed at various music festivals and shared the stage with John Hiatt, Dave Alvin, and Gillian Welch.[4] Erelli's song “People Look Around”, which he co-wrote with Catie Curtis, was the Grand Prize winner at the 2005 International Songwriting Competition.[5] His songs have been recorded by Ellis Paul, Vance Gilbert, Antje Duvekot, and Red Molly.
Early life and education
Erelli was born in Boston and grew up in the town of Reading, Massachusetts.[2] Erelli performed in numerous high school musicals and founded the band, Freddie and Slip. Later he was a member of the band Organic Ice Cube and wrote his first song "Hell In the Sky" as a member of the band Dead Flowers.[2] Erelli was introduced to the music of Patty Larkin, Chris Smither, and other singer-songwriters by listening to the radio station WBOS. [6] He formed the Mark Erelli Band and in 1997 released the album Long Way From Heaven. After attending the North East Folk Alliance Conference in 1997, Erelli signed a recording contract with Signature Sounds Recordings.[2] He was awarded the Iguana Music Fund Fellowship award from Cambridge's Club Passim and used the proceeds to build a home studio.[6]
Erelli attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and in 1997 enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he obtained a Master’s Degree in evolutionary biology in 1999.[2]
Career
Erelli's selt-titled debut CD was released on the Signature Sounds label in 1999. Produced by Lorne Entress, Erelli was backed by musicians Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Jim Lamond, Dave Dick, Joe Barbato, Roger Williams, and Mike Dinallo and guest vocalists, Rani Arbo, Louise Taylor, and Ben Demerath. He later won the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Award in the same year.
The following year, Erelli's sophomore recording for Signature Sounds, Compass & Companion was released. Again produced by Entress, it features a title-song duet with country artist Kelly Willis. Duke Levine and Kevin Barry once again lent support on guitar along with Dave Dick on banjo and Entress on the jaw harp and percussion.<ref name=Schwartz2001">Schwartz, Roberta. FAME review of Compass & Companion. Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange, 2001.</ref> The album charterd for ten weeks in the Top Ten of the Americana Music Chart. Later that year Erelli was nominated for two Boston Music Awards.[2]
Erelli's next project was to forego the traditional studio and instead gather a group of musicians to play within the walls of the Civil War era Memorial Hall in Monson, Massachusetts. Over the course of four days in May 2001, Erelli sat down in a semi-circle on the stage of the hall with Lorne Entress, Joe Barbato, Kevin Barry, Jim Henry, and Jim Lamond. The recording machines were turned on and everything was captured over the next four days.[7] The recording sessions were also captured on film and later aired as a documentary on PBS.[8]
In 2004, Erelli hooked up with Boston-based country band The Spurs[2] to delve into the worlds of Western swing, country, and rockabilly with the release of Hillbilly Pilgrim. Erin McKeown is a guest vocalist on "Pretend." "For folk fans, this disc may take some getting used to, but its pleasures are many."[9]
Erelli co-produced, with Lorne Entress, his fifth Signature Sounds album Hope & Other Casualties, which was released in 2006. When Erelli was asked if it was a concept album, he said: "The country has been through a lot, since 2000 really. Before September 11, that election of 2000 was a major thing. So, all the songs come out of that context. If the songs seem related, they all come out of that context over the last four years and they’re all coming through my lens and how I’m looking at the world. They all, in kinda one way or another, deal with the issue of how do you keep on keepin’ on when things seem really grim."[10] Sometimes viewed as his most political album, "Hope & Other Casualties" is "an attentive examination of current times interwoven with matters of the heart. His emotions straddle the ground between the personal and the political."[11] Guest vocalists include Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault. Hope & Other Casualties was voted the number one album of 2006 by WUMB radio member listeners.[12]
Innocent When You Dream, released in 2007, is a collection of lullabies and love songs, which features solo acoustic performances by Erelli as well as covers by Shawn Colvin, Townes Van Zandt, and others.[2] Also in 2007, Erelli toured with Lori McKenna in support of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul 2 Soul tour which included appearances on Good Morning America and at the Grand Ole Opry.[13] Later that year Erelli invited fans to finance his next studio album, referring to the project as a barn raising. The project succeeded and 11-song album produced by Josh Ritter's bassist, Zack Hickman, was released in 2008.[2]
In 2009, Erelli was a member of Josh Ritter's band when Ritter opened shows for Ray Lamontagne in the United Kingdom.[14] Tour dates included performances in Sheffield[14] and the Royal Albert Hall in London.[15]
