About

“I grew up in an old logging town, less than a hundred people, on the Sierra Nevada/Cascade Divide,” says musician Mark Growden. Lose Me in the Sand is a tribute to Growden’s rural mountain roots. His latest album is also a hats-off to the roughshod beginnings of American music and the spirit that music represents. Growden chose the banjo as the primary instrument for Lose Me in the Sand for both its timbre and history. An African-American instrument that made its way into minstrel shows and Appalachian folk music, the banjo resonates in our collective consciousness with the memory of poverty, oppression, resilience, and fortitude. “I’m aware of the choice of these songs and the era we’re living in,” says Growden. “Lose Me in the Sand is a banjo album. It’s about humility.”

Rehearsed and recorded in live studio sessions in Tucson, Arizona, Lose Me in the Sand is intentionally infused with the desert’s eternal expanse. Its sparse arrangements are steeped in the enduring qualities of patience, surrender and acceptance. Lose Me in the Sand is Growden’s second place-based album with Porto Franco Records engineered by Oz Fritz (whose resume includes Tom Waits and Caetano Veloso). It follows on the heels of his Oakland recording of Saint Judas, a bold and highly praised exploration of universal love and redemption.

Each of Growden’s albums have been recorded in a place where Growden felt the songs fit – a place where the musical culture and physical landscape would enhance the album’s ambience. Saint Judas was informed by the soulful complexity of Oakland’s cosmopolitan cityscape and Growden’s long-standing Oakland/San Francisco ensemble (Seth Ford Young – bass, Myles Boisen – guitar, Jenya Chernoff – percussion, Alex Kelly – cello, Chris Grady – trumpet, Mark Growden – accordion, banjo, bicycle handlebars, sruti box, voice). Lose Me in the Sand is rooted in Tucson’s country music scene, with guitarist Clay Koweek, fiddler Tim O’Connor, dobro player Connor Gallaher, bassist Ian Stapp, harmonica player Tom Wallbank and guest percussionist Andrew Collberg contributing their homegrown sensibilities. With Growden as music director, the arrangements grew from guided improvisations. Each musician crafted riffs to add nuance and depth to the interpretations.

Mark Growden began his musical career scoring instrumental pieces for dance and theater companies including Joe Goode Performance Group and The Crucible. His work with Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet won the Isadora Duncan Award for Best Original Score for a New Dance Piece. “I am first and foremost trained as an avant garde saxophonist and as a composer,” explains Growden. “My job is to take traditions and turn them on their heads – to break the traditions and to innovate.” The skill of his artistry is exemplified in the covers and traditional songs on Lose Me in the Sand. Growden doesn’t cover others’ songs, as much as he uncovers them. With sly intelligence he draws out what was always there, but we failed to hear, challenging us to recognize what our favorite songs actually say to us – and about us. Growden reworks Aretha Franklin’s first hit, and sings it back to her in “You Ain’t Never Been Loved.” With a wry sense of the paradoxical truths in human relationships, he counters her agonizing “I guess I’ll never be free, since you got your hooks in me” with a candid “You’ve never been so free as when you got hooked on me.” More than a she said, he said rendition, Growden’s rewrite illuminates the story. Franklin’s recording won’t sound the same again. In his version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” where the melody rises, Growden twists it down. He pushes Springsteen’s fever-pitched freight train click-clack into low gear, sinking the emotions. Then, he carves the marrow out of the 1980’s hit with a few deft lyrical changes. “Can he do to you the things that I do?” deepens as “Does he do to you the things I don’t do.” The phrase, “Only you can cool my desire” is cut to leave a hollow haunted by an ingenious wail – the only place in the song where the harmonica sounds.

The arrangements on Lose Me in the Sand move with a deliberately measured tempo, accentuated by two exceptions. Growden’s “John Hardy” runs with frantic desperation when he frees the traditional melody to release the full force of anguish in this tale about a man who runs from the law. “Settle in a Little While,” one of four original songs on the album, skips and stutters with abandon, even as it speaks of commitment. But overall, Lose Me in the Sand moves slowly, and the references to time scattered throughout its lyrics gravitate towards an enduring, steadfast calm. Inspired by prison work songs, Growden’s “Takin’ My Time” takes the grunts and hammers of toiling men and transforms them with boot stomps and a male chorus into the slow ecstasy of love made right. “Killing Time” traces the recent history of Growden’s hometown of Pinetown (aka Oldtown), California and nearby Westwood, where “the pines just sigh, while the wallets run dry.” It chronicles the despair of the times against a majestic backdrop of winging geese and a proud Paul Bunyan. “When I sing this song at home, people cry,” says Growden.

The album’s closing track is a final comment on present times. Growden’s mash up of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” stands as a critique on America’s love affair with materialism. Lest patriots find offense it should be noted that Francis Scott Key borrowed the tune from a popular 18th century British ode to wine and women to create the Star Spangled Banner. Growden’s reinterpretation follows Key’s step. Married to “Molly Rose Waltz,” a tune by two-time National Fancy Fiddle Champion Hyram Posey, it is as sweetly American as Lady Liberty’s apple pie.

