Everything on your American Road CD is absolutely brilliant.
The best music takes personal truths and gives them a universal ring.
The pure simple truth of your muse resonates in the heart and spirit.
Your voice is awesome. It shifts from a guttural growl to a compassionate cry in each breath full of heartbeats.
Your work is at once tough and tender, playful and intense, wild-minded, openhearted and profoundly soulful.
Thank you for engaging your outrageous gift.
We are all the richer, wiser and kinder for it!
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A bunch of well-written, well-performed songs sung with conviction and emotion by Mark Elliott. The songs run the gamut from the romantic Not Even New Orleans to the hysterical Jackass Family, from the sombre A Private in Patton's Army to the fondly remembered Baseball and Beatles. To my ears the best of a fine bunch is Ride Out of Reno - a lowkey but intense song about what being brothers is all about.
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This excellent album opens with the title track, "American Road," which is a driving beat song about the journey through America from the eyes of an Ellis Island arrivee. 

Mark Elliott slows matters down to a lovely ballad with "Ride Out of Reno." Again, the ghost of history haunts the lyrics as he recalls the railroad and how many ancestors of those who ride the rails actually helped lay the tracks. 

There is a feeling of authenticity about the writing and delivery on these tracks. "Message in a Bottle" is a sad reminder that all messages in bottles are not notes from distant lands. Here the message is the usual contents of the bottle. This is a well-crafted piece of writing. 

Another song that will get deep into your heart and mind is "Private in Patton's Army." We are so used to hearing songs about the effects of war on veterans of Vietnam or the Great War that we too often forget the longterm victims of World War II. More recent and more domestic history is recalled on the marvelous retelling of a '60s childhood on "Baseball & the Beatles." If you are of a certain age this song will bring back the memories. Go on, be a teenager again. 

From the light-hearted he brings us face to face with grim reality on "Old Berle Jones." We can all too often look through rose-coloured glasses at the people in the rural hills, but life was hard and despite their music and resilience they were cruelly used by big business, especially the men who worked the mines. 

The writing skill of Elliott is to the fore when he weaves tales around a man imagining the former owners of a second-hand jacket on "The Jacket." One of my favourite tracks is "Old Dogs," which reminds us how hard we can often be on our loved ones. 

This is a collection of excellent songs that will be an asset to any record collection, and with a little luck and a lot of justice they should become much better known.
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Mark Elliott has recently released one of the finest albums I've heard so far this year. His new album, American Road celebrates Mark's arrival among America's songwriting greats.  American Road is intelligent, witty, sophisticated, and stylish. It's the kind of album that snares new fans and keeps longtime supporters more than satisfied. More eclectic than electric, American Road is an acoustically charged, high-powered collection of smart songs and irresistible charm.  American Road explores an internal dialogue of hope, regret, fear, and ultimately triumph of the human spirit. Highly recommended.
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