Mark was raised in Toledo, Ohio, by parents who fled the post-war poverty of Eastern Kentucky’s coal country along the very same Hillbilly Highway made famous in Dwight Yoakam’s song “Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23.” Mark took up the banjo in high school and was an eager student of the many great transplanted pickers who made up the vibrant Toledo bluegrass community.
Following college, Mark headed to New York City and, as a member of roots rock pioneers The Blue Chieftains (Diesel Only Records), quickly became a fixture on the Lower East Side’s burgeoning alt-country scene.
Mark is best known as the longtime drummer for Americana favorites The Derailers. Less well known is that at many of their more than 250 shows per year, The Derailers served as their own opening act, The Lazy Boys, with Mark on banjo.
In 2007, while on tour with The Garbonzos, Mark spread the gospel of the 5-string as far as Isisaki City, Japan. His innovative banjo stylings can also be heard on Lonesome Bob’s record Things Fall Apart, on the tribute album I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow, and in regular performances of his comedy duo, the Mark & Mike Show.
Professor Smartypants was born when Mark began performing some of these songs on kids’ programs at places such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Public Library. “My daughter is two, and my wife says I act like a two-year-old, so I guess it comes pretty naturally,” grins Mark. “I just wanted this to be a record you could feel good about putting on and dancing around to in the living room with your babies.”
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