Mark Rhodes's Page

I grew up in South Florida, Northeast Mississippi, and Nashville. My musical roots have a strong Southern accent (-Delta blues, country, Southern Rock), though I've always been a fan of Dylan, Robbie Robertson (The Band), the Beatles, Stones, and later Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.

I took guitar lessons from a jazz player in the early '90s and that's the most significant "grown-up" influence on my music, especially swing stuff. (I love Bird, Coltrane, and Miles, but that stuff has little influence on my songwriting.) I started listening to "China's Jazz Thing," an overnight radio show and that's where I feel in love with (some) jazz singers and "the Great American Songbook" (-Gershwin, Kern, Arlen, et al). That's another influence on my songwriting, though I never sound like I'm trying out for Broadway. ("Not that there's anything wrong with it!")

As an introvert, I "don't get around much anymore" and would like to meet other songwriters to talk to about the craft, successes, mistakes, the whole shmear.