Album Notes

Australian roots music – it’s a sense of place. In the world reflected in the dead setters new album you’ll encounter ghosts of the past & yearning spirits of the present, making themselves known in a variety of familiar locales, including a faded milk bar in inner-western Sydney (Shopping Town), wasted youth drag racing on Sydney’s Great Western Highway (Whitewall Tyres), and a lonely man obsessed with a long gone Australian silent movie star (Until She’s Mine – Lotte Lyell’s Blues), together with a motley cast of misfits & dreamers who could fit in just about anywhere there’s people & stories to tell.
Mark’s fourth album with long-time collaborators, the dead setters, sees a return to the Laughing Outlaw family (his first two solo albums were label releases in the 1999 & 2001), bringing with him a band with a reputation for delivering dynamic live shows drawing from a broad and earthy palette, but never straying far from the narrative tradition & some pithy observations on life & humanity. Not unlike contemporaries such as label-mates Perry Keyes & Jason Walker, they’ve discovered that’s there’s a rich vein of life in their home-town.
“This guy was born to write songs that you’d want to hear on your car stereo as you hit the road”
–Brent McKean, Revolver
“A seamless mix of country & folk from Down Under…encapsulates perfectly the appeal of the true singer-songwriter.” ****–MM, Maverick Magazine (UK)
“...the Sydney troubadour himself…Terrific songwriting and musicianship…Sydney’s answer to Townes van Zandt and Robert Earl Keen.” -Bryen Willems, Radio 2RRR
“a near perfect musical setting for these distinctly Australian tales of restless souls, ghosts of the past, desert vistas and suburban angst.” - Kim Cheshire in Country Update Magazine