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Mark Growden

Mark Growden Radio

General Info

  • Genre: Americana / Indie / Roots Music

    Location San Francisco, California, US

    Profile Views: 93293

    Last Login: 1/25/2013

    Member Since 11/27/2004

    Website MarkGrowden.org

    Record Label Porto Franco Records

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    .... ....Saint Judas.. - Mark's Ninth Album.. National Record Release.. & Party at Hotel Café in Los Angeles 3/16/10...... San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer Mark Growden is set to release his ninth album, ..Saint Judas.., through Porto Franco Records on March 16, 2010. The national record release party will take place in Los Angeles on the same day at Hotel Café in Hollywood. ..Saint Judas.., an intoxicating mix of roots music with a postmodern aesthetic, features 13 tracks of 'Americana noir' with an overarching theme of redemption. Hotel Café is located at 1623 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028. Doors will open at 8:00 p.m., ages 21+ allowed. Tickets will cost $10.00 at the door or $7.00 in advance. For more information, please call 323-461-2040 or visit ..http://hotelcafe.com... .... Recurring themes in the intensely personal new album include love and loss, sin and faith, perseverance, compassion, and, most significantly, redemption. There is a darkness that haunts ..Saint Judas.., though not without a glimmer of hope. Growden explains that, for him, the resurrection theme that surfaces throughout the work isn’t of the magical rise-from-the-dead variety, but rather that, “it takes some grieving to get through to the joy.”.... Growden is captivated with old American music, mainly African-American, recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax in the 1930s and 1940s; several tracks on ..Saint Judas.. are reworkings of these songs. Album opener “Undertaker,” based on a Lomax field recording of the prison work song “Rosie,” introduces the theme of resurrection. “Dig me a grave, in the open plain. Lower me down, and pull me up again,” sings Growden, over a howling guitar and trumpet. And the closing banjo-and-voice only “All the Pretty Little Horses” is a version of an old spiritual Growden calls “one of his favorite songs ever” which was written, according to legend, by a woman watching horses pull her child’s hearse through the streets..... The title track on ..Saint Judas.. – a cabaret rocker with its refrain of “bottoms up to you, buddy, 'cause somebody had to take the blame” – honors the biblical “Saint of Sinners” often vilified as the traitor who turned on Jesus. The song is a call to acknowledge and accept the worst that lies within everyone while finding the strength to forgive and carry on..... The biblical references that pile up throughout the album are no accident – Growden’s father was a preacher in the northern Sierra Nevada town of Pinetown, California, where he was raised. But Growden is less interested in religious iconography than he is in seeing biblical stories as universal themes. As an example, “Delilah,” with its plaintive accordion and cello, references the story of Samson and Delilah, but as a metaphor, he says, “of the death of ego, of the illusion of yourself, for love.”.... In perhaps the most moving piece on the album, “The Gates/Take Me To the Water,” Growden asserts that “every soul is welcome,” in a line that sums up the overarching theme of ..Saint Judas.., “be you a virgin, a whore, a sinner or a saint.” This adaptation of an old spiritual delicately builds from a percussive accordion-heavy opening to a rousing choir-fed climax before launching into a rollicking New Orleans-style version of the traditional song. “Everyone assumes that it’s about Katrina, says Growden of the track, “but it was written before Katrina. It’s about walking in Oakland and seeing the pain in people’s eyes.”.... ......Saint Judas.. track listing:.... 1. Undertaker (6:20).. 2. Delilah (6:13).. 3. Saint Judas (3:25).. 4. If the Stars Could Sing (3:48).. 5. Been in the Storm so Long (7:05).. 6. I'm Your Man (4:25).. 7. Faith in my Pocket (3:58).. 8. Everybody Holds a Piece of the Sun (2:29).. 9. Coyote (7:20).. 10. Handlebars (3:01).. 11. Inside Every Bird (5:36).. 12. The Gates/Take me to the Water (9:22).. 13. All the Pretty Little Horses (3:57)...... .... Mark Growden's ..Saint Judas.... ..Album art by Mona Caran, design by Jenya Chernoff...... ..More on Mark Growden....... As a composer and performer, Growden has released several critically acclaimed albums and performed at venues such as the Fillmore and Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, and Tonic and The Knitting Factory in New York. He has performed and collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists including members of The San Francisco Opera, Bob Weir, Hamza el Din, Kid Congo Powers, John Santos, Omar Sosa, Remy Charlip, Faun Fables, and Stan Ridgeway. He has composed original musical scores for a number of dance and theater companies including Joe Goode Performance Group, The Crucible, and Alonzo King's LINES Contemporary Ballet with whom he and his collaborators won the Isadora Duncan Award for Best Original Score for a New Dance Piece. He has scored several films including 2005’s Blood Tea and Red String, which won Best Animation at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. Growden also co-produces San Francisco-based COVERT – a site-specific concert series with famed artist John Law..... After initially establishing himself as a jazz/new music winds player and composer in the mid-1990s, Growden began playing accordion and banjo when all his other instruments were stolen from a theater where he was accompanying a dance performance. He is currently writing an opera based on ..Saint Judas.., is working on an educational film about how the harmonic series works, and leads singing workshops in various cities. In October 2009, Growden and Porto Franco Records signed the recording deal for ..Saint Judas... The team is now getting ready to produce two more albums to be recorded with his Los Angeles and Tucson ensembles, in those cities, respectively.....

