Devachan Music - Mark Simos

Produced by Bruce Molsky. Mark Simos, on vocals, guitar and fiddle, with: Brian Melick, Bruce Molsky, Tom Rozum, Ronnie Simpkins, Sally Van Meter, and guest musicians Casey Driessen, Jim Guttmann, Rose Sinclair and Zoux. Includes 16-page lyric booklet. Click here for sound clips

After many years of having other artists record his songs, Mark has finally completed Crazy Faith (Devachan Music DEV-CD4347), an album featuring a set of songs that take his writing to a deeper and more intense level.

Songwriter, tunesmith, old time fiddler and Celtic accompanist Mark Simos has been one of the traditional music scene's best-kept secrets—until now. Mark is probably most widely known for his four songs to date recorded by Americana supergroup Alison Krauss and Union Station (two from this album while still unreleased). "Crazy Faith" is the long-anticipated album featuring Mark's own renditions of a selection of his songs, a song cycle exploring "the work of love." Produced by master old time fiddler Bruce Molsky, the album's distinctive sound is built around Mark's crystalline guitar playing, backed by an ensemble of some great players from the world of old time, bluegrass, and progressive acoustic music. "Crazy Faith" shows why Mark's songs have become favorites of artists such as AKUS, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, the Del McCoury Band, the Wayfaring Strangers and many others.

While teaching a workshop on songwriting at the New England Conservatory in Fall '98, Mark set his students an assignment he soon realized was meant for himself: to write a "song cycle" capturing a series of distinct moments in the biography of one relationship-a sequence of "snapshots" that would reflect archetypal situations through the cross-currents and subtle shadings of emotion and history that make each person's experience as unique as a fingerprint. In Crazy Faith he has created a set of songs which stand on their own, yet also work as a thematic whole, collectively exploring the "work of love"-the transformation of romantic love, and even heartbreak, into a journey toward the mysteries of one's own heart.

The music is both accessible and challenging, with a superb cast of supporting musicians from the bluegrass and old time music communities, including Bruce Molsky (who produced the album) on fiddle, Tom Rozum on mandolin and harmony vocals, Sally van Meter on dobro and Weissenborn, and Ronnie Simpkins on string bass.

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[MARK'S FULL DISCOGRAPHY]

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