Articles written about Mark Carson

Update 8/26/97: Sound Clips now available at Wild Ride Sound Clips .


A Solo `Wild Ride' for Carson

by Keith Spera

Mark Carson has been a fixture on the local rock scene since 1980s, when he fronted popular pop-rock band The Murmurs. He's still at it, singing lead for funk/R&B cover band Rumboogie and acoustic pop band And So It Goes. Saturday at the Dream Palace he will celebrate the release of his debut solo CD, "Wild Ride." He'll be backed by And So It Goes; the Robyn E. band will also perform.

The Murmurs still affect Carson's current work The band's rhythm section--drummer Charles Brewer and bassist Rick Rooney--now play with And So It Goes. The versions of "Can't Hold On" and "Reaching for the Sun" on Carson's CD are actually recordings made by the Murmurs several years ago; "Make me An Offer" is a new version of an old Murmurs song. And Carson and form Murmurs guitarist Greg Bosse collaborated on "Norman and his Mother," the "Psycho"-inspired rap that ends the CD.

A cast of well-known local musicians--including Anders Osborne and Theresa Andersson, plus several members of George Porter Jr's Runnin' Pardners--make guest appearances on "Wild Ride." The material dates from different times in Carson's career; most of it is guitar pop that bears the imprint of other styles.

"Most of the music is solidly withing the pop idiom," Carson said. "But there are a lot of influences. I don't ever sit down and say I'm going to write this type of song. It just happens. The CD reflects that."


------from The Times Picayune (New Orleans) Lagniappe Section, June 11, 1997

Former Murmurs member records album, attends graduate school

by James Crawford

A doctoral student in the history department recently released a CD while continuing to pursue his Ph.D. in American history.

Mark Carson, formerly of the Murmurs, self-produced and released "Wild Ride," a solo album written by him. He is also doing research on his dissertation topic Vietnam, which he hopes to finish up in the next few years.

Hoping to become a professor of history, he decided to return to school and get his doctorate after the Murmurs brokd up in 1991.

"I really didn't like my job at the time," Carson said. "I got my masters at UNO and I wanted to teach on the college level, so I applied to LSU and got in. I was interested in history and English, but settled on history because I enjoyed that better."

Since his release of the album, Carson has been promoting it and performing in New Orleans. He had a CD release party at Dream Palace and also performed at TIpitina's.

He is also performing in a group, And So It Goes, in which he plays acoustic guitar and keyboard. This group also features the bassist and drummer of the Murmurs.

"We had a lot going on at the time we broke up," Carson said. "We were trying to make enough money to make the album. We'd been playing Top 40 gigs, which tended to wear.

"We were just getting success and playing a few places around the South when things started to fall apart, " he continued. "One main reason was the keyboard player and girl singer's marriage started to fall apart. But we broke upin '91 and went and did our own things."

The Murmurs began as a group in 1981 and played mostly cover songs at private parties.

However, some of the songsthe murmurs performed were ones he had written, Carson added.

"The music is pretty much the same style as the Murmurs," Carson said. "Most of the music was written by me, and it came from and originated from the same place."

Carson is also in an R & B horn band, which he said is how he makes most of his money. This, as well as "Wild Ride," represents a hodge-podge of music the Brother Martin graduate likes.

"It's very difficult to describe my music," Carson said. "There is R&B with horns, some pop, some reggae and rap. I'm not the type of writer that one style or song comes out. I like to deal and dabble in a number of styles."

---------from The Daily Reveille, (LSU newspaper)
Baton Rouge, LA, July 17, 1997

CD Review, Offbeat Magazine, February, 1998

Mark Carson

Wild Ride
(MDC Records)

Well, not exactly. Mark Carson sound is wild on ly in very relative terms; like the child swinging on the cover, it's mostly harmless fun. But good fun it is. This half-hour taste of soft rock starts out with a curveball--the torchy "Dangerous Game"--and then maneuvers expertly through the rest of the territory, mostly jazzy pop in the Todd Rundgren mode. When he's good, he's very very good, and when he's bad he's Richard Marx. Fortunately for us, he's good most of the time, reaching his height during the doo-wop exultations of "Make Me An Offer? and the Eighties-style, Billy Joel-meets-Rick Springfield changes of "Can't Hold On." THe only serious misstep: "Norman and His Mother," the album closer, which tries to creep us out, Psycho style, and just gives us the giggles.

---Robert Fontenot
Offbeat Magazine




Update 8/26/97: Sound Clips now available at Wild Ride Sound Clips .


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