Mark Lennon is a roots singer / songwriter originally from North Carolina now transplanted to the West Coast he lives in LA where he plays and records with his band Jacob Morgan, Jerry Zacarias, Yoehi Shikano, Mike Russeck and Dean Vivirito along with a “talented bunch” of friends producing songs of “lost love, reflection, family and longing for the south”, one of Mark’s talented friends is Simone Stevens who add’s her gorgeous vocal to Wildside, one of the albums best tracks – brass, piano and guitar combine on a fragile but crafted duet featuring some lovely harmonies, Mark is no slouch himself when it comes to vocals – there’s a palpable yearning in his voice as he sings “My Hometown” another highlight from the album.
Mark sites a whole host of influences on his MySpace page and you can hear a variety of these permeating his own music, the album has a wonderfully relaxed California feel to it and I particularly liked the guitar / keyboard / pedal steel combo as they play of each other on What I Could Be With You, my personal favourite from the record, my only criticism is the albums brevity at seven tracks and a little just shy of 28 minutes it’s all over too quickly – but hey you can always play it again.
This is Lennon’s third CD and on the strength of this album I will be checking his back catalogue out, you can buy the CD or download the album from CDBaby and listen to more of Mark’s work at his website or MySpace
http://beat-surrender.blogspot.com/2009/10/mark-lennon-down-mountain.html