  • Members

    ............ Mark Growden (voice, accordion, banjo, saxophones, handlebars), Myles Boisen (guitar), Seth Ford Young (upright bass), Alex Kelly (Cello), Chris Grady (trumpet), and Jenya Chernoff (percussion). ....Other folks that Mark has played with include Kid Congo Powers, Lisa Mezzacappa, Eric McFadden, Evan Fraser, Jesca Hoop, Eric McFadden, Storm, Jay Standards, Michael Mellender, Nils Frykdahl, Dawn McCarthy, Brian Kenney Fresno, Moe Stayano, Amy Denio, Robin Coomer, Carla Kihlstead, Peter Whitehead, Jon Birdsong, Jim Santi Owen, George Chremaschi, Molehill Orchestra, Tim Dixon from The Crux, Tarik Ragab, Amore Belhom Duo, Michael Farkas, Allen Werner, Tommy Cappel, Simon Cheffins, Mateo, Yari Mander,.........

  • Influences

    ......The Moment, My Instruments, My Physical Body, My Emotional Body, The Audience, Prison Work Songs, Georgia Sea Island Singers, Stravinsky, Coltrane, Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Al Green, Howlin' Wolf, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Merideth Monk, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Steve Reich, Nina Simone, Aaron Copland, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kurt Weill, Tom Waits, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Latin Playboys, Amalia Rodriguez, El Camaron de la Isla,...more than anything, the Moment.......

  • Sounds Like

    ......Meredith Monk, Houndog, Kurt Weill, Howlin' Wolf, Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, Latin Playboys...... .. .. .. .. .. .. .... .."Coyote" directed by Christiane Cegavski.. .... Growden's eclectic body of work is a challenge to categorize, though, as a musician, he is often compared to songwriting icons Nick Cave and Tom Waits. Additionally, Growden has been described as a wordsmith on par with the legendary Leonard Cohen – who he fittingly covers on Saint Judas with a reworked version of “I’m Your Man.”.... His soulful music reinterprets older, pre-rock forms such as blues, jazz, cabaret, gypsy, and folk with a contemporary edge. While Growden cites the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Nina Simone, and Kurt Weill as influences, the new album should appeal not only to roots music enthusiasts, but also to fans of indie darlings DeVotchKa, Beirut, Rasputina, Devandra Banhardt, and Andrew Bird....... .. .. .. .. .. .. ........ To see what Mark is up to now, follow him at ..@markgrowden.........

