Man On The Radio - Single

Musician & Broadcaster DANNY MARKS Spotlights Radio’s Enduring Power to Connect With "Man on the Radio" Single - Eric Alper

Toronto-Based Artist Honours the Medium that Shaped His Life with Advance Single from Upcoming Album, Lifeline

Whether we’re alone or in a crowd, listening to the radio has always felt like a one-on-one experience. It seems like the DJ is talking directly to us. It’s where many of us have formed unique, personal connections with the songs we’ve heard as if they’re our own personal playlist. As a broadcaster himself, Danny Marks knows the power of radio very well. And as a lifelong musician and singer-songwriter, he’s celebrating radio’s enduring influence with his new single, “Man on the Radio” — available now.

“Radio has come up big to reach people at home and heart in trying times, an intimate connection that reaches around the globe,” says Marks. “‘’Man On The Radio’ comes from this place.”

Soulful, smooth, country-tinged blues with a heartfelt, nostalgic tone, “Man on the Radio” is Danny Marks’ story about his love and reverence for a music medium that has been a cherished part of his life from childhood to today. The single advances a new album by Marks called Lifeline, due out this summer.

Take my hand, understand I’m the man on the radio.
You’re just in time for the show and I wouldn’t start without you.  
One by one, that’s how it’s done. We’ll have fun together.
You and me – the sweet frequency.
Good company, whatever the weather.  
I’m the man on the radio.


For over 100 years, radio has been our good company through trying times and good times alike. For Marks, the Toronto-born and raised music maker and connoisseur, radio is an inter-generational phenomenon; radio is truly in his blood.

“Radio reached my Dad in the 1920's from the Cotton Club, Grand Ole Opry, and beyond,” recalls Marks. “Dad would get a crystal set, in the 1920s, and listen to the Cotton Club with Cab Calloway. He passed along that love to us, with a shortwave radio and the art of radio.” 

As a kid, Marks would fantasize about hosting his own radio show when he wasn’t obsessing over his love of the guitar. 

“When I was twelve years old, I was part of a radio play at the national broadcaster, CBC,” he remembers. “They had crinkled up stuff to make it sound like a fire, coconut shells for the horses’ hooves, A little funny door on a platform to open and close. We gathered around the mic and the performers had their arms around each other’s shoulders. I’d been to drama school, but radio – it seemed so intimate. Being on that side of the mic – I always wanted to.” 

The guitar Marks got when he was 11 and the lessons he took afterward were his first steps toward musical success in Canada and the U.S. as a founding member of late ‘60s / early ‘70s pop-rock band Edward Bear, signed to Capitol Records. However, his love for “being on that side of the mic” also led to success on the airwaves in a different way. He became ‘the man on the radio’. 

In 1987, Marks was discovered by CBC radio producer David Malahoff and was put on to a show called “Basic Black” with Arthur Black and Shelagh Rogers. That was Marks’ learning ground throughout the ‘90s before being offered his own show on Toronto’s CJRT FM, which became JAZZFM91. For over 20 years, Marks has hosted the BLUZ.FM show, a Saturday night oasis of “all the colours of the blues” including one hour of “Beyond the Fringe” global music.

For Marks, hosting a radio show is quite parallel with playing a live performance. 

“The idea that you can tell a story through a succession of songs on the radio, is not unlike how I would work a set at my performances,” explains Marks. “It’s so beautiful to hear one song dovetail into another and the mood shift. What you look for in joining music to tell a story.”  

And in this age of digital streaming and playlisting, radio’s story is still a never-ending one for Marks and many others. “In the 21st Century, radio's days are far from gone.”

“Man on the Radio” from the forthcoming album Lifeline is available now.

 

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Cities In Blue

   
   

1. Houston To L.A. 2. Belt Line Blues 3. Once I Was Crazy 4. Kansas City Shout
5. Memphis Got Soul 6. Heading Down To New Orleans 7. Blues Came To Chicago
8. Going Down The Road 9. Hey, New York Town! 10. Land Where Blues Began
11. Lights Out (Bonus Track)

 

 

A Friend In The Blues

Click for larger view

Review of "A Friend in the Blues" in New Canadian Music

1. Caretaker 2. Blues For Lonnie Johnson 3. Blues Party Tonight 4. Uncle John
5. Back To The Blues 6. Two Brothers 7. A Friend In The Blues 8. The Other Side
9. That Lonesome Valley 10. Blues Of The Future 11. Mixed Up Girl 12. Maybe Tomorrow

 

 


 

Big Town Boy

Big Town Boy is a party record plain and simple. Most of these golden tracks are hits from Toronto's past. Many of ‘em are tunes we used to play back in the day! It’s fun to revisit these classics and put a new spin on them. Alec Fraser, Leon Stevenson and I had a ball arranging and laying these tracks down. Colleen Allen, Lou Pomanti and Chase Sanborn sweetened them with great care and craft”. DannyM.

