Featured Song
Mark Dix
Mark Dix began writing and performing acoustic music in the seventies while in graduate school in Ithaca, New York. Later, he studied classical guitar at New England Conservatory and Hartt College of Music, and performed original solo acoustic guitar pieces at Boston area coffee houses.
In the late seventies Mark played regularly at Club Passim in Cambridge, opening for guitar legends John Fahey, Pierre Bensusan, and Chris Smither, poet Allen Ginsberg and others. After dipping out of sight in the mid-eighties to raise a family, Mark reappeared as rhythm guitarist and songwriter for the popular local band Whose Muddy Shoes. The band has played in a great variety of venues, from Club Passim to the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, and opened for the Charlie Daniels Band at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts. The band is currently in its 15th year of performing monthly at Chianti Cafe Jazz Club in Beverly.
While maintaining a steady presence as a band member, Mark has also been a favorite at area open mics as a soloist. With a growing reputation for consistently fine lyric writing and evocative melodies, his music covers a wide range of styles from high energy band numbers, to old-timey waltzes and ballads.
This Old Song, Mark's CD released in September 2001, was produced by Seth Connelly and features exquisite pedal steel playing by Leo Egan, haunting fiddle tracks by Hanneke Cassel, and the rich three and four part harmony singing of Whose Muddy Shoes, along with Mark's own authoritative acoustic guitar and vocals. Selections include the bittersweet Appalachian style lament Beside Me No More, the hypnotic solo guitar composition Sounds Like Rain, the tongue in cheek and funky Right to Sing the Blues, the anthemic folk-rock ballad Resting Place, and the title song, which evokes a country dance hall.
Additional Notes
Mark Dix is co-author, with Paul Riley, of Discovering AutoCAD, a series of computer-aided design textbooks in continuous publication by Pearson since 1987.