Stream

  1. Mark Growden

    Playing a show in Berkeley, CA at 7:30 PM today at The Monkey House http://lnk.ms/bzBgY

  2. Mark Growden

    Playing a show in Nevada City, CA at 8:00 PM today at North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center http://lnk.ms/bcYvf

  3. Mark Growden

    Playing a show in Berkeley, CA at 8:00 PM today at Subterranean Arthouse http://lnk.ms/dRSvr

  4. Mark Growden

    Playing a show in Berkeley, CA at 8:00 PM today at Subterranean Arthouse http://lnk.ms/dHF1x

  5. Mark Growden

    Playing a show in Sebastopol, CA at 8:00 PM today at Dhyana Center http://lnk.ms/cc1zH

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Bio:

..
Saint Judas - Mark's Ninth Album
National Record Release
& Party at Hotel Café in Los Angeles 3/16/10

 San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer Mark Growden is set to release his ninth album, Saint Judas, through Porto Franco Records on March 16, 2010. The national record release party will take place in Los Angeles on the same day at Hotel Café in Hollywood. Saint Judas, an intoxicating mix of roots music with a postmodern aesthetic, features 13 tracks of 'Americana noir' with an overarching theme of redemption. Hotel Café is located at 1623 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028. Doors will open at 8:00 p.m., ages 21+ allowed. Tickets will cost $10.00 at the door or $7.00 in advance. For more information, please call 323-461-2040 or visit http://hotelcafe.com.

Recurring themes in the intensely personal new album include love and loss, sin and faith, perseverance, compassion, and, most significantly, redemption. There is a darkness that haunts Saint Judas, though not without a glimmer of hope. Growden explains that, for him, the resurrection theme that surfaces throughout the work isn’t of the magical rise-from-the-dead variety, but rather that, “it takes some grieving to get through to the joy.”

Growden is captivated with old American music, mainly African-American, recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax in the 1930s and 1940s; several tracks on Saint Judas are reworkings of these songs. Album opener “Undertaker,” based on a Lomax field recording of the prison work song “Rosie,” introduces the theme of resurrection. “Dig me a grave, in the open plain. Lower me down, and pull me up again,” sings Growden, over a howling guitar and trumpet. And the closing banjo-and-voice only “All the Pretty Little Horses” is a version of an old spiritual Growden calls “one of his favorite songs ever” which was written, according to legend, by a woman watching horses pull her child’s hearse through the streets.

The title track on Saint Judas – a cabaret rocker with its refrain of “bottoms up to you, buddy, 'cause somebody had to take the blame” – honors the biblical “Saint of Sinners” often vilified as the traitor who turned on Jesus. The song is a call to acknowledge and accept the worst that lies within everyone while finding the strength to forgive and carry on.

The biblical references that pile up throughout the album are no accident – Growden’s father was a preacher in the northern Sierra Nevada town of Pinetown, California, where he was raised. But Growden is less interested in religious iconography than he is in seeing biblical stories as universal themes. As an example, “Delilah,” with its plaintive accordion and cello, references the story of Samson and Delilah, but as a metaphor, he says, “of the death of ego, of the illusion of yourself, for love.”

In perhaps the most moving piece on the album, “The Gates/Take Me To the Water,” Growden asserts that “every soul is welcome,” in a line that sums up the overarching theme of Saint Judas, “be you a virgin, a whore, a sinner or a saint.” This adaptation of an old spiritual delicately builds from a percussive accordion-heavy opening to a rousing choir-fed climax before launching into a rollicking New Orleans-style version of the traditional song. “Everyone assumes that it’s about Katrina, says Growden of the track, “but it was written before Katrina. It’s about walking in Oakland and seeing the pain in people’s eyes.”

