Mark Erelli - Solo Career

Solo Career

Erelli's selt-titled debut CD was released on the Signature Sounds label in 1999. Produced by Lorne Entress, Erelli is backed by musicians Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Jim Lamond, Dave Dick, Joe Barbato, Roger Williams, and Mike Dinallo and guest vocalists, Rani Arbo, Louise Taylor, and Ben Demerath. "Erelli owns a gift that is polished way beyond his young age. His vocal style will remind many of singers like Ellis Paul and Martin Sexton, and he is every bit the talent of either. With a large dose of country in these songs, Erelli's songwriting is masterful."

The following year, Erelli's sophomore recording for Signature Sounds, Compass & Companion was released. Again produced by Entress, it features a title-song duet with country artist Kelly Willis. Duke Levine and Kevin Barry once again lend support on guitiar along with Dave Dick on banjo and Entress on the jaw harp and percussion. "It's not often that one has the opportunity to get onboard the moving train of a great new talent right at the beginning, but here it is. If I had to pick one voice to represent the face of contemporary acoustic music, I would choose Mark Erelli." The album spent ten weeks in the Top Ten of the Americana Chart and Erelli was nominated for two Boston Music Awards.

Erelli's next project was to forego the traditional studio and instead gather a group of musicians to play within the walls of the Civil War era Memorial Hall in Monson, Massachusetts. Over the course of four days in May 2001, Erelli sat down in a semi-circle on the stage of the hall with Lorne Entress, Joe Barbato, Kevin Barry, Jim Henry, and Jim Lamond. The recording machines were turned on and everything was captured over the next four days.

Most of the songs have that wonderful flowing, melodic, story quality that we Erelli fans have come to associate with his recordings. A few upbeat toe-tapping tunes were thrown in for good measure. Though not in a morose way, nearly each selection is at least slightly tinged with the themes of loss and/or the difficulties of relationships. This seemed quite befitting the ambiance of the Memorial Hall and what it stands for.

The recording sessions were also filmed and a DVD was released.

In 2004, Erelli hooked up with Boston-based country band The Spurs to delve into the worlds of Western swing, country, and rockabilly with the release of Hillbilly Pilgrim. Erin McKeown is a guest vocalist on "Pretend." "For folk fans, this disc may take some getting used to, but its pleasures are many."

Erelli co-produced, with Lorne Entress, his fifth Signature Sounds album Hope & Other Casualties, which was released in 2006. When Erelli was asked if it was a concept album, he said: "The country has been through a lot, since 2000 really. Before September 11, that election of 2000 was a major thing. So, all the songs come out of that context. If the songs seem related, they all come out of that context over the last four years and they’re all coming through my lens and how I’m looking at the world. They all, in kinda one way or another, deal with the issue of how do you keep on keepin’ on when things seem really grim." Sometimes viewed as his most political album, "Hope & Other Casualties" is "an attentive examination of current times interwoven with matters of the heart. His emotions straddle the ground between the personal and the political." Guest vocalists include Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault. Hope & Other Casualties was voted the number one album of 2006 by WUMB radio member listeners.

Innocent When You Dream, released in 2007, is a collection of lullabies and love songs that Erelli originally recorded intending to give to close friends and family members as a holiday gift. The disk features solo acoustic performances of Erelli originals as well as covers by Shawn Colvin, Townes Van Zandt, and others.

In early 2007, Erelli invited fans to finance his next studio album, referring to the project as a barn-raising. Fans who contributed received a limited-edition disk that was a collection of unreleased outtakes, alternate versions, first drafts, and songs that didn't make the final cut. The result was Delivered, an 11-song album produced by Josh Ritter's bassist, Zack Hickman amd released in 2008. "One thing about Mark Erelli: he leaves no doubt regarding his stance on the largest issues of our day. Whether addressing the war in Iraq, the nation’s widening economic divide, or the small-mindedness of right-wing Bible-thumpers, the veteran singer-songwriter lays it out with sparkling clarity and little regard for analogy."

Little Vigils - again produced by Zack Hickman - was released in 2010. The title is taken from a line in the lead-off track "August." "The simple melody, Charlie Rose on banjo, Jake Amerding on fiddle along with Erelli on acoustic guitar, make this song a pleasure to listen to. And it is here that Erelli reveals the little vigils he keeps as his wife and he sneak upstairs to look at the peaceful night scene of their little boy asleep with his dreams. As the lyrics state, 'a fool would ask for more.'"