Devachan Music - Mark Simos

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What's New? - Cliffhangers and Clifftop Notes CDs!!

Mark Simos

Songwriter — Tunesmith— Guitar and piano accompanist

Old time fiddler — Modal philosopher

What's On This Site?

What is Devachan Music?

History of this Site

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12/13/06

Just in time for Xmas! Cliffhangers and Clifftop Notes CDs finally available!

Yes, by combining the blinding production speed of Planet Simos* ... with the infinite practicality of producer Bob Carlin and Tim Brown's 5-String Productions, we are proud to announce two brand-new albums of old-time music old and new, celebrating the music and friendship of the Appalachian String Band Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia. The first two of a trilogy recorded at Tim Brown's 5-String Productions in Oct 2005. Featuring great old-time musicians, friends from the Clifftop campground! Buy them today at CDBaby, in time for the holidays!

(* Race the River Jordan, recorded 1993, released 1995; Crazy Faith, recorded 1999, released 2003... We're getting better!)

Champion fiddler Mark Simos leads a great, full-steam ahead "campground" string band of friends from the Clifftop Festival in traditional old-time fiddle tunes, ranging from familiar jam and dance tunes to the obscure and archaic.

Champion fiddler and tunesmith Mark Simos leads old-time stringband the Cliffhangers and other Clifftop Festival friends in original old-time fiddle tunes (composed by Mark at Clifftop), played in the improvisational "campground" style.

And don't forget my other albums - if you've enjoyed them, wouldn't this be a nice time to order one for a gift?

MARK SIMOS: Crazy Faith

Long-anticipated release from premiere neo-traditionalist songwriter Mark Simos (songs recorded by Alison Krauss, Del McCoury, Laurie Lewis and others); a stunning collection of songs Alice Gerrard calls "personal... universal... and unafraid."

MARK SIMOS: Race the River Jordan

The classic collection of interesting original old-time style fiddle tunes, performed in a good, hard-driving way that play both in and with the structure of traditional Southern fiddle music. A coherent suite of tunes, cinematically evoking varied moods and places.

What's on this Site?

On this site you'll find discographies of my own recordings as well as other artists' covers of my songs and tunes, along with hot news, upcoming performances and extra goodies such as:

Descriptions of classes and workshops Mark is offering (many of them through the Passim School of Music);
A House Concert room with information about the Anchor East House Concert Occasionals put on by myself and my wife Pam;
News about the New Timely Musicalia series we've got going at the local Club Passim;
Archives of excerpts from Mark's extensive teaching materials in the Community Room, along with assorted essays, raves, and musings about subjects musical and otherwise, including traditional music, songwriting, tunesmithery, and accompaniment of traditional music;
Links to some of our favorite musical fellow travellers and to other web sites of interest.

Devachan Music is the name of my publishing company. Though I love all aspects of music ~ such as performing, accompanying great traditional musicians, studio work, and playing for dancers ~ songwriting, composing and 'tunesmithery' are the heart of my musical life at present. Devachan Music is my catalogue of songs, fiddle tunes, waltzes, and other instrumentals ~ spanning varied styles, many strongly rooted in traditional sources such as Celtic, old-time American and bluegrass music.

For an answer to a most frequently asked question, click below:

History and State of this Site

Originally put together by the talented Kyra Lucas ... then re-organized and maintained for some time by the conscientious and entrepreneurial Gar Ragland of Riparius Records, now an organizer of the great New Songs Festival (in its second year). Please forgive the current state of this crude '2nd generation' website; at present I'm managing the whole grab bag myself!

If you've visited in the past, you'll find that even familiar page titles will include greatly revised content. Come back to visit us soon and often—we are growing fast!

I have a lot of written material on this site that I intend to someday do something (more) with. Please respect the Devachan approach to data rights and information sharing.