ABOUT
THE BAND:
With the release of Brand New Old
Tyme Way in 1995, Mark Schatz surprised the music community
with a traditionally innovative sound: flawless clawhammer banjo
playing, new melodies with the heart and soul of the old tunes,
and a groove that blends the swing of an old time string band with
the drive and precision of contemporary bluegrass.
To his music Mark brings a wealth of experience. Both a Frets and
IBMA award winning upright bass player, he has toured and recorded
with the best of bluegrass and new acoustic music including Tony
Rice, Bela Fleck, Tim O'Brien, John Hartford, and currently with
Nickel Creek. He has served as Musical Director for the internationally
acclaimed Footworks
Percussive Dance Ensemble since 1993, and has produced a number
of projects that range from bluegrass to celtic fusion.
Mark has continued to write new material, and in August of 2000
he called on three superb musicians to join him to play to a sold
out house for the Acoustic Stage Concert Series in Hickory, North
Carolina.
The Schatz & Friends
team for Steppin' in the Boilerhouse & more: Mark, Missy Raines,
Jim Hurst & Casey Driessen.
The response of the North Carolina audience
was overwhelming as this ensemble wove a Vaudevillian spell of reels,
waltzes, songs old and new, the swing and humor of Schatz's hamboning
(body percussion), and the free spirited joy of his southern Appalachian
clogging.
Since then the group has performed at the RockyGrass festival in
Colorado, the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, and at the IBMA
Fanfest in Louisville about which Chicago Tribune writer David Royko
reported that " Nothing at this year's festival was more exciting
than 'Mark Schatz and Friends' [who] perfectly represented bluegrass
music's past and future. Schatz's interests and experience, which
include jazz and new acoustic music, lend his composing a range
and depth that allows him to meld the old and the new in a completely
natural and unique manner."
Mark Schatz & Friends are represented
by Maria Camillo Booking (see Contact info on this site).
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