1. Tiger | 2. Charlena | 3. Big Town Boy | 4. It Was I 5. Love-itis | 6. Take Me Back
7. I Only Want To Be With You | 8. Each and Every Day | 9. Any Other Way | 10. Keep On Running
11. Mary Lou | 12. If You Don't Want My Love | 13. Nothin' | 14. You, Me and Mexico

 

More Video - Mary Lou Live

 


Guitarchaeology

The making of Guitarchaeology was a labour of love. The all instrumental album moves easily from song to song in a variety of styles all featuring Danny's unique guitar sounds.

With the help of multi talented producer Ken Whiteley, basic tracks recorded in Danny's home studio were mastered and digitized in stereo, and packaged in living colour by Fireworks.

Thanks to a generous grant from FACTOR, what started out as a basement dream, is now sure to find a ready audience world wide.

There's a world beat quality to much of the music here. El Kabong! combines elements of tango and calypso with reverb drenched surf guitar. Toasted Danish is a salute to famous Scandinavian six-stringer Jorgen Ingman, offset with a twangy jaw harp, a harmonica and a very Ringo back beat.

Long Way Home sounds like Eric Clapton meets Duane Eddy somewhere between Memphis and Nashville. Bonita has a salsa feel and some fleet nylon string, short, and very radio-friendly.

Wave breaker comes on like a like a motorcycle race on a 1955 Gretsch guitar, Lights Out is a streamy minor key blues rhumba for the after hours. You may recognize it as the closing theme to bluz.fm.

Guitarchaeology takes a world view in rather archaic fashion, from a Canadian's point of view, great retro sounds with modern grooves.

1. El Kabong | 2. Toasted Danish | 3. Long Way Home | 4. Bonita | 5. Wave Breaker
6. Lights Out | 7. The Early Bird | 8. Bon Bon | 9. Guitarchaeology | 10. Spy Guitar | 11. RL-201
12. Elevators Away | 13. Farewell San Miguel | 14. Hula Blues

Lights Out Video

More Video - Long Way Home, Farewell San Miguel


A Side Of Danny Marks

Have you heard Johnny Cash sing Led Zeppelin? Leonard Cohen’s Rockabilly, or Elvis crooning Jimi? It's all on A Side of Danny Marks.

1. Johnny Cash Does Led Zeppelin / 2. Dylan Meets the Monkees
3. The House in New Orleans | 4. Jewish Blues Guys | 5. Newfie Reggae
6. Elvis / Jimi | 7. Wave Breaker | 8. Tiny Tim Interview

 


True

OUT OF PRINT

"True" sees Danny showing off his skills as a songwriter and vocalist, and true to his nature, his chameleon-like ability to move between styles in an effortless and uncanny way. Bookended by two fairly straightforward radio-friendly tunes, "What I'd Do?" and "Good To Go," it's in-between where the album gets really interesting. There's the rockabilly bop of the Buddy Hollyish "Waited So Long," the classic 60's country feel of "Lost Highway," and the unmistakeable fingerprint of vintage Johnny Cash on the title song, "True." There's blues - "Thankyou For Giving Me The Blues" and the Clapton-styled "Don't Know Why," and R&B - "Tell It To Me Straight." "Phone Message" is a catchy jazz-rock instrumental built around an actual phone message left by a female fan, and on the unadorned "Cracked Up Girl" Danny recalls a relationship with an addicted girlfriend, while "Bicycle Boy" sees him looking at his own personal demons. "Call Me George" is the album's most lighthearted track, a clever send-up of every country cliche ever written.

This is easily the most eclectic record I've heard this year, and definitely one of the most honest.

Review by Marty Murray for The NAIL

1. What I'd Do | 2. Thank You for Giving Me the Blues | 3. Waited So Long | 4. True
5. Lost Highway | 6. Don't Know Why
| 7. Phone message | 8. Cracked Up Girl | 9. Bicycle Boy
10, Tell It to Me Straight | 11. High and Dry | 12. Call me George | 13. Good to Go


Surfin' Safari

OUT OF PRINT

1. Pipeline | Surf Rider | Out of Limits | 2. Surfin' Safari | California Sun | Surfin' USA
Summertime Blues | 3. Fun, Fun, Fun | Help Me Rhonda | 4. Penetration | Surfer Girl
Wipeout | Wouldn't It Be Nice | Miserlou | I Get Around

Video - Wouldn't It Be Nice, Califonia Sun, Summertime Blues


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