Carolyn Mark

A Brief History

I grew up on a dairy farm in Sicamous, BC with my Austrian father, my English mother and my Canadian brother. My father, an accomplished violinist, taught me how to play the piano when I was very young. He liked nothing better than to play duets with me for any visitors that happened by. Paying no heed to the musical tastes of the times or our guests, my father would perform for his hostages, launching into a favourite Dvorak or Chopin, poking me in the back with his bow if I appeared forgetful, shy or unenthused. Mortified, I longed for giant flames to eat the piano and my father.

I have since developed a more light-hearted relationship with music. My first band was The Vinaigrettes. We started as an all-girl foursome from Victoria and played together, in spite of a dizzying number of line-up changes, for seven years. We toured our pop - surf - punk - art - country - rock asses across Canada several times, but then, after a few years, Brigette, the smart one of the group, consulted an atlas and we started venturing South when we realized that Los Angeles was closer to Victoria than Edmonton - and the swimming was better! The Vinaigrettes recorded six albums, achieving a modest amount of obscurity, and broke up in 1998 due to "nervous indifference" and "creative exhaustion," vowing to "sue the industry for abandonment," and leaving dozens of fans mildly disappointed.

Exhausted and emotionally crushed by the failure of my first band and the ensuing two year bender, I attempted to find solace in the rehearsal spaces of other bands such as: Hat Head, The Fixin's, The Show Business Giants, The Metronome Cowboys, The Corn Sisters (a duo with label-mate Miss Neko Case), Monster Tweety, and Klugman. But eventually, while hiding under the bed at one of our neverending house parties, I decided to use my own name when I played. So far it's been a good idea - I'm not married to any one style of music, I can play solo or with a band depending on the money or my mood, and it's almost impossible for me to break up with myself.

Last year I went across Canada, mostly with my band The Room-mates (yes, they are really) -Garth Johnson (drums), and Tolan McNeil (guitar) - and made a record called Party Girl. We recorded one song in each willing city and encouraged local players to join us. Special guests on the record include: Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo), Don Kerr (Ron Sexsmith, Rheostatics), Brian Connelly (Shadowy Men...), Ford Pier, Ian Blurton (Change of Heart), The Molestics, Dottie Cormier (Heartbreak Hill), Ray Condo, Tom Stewart (Furnaceface), Sarah Harmer (Weeping Tile), Oh Susanna, and Rick and Tara White (Elevator Through) to name a few.

So now Mint Records is "putting out" Party Girl and I am grateful and excited. Those curious about my "sound" will just have to listen to the record I guess. If you are a newspaper sort who doesn't know what to say, I've never had a problem with the words "lovely and talented." Well, it's Sunday night and I'm off to the Hootenanny. I play at The Old Bailey every Sunday at 9:30pm here in Victoria. Thank-you and goodnight.

Influences, you say? Jr. Gone Wild, Jerry Jerry, Young Fresh Fellows, The Show Business Giants, Lucinda Williams, Wanda Jackson, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Gordon Lightfoot, Luann Kowalek, Loudon Wainright III, Dan Bern, Patsy Cline, Lucky Ron, both Elvises, Johnny Cash, Astor Piazzola, Skeeter Davis, Nick Lowe, Peggy Lee, Merle Haggard....

Canadian alt-country singer/songwriter Carolyn Mark was born and raised in Sicamous, British Columbia, growing up on her family's dairy farm. Taught piano by her father, himself an accomplished violinist, in 1991 she surfaced as a member of the Victoria, B.C.-based all-girl rock combo the Vinaigrettes, touring Canada and the western U.S. relentlessly over the next seven years. After the group's 1998 dissolution, Mark formed the Corn Sisters, a duo with fellow insurgent country diva Neko Case -- a Seattle live performance later constituted their 2000 debut, The Other Women. Mark also mounted a solo career, backed by guitarist Tolan McNeil and drummer Garth Johnson (her real-life housemates, hence their professional moniker the Room-Mates), and after signing to the Mint label, she again hit the road -- her 2000 solo debut, Party Girl, assembled 11 songs cut across Canada, at least one from each province. Mark's long-standing fascination with the classic Robert Altman film Nashville led to the 2002 release of an all-star tribute to the movie's soundtrack, with contributions from Case, Kelly Hogan, the New Pornographers' Carl Newman, and other stalwarts of the Canadian indie scene; her sophomore solo effort, the excellent Terrible Hostess, followed that summer. Artists such as Kelly Hogan, Pepper Sands' Greg MacDonald, Diona Davies of Po' Girl, and Paul Rigby joined Mark for her fourth album, 2004's The Pros and Cons of Collaboration. Mark didn't slow down, issuing Just Married: An Album of Duets in June 2005. In 2007 she released Nothing Is Free. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide