Mark Lavengood

A chat with the super talented guitarist and songwriter Mark Lavengood as well as fans Steve, Jacob, and Rick. We talk about how the fans discovered Mark Lavengood. Our stories ramble into how Mark has been making the best of the pandemic and his new studio. We get into Mark’s soundtrack to life and leap into playing the dobro. We wrap things up with our dream show venue and who we want to see there. Along the way, we share many laughs.

Becoming a fan of Mark Lavengood

We kicked off our chat by exploring how the fans became fans of Mark Lavengood. Steve became a fan through his work on the tech crew at the Ark. He had the pleasure of working during several performances by Mark.. The first time was during the Erin Zindle (Ebird & Friends) holiday show when Mark was with Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys. Steve fell in love with Mark’s playing and energy on stage. He’s been a fan ever since.

Jacob became a fan of Mark’s when he saw him at a Rob Reiderr basement show when Mark was playing with Lindsay Lou. Jacob continued with a happy accident ordering Mark Lavengood’s No Part of Nothin album thinking he was getting a Lindsay Lou album. Despite the initial surprise when spinning the disc, Jacob loved the album and looks forward to more from Mark Lavengood.

Rick became a fan through me (Chuck). He went to a show at the Chelsea Alehouse for one of their Wednesday night bluegrass sessions where Mark was jamming with Jason Dennie of Thunderwude. After seeing Mark live, he became an instant fan.

Handling the Pandemic

The pandemic has been a bit of a forced sabbatical for Mark. He is keeping busy by working on his new house in Coral, Michigan which is about 30 minutes north of Grand Rapids. Mark is also doing live streams, some outdoor socially distanced shows, and working on his new studio.

Mark’s children have been helping him out around the house. They are enjoying making music with Dad. Check out the videos on Mark’s Facebook page for a taste of the fun.

Home Studio

Mark is jazzed to get his new studio up and running. He has converted the detached garage on his property into a studio with a control room, isolation booth, and live room. While there are some tweaks to be made, the work is nearly complete. In fact, Mark used the new studio to lay down some guest tracks on the new Desmond Jones album

I asked if the new studio is an extension of his Bear Mark Productions. Mark relayed that Bear Mark is more about booking and promotion currently. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, this aspect of his livelihood is on hold until we get live music rolling again (hopefully later in 2021).

Working From Home

Being able to spend more time at home allows Mark to focus not only on family, but on dialing in his playing and his overall performance. It is difficult to get others together to jam, but this opportunity to work on recording and songwriting makes the downtime from the road rewarding.

One new goal is writing a new song a week and using that as another avenue to keep his fans on Patreon engaged. Ultimately, Mark would like to expand the studio to record other artists on a variety of projects.

Jacob was curious what Mark is using to record in the studio. Mark mentioned that currently he is recording via Logic into his iMac. Mark is in the process of picking up a Universal Audio Apollo recording interface which will provide an array of plug-ins to expand the versatility of his studio.

Getting into the Dobro

Steve was interested in how Mark got into playing the dobro. Mark started out in middle school and the first year of high school band. However, at the time, being a wrestler was his focus. Mark got back into music playing drums. A friend asked him to jam in his senior year in a band called Frisco Denaro.

Mark’s first serious band started out with some friends playing together on acoustic guitars. He met up with Bed Fidler to create music for winter/sessions. In that band, Ben offered Mark his resonator guitar and he fell in love with the instrument. The band morphed into the self proclaimed  “Rebels of Folk Grass”. Mark then got into the slide playing of Joe Wilson and Drew Howard. Mark did a great tour with Joe and Drew called Dobros Heal The World.

Steve asked if Mark still has his Mule. He does, although he may need to sell it to make ends meet. A reminder to all our music fans that artists are hurting due to the pandemic. If you can buy music and merchandise during this tough time, it will go a long way to helping out.

Mark’s Soundtrack to Life

Earlier, Mark mentioned the term “folk-grass” to describe the blending of genres that he started in winter/sessions. This hybrid of Americana continued with Lindsay Lou and ultimately within his solo work. Rick really dug that term and was curious how Mark got interested in the variety of music he enjoys and performs.

Throughout Mark’s life, the soundtrack to his life has evolved. This soundtrack includes a variety of sounds from Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin to Bruce Springsteen. Mark’s first CD was a single by Snoop Dog “It’s a Doggy Dog World” which got him into west coast rap along with artists Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Growing up, Mark’s brother played drums which influenced him to start off with drums. In addition, Mark’s dad is a guitar player and classic rock connoisseur. While there were guitars in the house, Mark didn’t tackle the instrument until he was a senior in high school. This would be the time he started playing with his buddy Ben (which eventually led to winter/sessions). It was during this time frame that Mark got into folk, bluegrass and bands like The Grateful Dead and Bela Fleck.

The current soundtrack to Mark’s world when he isn’t making his own, is in Spanish. He is a big fan of Andres Calamaro. Mark feels his songwriting is impeccable. 

Favorite Tunings

Jacob was curious about what tunings Mark uses, hoping the question wasn’t too nerdy. Mark confirmed it was definitely nerdy, but given that most of us on this episode of Fans With Bands are guitar nerds, it’s all good.

The dobro is tuned to open G (GBDGBD). However, Mark likes Open D or capo to an Open E to spice things up. On his 8 string slides Mark uses a C6 tuning. Hit up Mark for a full guitar lesson if you want to dive more into tunings.

Drop Everything Artist

Steve wanted to know if there was a particular artist or group that Mark would drop everything to jam with. Mark laughed saying there are so many. At the top of the list is Billy Strings. Having had the opportunity to see Mark open up for Billy Strings and join him on stage, I can attest to this being a musical moment to savor.

Mark would love to collaborate with artists in South and Central America given his love for the music from the region. In the course of our conversation, Mark shared that he has tons of ideas and is working pulling them together with an artist from Uruguay.

Dream Show Wrap Up

To wrap-up our chat with Mark Lavengood, I asked everyone where they would love to go see (or play a show) and who they would see. Mark would be down with seeing and opening for Tedeschi Trucks at Red Rocks in Colorado. Jacob would love to be attending and performing at the Wheatland Music Festival in Michigan.

Mark stole Steve’s idea of Red Rocks, so Steve shifted to The Caverns in Tennessee to see a show by Ariel Posen with Joey Landreth. Rick would love to check out a show at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville perhaps with Jason Isbell. For my part, I’d love to see Mark and Sturgill Simpson jam in my living room. In all seriousness Sturgill, if you need a mandolin or dobro player on your next tour, call up our friend Mark Lavengood.

Dig into the stories, laughs, and much more in this episode of Fans With Bands with Mark Lavengood. We hope you enjoy it! 

 

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