Markology

[jaco]

Recorded in 1979 by a 16 year old Mark O'Conner as his first acoustic guitar album. Mandolin with Dawg and Sam Bush, backup guitar with Tony Rice and Dan Crary. Mitch Corbin turned me on to this recording. Scary, he doesn't even open the fiddle case. Amazing musicianship.

[AlanN]

Oh yes, simply great. Sam's break on Berserkley is fantastic. John M. tabbed that out for me 21 years ago, still don't have it down <g>.

[fishdawg40]

I heard Picking in the Wind from this album on Pandora radio. I was floored. I was really listening and I couldn't believe it. That man is something. Thanks for bringing up what album it was from. Maybe I'll go out and get it.

[mandopete]

I think we have this at the radio station. I'm gonna have to dig this one up!

If I find it I'll air it on Sunday (hint, hint, cough, pledge drive, nudge, nudge).

[Pete Martin]

Mark played guitar quite a few years before he picked up the fiddle. A friend who knew him well told me Mark rarely practiced his fiddle after the first few years, preferring to play guitar around the house and for writing tunes.

Mark is the most fluid guitar player, any style, I've ever seen up close (and I've seen a LOT of players over the years).

[mandopete]

"If it sounds wrong, it is... or it is Jazz"

L.O.L. - Man!

[ntbols]

This is a great album... I've heard that Mark doesn't play guitar anymore due to a lingering elbow problem. Is there any truth to this?

[Greg H.]

This is a great album... I've heard that Mark doesn't play guitar anymore due to a lingering elbow problem. Is there any truth to this?

Yes, I believe he's pretty much given up both guitar and mandolin at this point (unless someone has newer information to the contrary).

[mandozilla]

Is "Markology" the title of the album in question? I gotta have this recording.
BTW, in 1974 I was at Weiser and the O'Connors were camped right next door. I guess he was 10 years old at the time. His abilities on the fiddle were amazing even then. Got to do some heavy jamming with his bunch and mine. He is gifted no doubt about it. :grin:

My then future wife, and George Hickman (younger brother of John Hickman, B**jo man extrodinaire), and myself drove from southern California to Weiser Idaho in a 1966 VW BEETLE! with my guitar and George's bass fiddle...INSIDE! And we had to push start it every time we stopped on the way up and back to boot....Talk about BG freaks! :))

:mandosmiley:

[Greg H.]

BTW, in 1974 I was at Weiser and the O'Connors were camped right next door. I guess he was 10 years old at the time. His abilities on the fiddle were amazing even then.
:mandosmiley:

He would have been 13 at that point. . . .I only know this because I was competing at Winfield in '75 and we all got our butts whipped by this 14 year old.

[Ted Eschliman]

A little later in life, but still a young pup:

http://jazzmando.com/images/PG1982.jpg

1981 Buck White International Mandolin Championship winner Mark O'Connor (left), also a youthful Paul Glasse 1982 winner (middle), and 1980 winner Bobby Clark (right).

[blawson]

There's a great photo of Mark et al. campside (as I recall) in the Telluride article of the Winter '08 issue of Fretboard Journal.

[Shelby Eicher]

Mark is being inducted in the National Fiddler Hall Of Fame this year. Here's the scoop.
Where: TCC PACE - Van Trease Performing Arts Center for Education / 81st St. & Hwy. 169, Tulsa


2009 Inductees: Vassar Clements, Layna Hafer, Johnnie Lee Wills, Mark O'Connor.


Gala Performers: Mark O'Connor, Jana Jae, John T. Wills, Shelby Eicher, Rick Morton, Byron Berline, Greg Burgess, Emma Jane Pendleton, Marina Pendleton, Eric Dysart, Jake Duncan and more TBA.


Tickets:[URL="http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=2762&pid=6475984"] or call 595-7777.

[doc holiday]

Markology is a great album. My favorite though is the LP "Pickin in the Wind" with Norman Blake on mando. Still not available on CD. It is one of my favorite collections of music. ....even has John Hartford singing on one song.
I like the looser feel of the early version of "Pickin' in the wind." Tim O'Brien's tune "Kit's Waltz" is also a favorite off the Markology album
:)

[mandopete]

Markology is a great album. My favorite though is the LP "Pickin in the Wind" with Norman Blake on mando. Still not available on CD. It is one of my favorite collections of music. ....even has John Hartford singing on one song.
I like the looser feel of the early version of "Pickin' in the wind." Tim O'Brien's tune "Kit's Waltz" is also a favorite off the Markology album
:)

Hey I just checked my notes from the station and we have that one too!

I also just picked up a recording of the Strength In Numbers performance from The Strawberry Festival in 1991.

[Stephanie Reiser]

Yes, I believe he's pretty much given up both guitar and mandolin at this point (unless someone has newer information to the contrary).

Mark gave up both mandolin and guitar in the mid-90's due to persistent bursitis that affected his ability to flat pick, although he still has guitars and mandolins in his NYC apartment.

[AlanN]

I like the looser feel of the early version of "Pickin' in the wind."

Yep, the lovely and talented Sam Bush is on the early version.

[Marcus CA]

If you want to hear an amazing O'Connor piece, listen to "An empty all/Into the walls of mandoness," which ends his False Dawn album from 1983. This is entirely a one-man show, thanks to overdubbing. On the first segment, he creates a church organ by playing violins, viola, and cello, and then shifts to a mando string quartet line-up for the second segment. It would be amazing enough if done by an ensemble of four, but it's jawdropping to think that it was written, arranged, and played entirely by one guy in his early 20's.