Mark at the 2009 La Honda Fair
by craig eddy
Talk about a wild musical life. Well, we had better start at the beginning. Mark, born and raised in the Ukiah area of Northern California, started playing guitar at the age of 16. He says he is ashamed to admit it but like myself he learned to play guitar from a John Denver songbook. One day he drove all the way to Leo's in San Francisco and bought a left handed Fender Stratocaster. Replacing John Denver at this time were the likes of Hendrix and Clapton. After several years playing guitar he picked up the mandolin just for something different. He was most impressed by the way David Grisman played. As many musicians these days, Mark has a wide spectum of styles he likes to play. He started mostly with blues-rock with his first band the Cheap Blues Review. The first time I saw Mark perform it was with his wife Monica in the awesome duo Mark and Monica. Once Mark started working at the San Mateo Outdoor Education program he met several other naturalists that liked to play music. They never really planned to be a professional band but things seemd to click. Their director funded their first of many albums and 26 years later the Bananna Slug String Band is still one of the foremost children's bands in the world. Mark finds it completely rewarding to know that the Slugs are playing for kids of kids of fans from a quarter century ago. Mark quoting Jeff Ring says "The Bananna Slug String Band is the best band to come out of La Honda since the Grateful Dead." When asked to think back to some memorable gigs he pauses and says "there are so many great ones." I had the pleasure of touring along with the Slugs twice. It's obvious to me, these guys are just as zany and full of life offstage as on. These days Mark claims the high point of his musical life is the music scene around town. Mark is a regular at some of the local jam sessions. Let's hope the Slugs play La Honda again sometime soon.
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