"He’s like a swashbuckling son of Johnny Cash, swaying and crooning dramatically".
"Like Roy Orbison walking down subterranean corridors, alone in the dark".
---Mick Mercer
Mark Sinnis is a New York City music scene veteran. He has been writing a dark blend of Rock, Country and Alternative music since 1998 to create his signature modern "Cemetery & Western" sound, with thought-provoking lyrics.
Mark, whose music spans over two decades, started his music career as the co-founder and singer/songwriter of the N.Y.C. Punk turned Gothic band Apostates, which lasted for 10 years from 1988 -1998 and released two full length albums and 2 singles. In 1998 he started his current band, Ninth House, and is the sole songwriter for the group.
With a distinctive voice that has been acclaimed as a hybrid of vocal greats like Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, Sinnis’s music incorporates dark undertones as well as traditional Country music with a contemporary modern edge.
Mark's debut album “Into An Unhidden Future” contained 19 tracks and was released in 2008. It contained both old songs from Apostates and new ones, all introduced with his new acoustic stripped down sound. The album “A Southern Tale” followed in 2009, which contained the title song about Memphis and Elvis's Graceland. This album, although subdued, captured a more focused "Cemetery & Western" sound.
In 2010, Mark's third album "The Night's Last Tomorrow" was released and listed as one of the top albums of 2010 by music critic Mick Mercer. In Mercer’s words: "He’s like a swashbuckling son of Johnny Cash, swaying and crooning dramatically". "Like Roy Orbison walking down subterranean corridors, alone in the dark". This album showed off Sinnis's broad vocal range with unique renditions of classics like "Gloomy Sunday" and "St. James Infirmary".
In June 2011, "The Undertaker In My Rearview Mirror" was released and contained 13 tracks. This fourth release continues Mark's journey into life, love, relationships, and death. This album explores Sinnis's darker side of Country music with songs like "The Undertaker In My Rearview Mirror", a spoken word song about how death always lurks around us.
The album also contains two unique renditions of classic country songs "Ghost Riders In The Sky," and "Fifty Odd Hours" (Sixteen Tons). With "Ghost Riders In The Sky," Sinnis takes you on an ominous, dark ride in the sky right out of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. "Fifty Odd Hours" is a modern spin on the classic "Sixteen Tons" that would surely make the original author Merle Travis proud.
The album ends with the song “I’ll Have Another Drink Of Whiskey, ‘Cause Death Is Not So Far Away” which music blog Lucid Culture called the drinking anthem that pays homage to the patron saint of doomed drinkers, Shane MacGowan.
Mark Sinnis prides himself in starting his own genre called "Cemetery & Western" which is a modern style that combines the best of Gothic and Country music to create his fresh new sound; "The Undertaker In My Rearview Mirror" solidifies this.
All of Mark's solo albums along with four full-length Ninth House releases are available through his label 9th Recordings on CD Baby and iTunes.
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