Growden’s musical influences are broad. His parents relied on Motown vinyl to rock him to sleep as a baby. Growing up, he sang in his father’s church, played saxophone in elementary, middle and high school bands and discovered death rock and the alternative music scene as a teen. These days Growden listens to contemporary classical and jazz music and Alan Lomax field recordings. But, the underlying quality heard in his music has roots elsewhere. “I grew up with a lot of alone time – in the woods and wilderness – with coyotes, trumpeter swans, geese, deer and antelope,” says Growden. His music moves with a natural flow reminiscent of the patterned hushes in bird trills and blowing winds. Lose Me in the Sand croons, howls, stutters, laughs, and runs, but always around a central stillness. Growden uses music to carve out silences most of us don’t pause to hear.

“My vision is to inspire people,” says Growden. “Making music with people is an incredibly powerful feeling….seeing people open up…. that’s important to me,” Growden says. “Music’s been my best friend. When I’ve been down, it’s a salve. It’s been an amazing blessing in my life. I’m really grateful, and I have to share that with other people. It’s just what I’m here to do.”

DISCOGRAPHY

Mark Growden – Saint Judas Solo (to be released Autumn 2011)

Mark Growden – Lose me in the Sand (to be released February 2011)

Mark Growden - Saint Judas (2010)

Mark Growden - Island of the Gondoliers (soon to be released)

Mark Growden – Blood Tea and Red String (2005)

Mark Growden – Live at the Casbah – San Diego (2004)

Mark Growden - Live at the Odeon (2003)

Mark Growden’s Electric Pinata - Inside Beneath Behind (2001)

Mark Growden - Downstairs Karaoke (1999)

Mark Growden - This Piggy (1997)

Mark Growden - Don’t Wanna Go Back (1996)

COMPILATIONS

Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits – His Words – Our Music (2007)

SF Weekly Music Awards Compilation (2003)

SF Weekly Music Awards Compilation (2002)

Beastfest Compilation (2001)

Wavelength Infinity, A Sun Ra Tribute (1995)

COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

Tock – Tock (1996)

Big Butter - From the Udder (1990)

Big Butter - Step In and Do a Certain Something (1988)

E is for Elephant - Uncle Grapefruit (1988)

AS A GUEST
The Crux – Now Ferment (2009)

Splatter Trio – Splatter Trio + n (2007)

Six Eye Columbia – Frowny Frown (2001)

Six Eye Columbia – A Million Six (2001)

Ray’s Vast Basement – On the Banks of Time (2000)

Steve August – Happiness the Hero (1999)

Lori B – Hurricane Child (1998)

Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet – Sacred Text (1996)

Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) – Baru Bay (1995)

AWARDS

  • Stash Dauber’s 2010 “Rekkid of the Year” for Growden’s album Saint Judas
  • 2009 Arts DEVO Award for Best Live Music Performance
  • 2003 SF Weekly Music Awards nominee for Best Americana/Roots performer
  • 2002 SF Weekly Music Awards nominee for Best Americana/Roots performer
  • 1997 “Isadora Duncan Award” for Best Original Music for a New Dance Piece for work in performing the score for Alonzo King’s Sacred Text
  • Two “Best Song” awards from the Northern California Songwriter’s Association

