Mark Growden is a composer, singer, writer, multi-instrumentalist, visual artist, and workshop leader.  Growden has released several critically acclaimed albums, including Saint Judas, which was awarded “2010 Rekkid of the Year” by music blog Stash Dauber and ranked in the 2010 Village Voice Critics Poll.  Growden has toured the the US extensively, performing at venues such as the The Fillmore, Cowell Theater, and Great American Music Hall in San Francisco; Snug Harbor in New Orleans; and The Knitting Factory and Tonic in New York.  

Press Quotes
“Influenced by Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Aaron Copeland, John Coltrane, Townes Van Zandt and Alan Lomax's field recordings of African- American prison work songs, Growden cooks his compositions from his own recipes. The taste is a little cabaret, a bit New Orleans brass, a pinch Appalachian folk with a spicy edge,... but hard to pin down, stirred with the gentleness of trees whispering on an easy summer day.” - The Taos News

“think Bertolt Brecht meets Blind Willie Johnson.” - I-94 Bar

"Mark Growden possesses the same raw passion and fury seen in Van Morrison, Tom Waits, and Old Red but also the compositional finesse of Chris Rea, Robert Wyatt, and The Woes" - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange

"An unusual and voracious talent." - Willamette Week

"Theatrical, dark and sexy." - West Coast Performer

"Mark Growden has to be on of California's most colorful and intriguing musicians.... Growden is a genius." - Albuquerque Alibi

"He writes songs that pulse with drama, songs that slide with grace." - Tucson Weekly

"Part singer-songwriter, part bluesman, part avant-gardist, he's an avatar of bohemian weirdness on a par with Tom Waits or Joe Henry." - Fort Worth Weekly

"as though Harry Smith, Kurt Weill, and John Cage had been reincarnated in a single body" - Stash Dauber

"Fiery, earthy and sublimely sensual." - Comet Magazine

I'm a San Francisco based tech guy, writer, actor, event producer, and eclectic DJ. I help make Radiovalencia.fm go. I'm very involved with the SF arts community and am active in local theater. And more. 

I'm on the lookout for music in pretty much all genres, esp. old school punk, jazz-electronic hybrids, dub & ambient, and pop cultural mashups that really stand out. And all the rest of it, too. Some fave bands: Tom Waits, Califone, Firewater, Tied & Tickled Trio, Loscil, The Saints, Pere Ubu, The Fall, Akufen, Hüsker Dü, Micachu & the Shapes, Antonelli, The Beatles, Billy Harper, The Blow, Blind Pilot--oops, I got stuck in the B's. 

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