Little Vigils - again produced by Zack Hickman - was released in 2010. The title is taken from a line in the lead-off track "August."[16]
Collaborations
Barnstar
Erelli's most recent collaboration is a bluegrass band collaboration with father and son Taylor Armerding and Jake Armerding, Charlie Rose, and Zack Hickman. They call themselves Barnstar and the title of the band's debut release is C'mon!, released in 2011. The album includes several well-known songs such as Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand" and the Louvin Brothers' "Cash on the Barrelhead" as well as three songs penned by Erelli.[1]
Seven Curses
In 2010, Erelli paired-up with Jeffrey Foucault to release Seven Curses: A Killer Selection of Americana Murder Ballads. Other than the closing track,"Wyoming Wind" written by Erelli, the collection of songs are covers. They include Woody Guthrie's "Philadelphia Lawyer," Bruce Springsteen's "Johnny 99," and Kevin "Blackie" Farrell's "Sonora's Death Row," to name three. "Whether sweet and mellow or raw and raucous sounding, this homicidal assortment is bleeding great!"[2]
Darwin Song Project
Erelli was chosen to join seven other songwriters in a songwriting retreat called the Darwin Song Project, one of many events that took place in 2009 to commemorate Charles Darwin's bicenntennial. The event - organized by the Shrewsbury Folk Festival - took place in Darwin's hometown of Shrewsbury, England when the group of musicians gathered to write songs that "have a resonance and relevance to the life of Darwin." The other Darwin artists are Chris Wood, Karine Polwart, Rachael McShane, Jez Lowe, Stu Hanna, Krista Detor and Emily Smith. A concert at the Theatre Severn in March 2009 was recorded and later released as a live CD, and the artists reunited in August 2009 for a performance at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.[17]
Discography
Studio Albums
Year Title Record Label 1997 Long Way From Heaven Self-released 1999 Mark Erelli Signature Sounds 2001 Compass & Companion Signature Sounds 2002 The Memorial Hall Recordings Signature Sounds 2004 Hillbilly Pilgrim Signature Sounds 2006 Hope & Other Casualties Signature Sounds 2007 Innocent When You Dream Signature Sounds 2008 Delivered Signature Sounds 2009 Darwin Song Project Shrewsbury Folk Festival Records 2010 Seven Curses (with Jeffrey Foucault) Self-released 2010 Little Vigils Hillbilly Pilgrim Productions 2011 C’Mon! (with Barnstar!) Self-released
Songwriting Credits
Year Song Artist/Album 2003 The Only Way Ellis Paul and Vance Gilbert/Side of the Road 2005 My Love Camille Te Nahu/Not Without You 2006 Let's Make A Family Camille Te Nahu/Recovered 2006 People Look Around (with Catie Curtis) Catie Curtis/Long Night Moon 2006 Passing Through (with Catie Curtis) Catie Curtis/Long Night Moon 2007 Hollow Man Chuck E. Costa/Where The Songs Come From 2009 Vertigo (with Antje Duvekot) Antje Duvekot/The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer 2011 Ghost Red Molly/Light in the Sky 2011 Why Should I Cry Red Molly/Light in the Sky 2012 Juliet (with Antje Duvekot) Antje Duvekot/New Siberia
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chilton, Martin. Mark Erelli and the pursuit of excellence. The Telegraph (UK), November 22, 2011.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Wood, Arthur. Mark Erelli Biography. Folkville: Thirty Years Writing About the Folk Process, Retrieved February 12,2013.
- ↑ Webb, Jela. Mark Erelli, Stuyvesant Oval (New York City, 7/21/12), ‘’No Depression’’, August 6, 2012.
- ↑ Daily Voice Staff. Mark Erelli - the multi-instrumentalist sideman and singer-songwriter is this month’s Hezekiah Stone’s featured artist. ‘’The Leicester Daily Voice’’, October 5, 2012.
- ↑ International Songwriting Competition.International Songwriting Competition: Previous Winners.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 WBUR Radio. Evolutionary Biologist Mark Erelli Turns To Music. March 17, 2011
- ↑ Ross, Janice. FAME review of The Memorial Hall Recordings. Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange, 2002.
- ↑ O'Brien, Nicholas. Class of 1996., Bates (College) Magazine, April 23, 2010.
- ↑ Lewis, Alan. Mark Erelli: Hillbilly Pilgrim. Boston Globe, January 30, 2004.
- ↑ Barber, Greg. Q&A: Mark Erelli. The Washington Post, July 6, 2006.
- ↑ Smyers, Darryl. Review: Hope & Other Casualties. No Depression, July-August, 2006, p. 118.
- ↑ WUMB. Top Ten of 2006. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
- ↑ Rodman, Sarah. A long way from Passim. Boston Globe, June 24, 2007.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Dean, Jessica. Ray Lamontagne and Josh Ritter silence Sheffield, UK (9/12). Consequence of Sound, September 14, 2009.
- ↑ Resident Media Pundit. Mark Erelli's Little Vigils. March 29, 2010.
- ↑ Ragogna, Mike. Paradise & Little Vigils: Conversations with Judy Collins and That Guy Mark Erelli. The Huffington Post, August 12, 2010.
- ↑ Darwin Song Project. The Darwin Song Project: Shrewsbury 2009.
External links
|