DIRECTION, MUSIC DIRECTION, COMPOSING

  • COVERT (Co-founder/Co-producer /Artistic Director/Music Director) Site specific performance series in collaboration with John Law, Suicide Club member and founder of the Cacophony Society.  Various locations in San Francisco Bay Area (2009-ongoing)
  • At Play (Composer/Performer/Lyricist) Lizz Roman and dancers.  Dance Mission Theater (2009)
  • Life Among the Institutions (Composer) Nina Galin Performance Group – Commissioned to set Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be.” soliloquy to music.  Main Stage Dance/Theater Festival – U.C. Davis (2009)
  • How to Survive the Apocalypse (Composer/Performer/Vocal Soloist) – Written by Erik Davis.  Stage Werx Theater (2009)
  • The Fire Odyssey (Music Director/Composer) Crucible production of Homer’s Odyssey for the Fire Arts Festival.  Oakland, CA (2007)
  • Dido and Aeneas (Composer/Vocal Soloist/Actor) San Francisco Opera/Crucible production of Purcell’s Opera.  Oakland, CA (2004)
  • The A**hole Monologues (Writer/ Composer/Solo Performer) Performed solo comedic multi-media theater piece The Nasty, in four runs of the Asshole Monologues in New York City (Off Broadway), San Francisco and Los Angeles (2001-2003)
  • Transparent Body (Composer) Joe Goode Performance Group. Irvine Barclay Theater (2001), Cowell Theater SF (2002), Yerba Buena Center (2003)
  • 1,000 Grey Birds (Composer/Performer /Music Director) Directed by Angus Balbernie.  Intersection for the Arts, SF (1999)
  • The Crimes and Confessions of Kip Knutsen (Composer/Performer/Music Director) Written and performed by Deke Weaver.  Intersection for the Arts, SF (1999)
  • Girlfriend (Composer/Performer/Music Director) Written and performed by Deke Weaver. Edge Festival, SF (1997)
  • Spare the Rod (Co-Writer/Composer/ Solo Performer) Directed and co-written by Remy Charlip. Dancer’s Group/Footwork in San Francisco (1996)
  • Sacred Text (Musician/Performer) Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet.  Center for the Arts – Yerba Buena Gardens, SF (1996)
  • Not a Prayer (Music Director/Composer /Performer) Directed by Jess Curtis, Men Dancing XIV, Theater Artaud, SF & New Performance Gallery, SF (1995)
  • Kept (Music Director/Composer/ Performer) Written by Ken Prestininzi.  Directed by Ken Prestininzi and Jess Curtis, Intersection for the Arts, SF (1994)
  • Touch Prayer (Music Director/ Composer/Performer) Wise Fool Puppet Intervention, Dolores Park & Lake Merritt, SF and Oakland (1993-1994)
  • Sex and Gravity (Collaborator/ Composer/Performer) Directed by Jess Curtis, 848 Community Space, SF (1993 & 1995), Improv Festival, NY (1994), Dance Place, Washington, DC (1994), Highways, Santa Monica (1995)
  • Catch (Composer/Performer) Keith Hennessy, Scott Wells and Jim Owen, Men Dancing XII, Theater Artaud (1993)
  • Skatango (Composer/Performer) Wells & Hermesdorff Dance Co., Edge Festival, Dancer’s Group/Footwork, SF (1993), New Performance Gallery, SF (1994)
  • Babel (Music Director/Composer/ Performer) Wise Fool Puppet Intervention, Fillmore Center, SF (1993)

LIVE MUSIC AND THEATER COLLABORATION

  • Growden has collaborated with a wide range of artists in making live art.  He was a primary collaborator in these ensembles: The Deke and Mark Show (twisted storytelling with live accompaniment), Tock (improv ensemble), Xephyr (Orff Schulwerck meets family theater), Ruckus (theater/clown/music ensemble), Zoh (improv/world fusion), and E is for Elephant (art rock).
  • Mark has also performed and collaborated with Hamza el Din, John Law, The San Francisco Opers, Remy Charlip, Stan Ridgeway, John Santos, Omar Sosa, Ralph Carney, Baby Gramps, Kid Congo Powers, Eric McFadden, The Fighting Instruments of Karma Chamber Band/Orchestra, Rube Waddell, Extra Action Marching Band, Faun Fables, Carla Kihlsted, Peter Whitehead, Stephen Kent, Amore-Belhom Duo, Glen Spearman, Myles Boisen, Hiroko and Koichi Tamano, Trance Mission, and Tabla Rasa.

VIDEO/FILM

  • Coyote - Christiane Cegavske (2010)
  • Martyr – Thad Povey (2009)
  • Island of the Gondoliers – Guido Muzzarelli (2009)
  • Welldigger – Phillip Fagan (2007)
  • Blood Tea and Red String – Christiane Cegavske (2007)
  • Elegy for Seven Falling Objects – Thad Povey (2003)
  • Under a Shipwrecked Moon – AnteroAlli (2001)
  • Hysteria – AnteroAlli (2001)
  • Mother – Thad Povey (2000)
  • F**k Boy – Thad Povey (2000)
  • Uncle Fred – Phil Fagan (2000)
  • The Jasper Ridge Preservation Project – Tamzen Orion (1998)
  • Mother – Chad Adair (1995)
  • Fishboy – Chad Adair (1994)
  • Strips of Cloth and Paper – Tamzen Orion (1994)

PRESS QUOTES

  • “Fiery, Earthy and sublimely sensual.” – Comet Magazine
  • “…as though Harry Smith, Kurt Weill, and John Cage had been reincarnated into a single body” – Stash Dauber
  • A sight and sound you don’t want to miss.” – S.F. Bay Guardian
  • “An unusual and voracious talent.” – Williamette Week
  • “Theatrical, dark and sexy.” – West Coast Performer
  • “Mark Growden has to be one California’s most colorful and intriguing musicians … Growden is a genius.” – Albuquerque Alibi
  • “He writes songs that pulse with drama, songs that slide with grace.” – Tucson Weekly
  • “Part singer-songwriter, part bluesman, part avant-gardist, he’s an avatar of bohemian weirdness on a par with Tom Waits or Joe Henry.” – Fort Worth Weekly
  • “Torrid lyricism and fierce accordion rascality.  His live shows are becoming the stuff of legend.” – East Bay Express
  • “Growden’s voice is bigger than a 10-story building, and when he clacks on his cowboy boots on a hollow patch of floor along to some of his tunes, the sound seems to reverberate across the globe.” – Laura Casey, Contra Costa Times

[Photo by Eric Gillet]

© 2011 MARK GROWDEN | rsneight designs