Mark Brine
| Shows at the Purple Fiddle |
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“Mark Brine is an interesting artist. I would describe his music as very traditional in a Jimmie Rodgers style, in fact if Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams were cloned into one artist I would have to say that Brine is it! His music is clever and really hits that old timey Country bones a lot of us have that tend to stay hidden until we get a treat like this CD.” – excerpt from an AMERICANA GAZZETTE Review (Feb./March 2013 issue) of ‘Mark Brine and his FOLKABILLY BLUEZGRASS’ CD.
Mark Brine may not be a well-known name in the Nashville circuits, and it’s pretty unlikely anyone will ever hear his music on corporate “country” radio stations. That’s okay, though. People who are looking for the over-produced commercial country aren’t going to be drawn to the highly eccentric sound of Mark Brine. His music is pure, rootsy and brimming with an emotion that would have made him seem right at home with the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers; yet his modern approach to that old sound tells us only how well it ages. In fact, the homely quality of Brine’s voice is as timeless as the rough-edged voices of other impossible-to-categorize artists such as John Prine or John Hiatt. It touches the soul through the impact of the thought which went into the lyrics, direct and to-the-point.
Brine was making folk music in New England in the 60s, a music which itself had fragmented from old-time mountain music. These days they call it all Americana. In the 70s, he moved to Nashville to take in some traditional country of the sort he already loved, but unfortunately, he got there too late. By that time the commercialization of “Golden Age Nashville” Countrypolitan was demanding a different sound, and Brine was already “too country” in a time when that phrase hadn’t even been thought of. He wasn’t out to be an “outlaw,” so he wasn’t one of the outlaws; nor was he a California honky-tonker, so Bakersfield wasn’t his destination, and neither of those neo-traditionalist movements attracted him. Instead, he continued forward with his own unique yet thoroughly traditional sound, and probably helped shape the Americana genre by releasing “Return to Americana” in 1985, a time when today’s current Americana artists were still being called “country” or “blues” artists (if, indeed, they were recording yet!).
It was that keeping true to his sound which brought Brine to the attention of Hank Snow, who was so impressed with the 1992 single, “New Blue Yodel,” he invited Mark to appear on the Grand Old Opry. That old-time style of Opry, when Acuff and Minnie Pearl were still around, was exactly where Mark Brine belonged. Unfortunately, the Opry was going to change as much as country music itself in very short order, and what should have led to some much-deserved recognition simply vanished under the enforced pop sounds and slick productions that characterized “country” music throughout the nineties. But none of that has kept Brine from recording the music he does best. Consistently writing and performing old-time country with his timeless folksy sound.
Plain and simple music may never come into “style.” But it will always have an audience that appreciates it. Mark Brine is possessed of the genius required to speak for the ordinary everyman. His music speaks both to and for anyone who yearns for love, who hurts for strangers, and who wishes on stars.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
• Staff writer and roster artist for two Nashville record labels & one New York City Label.
• Winner of the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Contest, Meridian, MS (1979)
• Opening act at the legendary World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville for six years
• Appeared on Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree with Roy Acuff and the Smokey Mountain Boys (1980)
• Appeared on PBS “SONG OF THE MOUNTAINS” TV show (2016)
• Two preliminary Grammy nominations for Best Male Country Vocalist and Best Country Song (1992)
• Debut performance on the Grand Ole Opry with Hank Snow and his Rainbow Ranch Boys (1992)
• Performed as “Smoky Lonesome” on Jesse McReynolds “Pick Inn” Radio Broadcasts/Festival Events, etc. (2010)
• “Mark Brine & his FOLKABILLY BLUEZGRASS” CD awarded “Folk/Grass CD of 2013” by the National Traditional Country Music Assoc./ “All Alone & Blue” (solo CD) awarded “Old-time Blues CD of 2015” by the same.
• Author of 2 Adult-Level Novels (“THE CAROL” & “THE BOOK OF ODES-Factory Boy”), plus a Children’s Version of the former “JACK FROST.. ‘n THE CAROL for Kids”- which is Pub. By REGS Books (CA). Most recently, “VINNY & ANT ETHEL-Stories from MRS. ALEXANDER’S FARM” published by Revival Waves of Glory Books & Publishing, IL. (2015)
• Inductee into the National Traditional Country Music Association (NTCMA) Hall of Fame