You won't hear any Brubeck, Broadway, Bacharach here, but that's where my musical roots are: back in the day.

My father's reel-to-reel, Hi-Fi "separates" and three-way speakers. Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross; Sammy Davis Jr. and Sinatra; The Beatles and Creedance.

Me, at 10-years with a cheap student GSO (Guitar shaped object) learning scales, and bored out of my mind with those; making the choice to play to midget football instead of following music (if I'd have only known I'd never top 160 lbs., I'd have stayed with guitar).

Later I'd roll with Jagger and Clapton and Chicago, and ELP; The Who and Edgar Winter and Floyd and Steely Dan.

In High School I'd take up guitar again on a dare (that I'd never be any good at it) and soon I'd start composing and covering. I'd discover finger-style and emulate Fogelberg and Lightfoot and James Taylor...I'd incorporate bits of Neil Young, and experiment with Steven Stills and Joni Mitchell guitar tunings... I'd discover Pierre Bensusan and Michael Hedges.

And now?

Folks hear all sorts of things in my music. One listener wrote that it is "full of soul." No, not R&B soul (though I had plenty of that growing up, too), but introspective, look deeply at something, and tell about it kind of soul.

Another listener compared a song of mine to Nick Drake...and asked if I could write more like it. Still another called me a "modern day Gordon Lightfoot," and yet another compared one of my "harder" compositions to an "...Off-Broadway Lenny Kay Nugget."

If that sounds confusing, here's a thread that runs through everything: authenticity. If it doesn't have heart, it's hard for me to do it. Heart is how I picked the folks that moved me to write music, and that's how I pick the music (and lyrics) that I write now. Sure, you may like it, but I have to...even the failed experiments...perhaps especially the failed experiments.

Learning from these last will help me hone what I do, so that I am writing more of what I want to write, and writing more of what you to hear.

Kind Regards,

Mark Petruzzi