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	Mark Spencer.Bio

Mark Spencer (shown above with his brother Jeff, on a break from the middle management positions they held as children) was born in Champaign, Illinois, raised in Bakersfield, Vermont and lives in Brooklyn, New York. ("that would make you a Yankee, son" he was advised by a Nashville policeman when looking for a meat and three restaurant there one summer evening)

Reared up in a musical household, his pre-Beatles influences included everything from Astrud Gilberto to Roger Miller, from Oscar Peterson to Aaron Copland. On through school he got mixed up in French Horn, Rock and Roll, Country & Bluegrass, and as many records as he could beg, borrow or steal as well as his main instrument, the Six String Guitar. Singing was mandatory, and his voice continued to get louder, later informing his love of the electric guitar.

During his "college" years he played & sang in a variety of non-academic bands/groups, getting formerly aquainted with the honky-tonk side of life playing country western, hippy jazz, rock and roll and outsider folk, later performing in Vermont's "premier" new-wave band, Pinhead, on guitar and keys.

After moving to NYC for a while he joined his friends from VT in the much-loved "Americana" band Blood Oranges. Following their short but critcally lauded career he began touring and recording as a valued sideman/lead guitarist with a wide variety of artists including Freedy Johnston, Kelly Willis, Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, Cheri Knight, Jim Lauderdale, Chantal Kreviazuk, Wanda Jackson, Tammy Faye Starlite, Laura Cantrell and Jay Farrar.

He also operates a small but potent recording studio out of his joint in Brooklyn, the Tape Kitchen where he's crafted a number of recordings that have appeared on indie and major label releases.

His busy touring schedule keeps him visible, he continues to record in new and different musical settings, occasionally can be seen haunting the late night or early morning TV shows...all in all dedicated to bringing his love of music to as many places as it can find a home.

Take a look around the site and you'll get a more detailed look at his schedule and various projects. For those that need to be dazzled he'll provide a list of various accomplishments, milestones, US and International Gold Records, movie soundtrack cuts, US and worldwide touring, opening slots for mega-stars, playing at Carnegie Hall and on all the major US talk shows along with some purple prose about how he influences the musical minds and buying habits of a generation, but you can expect it to be way more self-effacing than the above, writing about yourself in the third person is embarassing enough!! Thanks for checking out the site, hope you find something you like.