Saint Judas track listing:
 1. Undertaker (6:20)
2. Delilah (6:13)
3. Saint Judas (3:25)
4. If the Stars Could Sing (3:48)
5. Been in the Storm so Long (7:05)
6. I'm Your Man (4:25)
7. Faith in my Pocket (3:58)
8. Everybody Holds a Piece of the Sun (2:29)
9. Coyote (7:20)
10. Handlebars (3:01)
11. Inside Every Bird (5:36)
12. The Gates/Take me to the Water (9:22)
13. All the Pretty Little Horses (3:57)
Mark Growden's Saint Judas
Album art by Mona Caran, design by Jenya Chernoff

 More on Mark Growden...
As a composer and performer, Growden has released several critically acclaimed albums and performed at venues such as the Fillmore and Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, and Tonic and The Knitting Factory in New York. He has performed and collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists including members of The San Francisco Opera, Bob Weir, Hamza el Din, Kid Congo Powers, John Santos, Omar Sosa, Remy Charlip, Faun Fables, and Stan Ridgeway. He has composed original musical scores for a number of dance and theater companies including Joe Goode Performance Group, The Crucible, and Alonzo King's LINES Contemporary Ballet with whom he and his collaborators won the Isadora Duncan Award for Best Original Score for a New Dance Piece. He has scored several films including 2005’s Blood Tea and Red String, which won Best Animation at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. Growden also co-produces San Francisco-based COVERT – a site-specific concert series with famed artist John Law.

After initially establishing himself as a jazz/new music winds player and composer in the mid-1990s, Growden began playing accordion and banjo when all his other instruments were stolen from a theater where he was accompanying a dance performance. He is currently writing an opera based on Saint Judas, is working on an educational film about how the harmonic series works, and leads singing workshops in various cities. In October 2009, Growden and Porto Franco Records signed the recording deal for Saint Judas. The team is now getting ready to produce two more albums to be recorded with his Los Angeles and Tucson ensembles, in those cities, respectively.

..

Member Since:

November 27, 2004

Members:






Mark Growden (voice, accordion, banjo, saxophones, handlebars), Myles Boisen (guitar), Seth Ford Young (upright bass), Alex Kelly (Cello), Chris Grady (trumpet), and Jenya Chernoff (percussion).

Other folks that Mark has played with include Kid Congo Powers, Lisa Mezzacappa, Eric McFadden, Evan Fraser, Jesca Hoop, Eric McFadden, Storm, Jay Standards, Michael Mellender, Nils Frykdahl, Dawn McCarthy, Brian Kenney Fresno, Moe Stayano, Amy Denio, Robin Coomer, Carla Kihlstead, Peter Whitehead, Jon Birdsong, Jim Santi Owen, George Chremaschi, Molehill Orchestra, Tim Dixon from The Crux, Tarik Ragab, Amore Belhom Duo, Michael Farkas, Allen Werner, Tommy Cappel, Simon Cheffins, Mateo, Yari Mander,...


Influences:




The Moment, My Instruments, My Physical Body, My Emotional Body, The Audience, Prison Work Songs, Georgia Sea Island Singers, Stravinsky, Coltrane, Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Al Green, Howlin' Wolf, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Merideth Monk, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Steve Reich, Nina Simone, Aaron Copland, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kurt Weill, Tom Waits, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Latin Playboys, Amalia Rodriguez, El Camaron de la Isla,...more than anything, the Moment.


Sounds Like:




Meredith Monk, Houndog, Kurt Weill, Howlin' Wolf, Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, Latin Playboys



"Coyote" directed by Christiane Cegavski

Growden's eclectic body of work is a challenge to categorize, though, as a musician, he is often compared to songwriting icons Nick Cave and Tom Waits. Additionally, Growden has been described as a wordsmith on par with the legendary Leonard Cohen – who he fittingly covers on Saint Judas with a reworked version of “I’m Your Man.”

His soulful music reinterprets older, pre-rock forms such as blues, jazz, cabaret, gypsy, and folk with a contemporary edge. While Growden cites the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Nina Simone, and Kurt Weill as influences, the new album should appeal not only to roots music enthusiasts, but also to fans of indie darlings DeVotchKa, Beirut, Rasputina, Devandra Banhardt, and Andrew Bird.





To see what Mark is up to now, follow him at @markgrowden.


Record Label:

Porto Franco Records

Label Type:

Indie

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