thinking man’s honky-tonk
Mark LeGrand has been playing music in Vermont since 1967. Moving as a youngster from the coast of Connecticut at age fourteen Mark says was "like moving into a Norman Rockwell painting." Maybe it seemed that way because he moved to West Arlington, Vermont, where the famous painter lived and many of the townspeople were the subjects of his paintings. Mark carried around an old acoustic guitar and had a head filled with New York City radio waves and a heart filled with homesickness.. A school friend turned him onto Hank Williams via a 78 rpm crank up Victrola at a deer camp and Mark was never the same again. He already had The Lovesick Blues, and now he knew what they sounded like. Mark was in the first electric band in West Arlington and when they played outside on warm summer nights all the cows must have loved it.
More than 40 yrs have passed since that wandering boy roamed the fields, streams, Grange Halls and Honky-Tonks of a very different Vermont. A Vermont that was transcending into a more modern era. Interstate highways and big ski area were on the way, as the small farms that dotted the hillsides were vanishing. Yet many people still value the old ways and work hard to maintain them. New, small organic farms and markets, land set aside for future generations and folks coming together to preserve stronger communities are setting the stage for a new era. This is more than a place, it's a way of life. It's here that Mark chooses to live, write and perform. The people and the landscape are the raw material for his songs. Old or new, rich or poor, Vermont is a magical kingdom to dream in.
Mark's next performance:
Mark LeGrand and his Lovesick Band
Friday, September 12, 6-8
Langdon Street Happy Hour
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