Someone asked whether Mark toured, and if so, what he was like live.
YES. Mark toured. He did some great shows over the years. I saw him in concert probably 4 times between 79 and 85. Then as I got to know him personally beginning in about 1985 I myself produced three more concerts for him in the northeast in 86, 87 and 90. I saw him with Phil Keaggy, with Randy Stonehill, and at one of those all day outdoor music fests. Once I saw him with a full band (probably the VICTIMS OF THE AGE tour when he was with Randy Stonehill) and the rest of his dates were solo (just him and guitar). He was amazingly funny in concert (he was really brilliant) but in such a dry profound intellectual way that I gathered about 1/2 the audience missed about 1/2 his jokes. My brother remembered a post-concert discussion with somebody who was asking "I don't understand his music. Why is he singing about policemen dancing around at a ball?"
I had a couple dinners with Mark before/after various shows. I was under the impression that he really didn't like performing--or rather travelling was what he didn't like because he hated to be away from his family. My favorite story was of the last time I saw him in person before his 1990 show when I brought him to Vermont. He had a concert scheduled for two nights before at a reservation in northern Quebec. Except there was a town in Quebec by the same name as the reservation only about 5 hours SOUTH. So after flying into Montreal (or Quebec City) he arrives in town about 4pm for his 7pm show, drives around for an hour and realizes he can't find the place and furthermore his directions are making absolutely no sense. So he calls the guy who set it up to find out he has 5 more hours to drive. He arrived at 12pm for his show. But since it was a reservation, everybody was still there. He did the show at 8am the next morning. Then drove back to the airport and flew to Vermont ONLY TO HAVE CUSTOMS CONFISCATE HIS GUITAR which followed him around 1 day behind for the next three nights of his tour before it caught up with him. The only thrill for me was that meant he borrowed my guitar for about 1/2 of his songs (I left on the strings for about a year after that hoping something would rub off on me) and for the other songs used the guitar of Brooks Williams who had opened for him.
[Someone asked about Mark's being slated for a Bruce Cockburn / Sam Phillips tour and cancelling. -ed] He was scheduled to start the tour, be one of the opening acts solo and also play guitar for Sam. But then his dad died. I was really disappointed because one of the dates was Burlington Vermont and I had been planning on meeting him there.
Kate Miner has also shared with me some great concert stories about Mark.
Copyright 1997 Miles O'Neal, Austin, TX. All rights reserved.
Photo Copyright 1992 by ?. All
rights reserved. Used with permission.
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