FREE MP3s
Saint Judas
Inside Every Bird
PRESS IMAGES
PRESS BIO
Recurring themes in Mark Growden’s intensely personal new album Saint Judas 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 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.”
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.
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
LIST BIO
DISCOGRAPHY
- Mark Growden Sextet – Saint Judas (2010)
- Mark Growden – Island of the Gondoliers (soon to be released)
- Mark Growden – Blood Tea and Red String (2005)
- Mark Growden – Live as the Casbah – San Diego (2004)
- Mark Growden – Live at the Odeon (2003)
- Mark Growden’s Electric Piñata – Inside Beneath Behind (2001)
- Mark Growden – Inside Karaoke (1999)
- 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)
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 Wier (Grateful Dead) – Baru Bay (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)
AWARDS
- 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, 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
- 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)
