Customer Reviews

Markology

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4 star:		(1)
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This late-70's recording is one of the best official releases of Mark O'Connor that showcases his unprecedented skills as a bluegrass flatpicker. Although Mark is now most renown for his prodigal fiddle virtuosity, he is also an excellent guitarist. This album sees a teenaged O'Connor exploding with creativity and youthful zeal, attacking the fretboard in a style unparalleled even today. These songs (all instrumentals) are mostly original compositions leaning towards jazz-grass or "Dawg music," but included are some fiery executions of classic bluegrass numbers that Monroe himself would be proud of (i.e., Blackberry Blossom and Dixie Breakdown). Not only do we have Mark absolutely devastating his dreadnought with ingenious improvisation, blistering speed and uncanny accuracy, we have legendary flatpicker Tony Rice backing the young O'Connor up on his infamous Clarence White D-28 (even taking a lead or two), and the innovator of Dawg music himself, David Grisman on mandolin. David was so impressed by Mark's performance on this record that he soon after recruited Mark into his Dave Grisman Quintet on guitar and violin. If you're a fan of bluegrass music, acoustic music, flatpicking or guitar in general, you must add this title to your musical library! It's not only an absolutely extraordinary 40 minutes of music, but it's a significant piece of bluegrass's evolutionary history. You won't be disappointed!

To begin, few musicians have attained a level of virtuosity that Mark O'Connor has. A champion fiddle player AND a champion flatpicker in his early teens, he decided to cut his first and only guitar album at the young age of 16. Recruiting the best bluegrass players in the business (Tony Rice, Sam Bush, David Grisman), Markology was recorded and stands in my mind as one of the best if not the best "dawg" bluegrass album ever.

The first few tracks blew me away when I heard them, especially the jazzy title track, but the album attained an even higher level of virtuosity with Fluid Drive. Layer after layer of tone are added one by one until after two minutes, you have every musician playing and Mark soloing over the top. Tony Rice even takes a lead at the end which is comparable to his top soloes. Sam Bush and David Grisman display their chops with fine soloing in Beserkeley, another great track on the album (there really are no bad tracks to be found here). A few covers, including the fiery Blackberry Blossom and the oldie Top of the World are found on this album as well.

Mark abstained from playing the fiddle on this album at all, stating that this was his "guitar album." And although there are other Mark O'Connor albums where he will pick up his dreadnought, this is his only true "guitar" album, and it remains one of the best albums ever. A must-own for any bluegrass fan or aspiring flatpicker. I can't say enough good things about this album.

This CD has been in my collection for how long I do not know. I have followed Mark O'Connor's career since the late 70's, about when he recorded this album. I had a long trip to take and wanted some road music, so I put it in the CD changer. I was pleasantly surprised by the first three cuts, and just cruizing along, until I "heard for the first time" FLUID DRIVE. This original by Mark blew me away, brought tears to my eyes, woke me up to every passing instant, every passing note, every nuance of the communication between the musicians, an all star cast of Tony Rice, Dan Crary, David Grisman, and Bill Amanteek. The fact that he was a mere 15 years old when he was given the headliner, and creative control shows how mature he was at the time. Norman Blake writes liner notes, saying how he regretted not being able to make the recording session. This is a gathering of guitar greats, who are caught jamming as if live, in concert. It is not rehearsed to death, you can almost hear the eye contact between the musicians as they trade off the breaks. I love this album, even after all these years. Way to go, Mark.

By the time this record came out, bluegrass whizkid Mark O'Connor had been gigging with the David Grisman-led spacegrass inner circle for several years. As the erudite-sounding album title implies, this was an early work which was influenced by Grisman's groundbreaking grass-jazz fusions, but, interestingly enough, one on which O'Connor chose to focus on the guitar, rather than the fiddle. The results are mighty fine. Still relatively traditional (although a couple of tunes may be worth skipping over), and very easy on the ears. Plenty of fine picking by the likes of Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Dan Crary and Grisman himself. A great all-instrumental album!

I bought this CD because of the nice reviews it had received (thanks previous reviewers!), and because I figured that you couldn't go too far wrong with any recording that included Tony Rice, Dan Crary and David Grisman all playing together. Rice and Crary are probably the two best acoustic guitarists since Django Reinhardt, and Mark O'Conner proves on this album that he's no slouch either. Well... about all I can say is that, as high as my expectations were, this recording far exceeded them. This is some of the best flatpicking guitar you'll ever hear in one place, and that's not to even mention Grisman's virtuoso (as always) mandalin playing. Their lights-out rendition of Blackberry Blossom alone would have been worth the price of this CD, but the amazing thing is that the rest of the album is just as good. (Speaking of Blackberry Blossom, I used to think that Doc Watson played it about as well as anyone could, but this version sets a new standard. It's like having three Doc Watsons picking together in perfect harmony.) If you like bluegrass, flatpicking guitar, or just plain great music, you'll never get tired of playing this CD over and over.

Markology is a must for anyone who is interested in guitar or acoustic music. O'Connor pushes the limits of the guitar, producing a unique sound that has yet to be matched by bluegrass guitarists today. Tony Rice, Dan Crary and David Grisman accompany Mark, making for an intense flat picking journey. Mark O'connor chose the best to pick with him, and showed that he was just as advanced (probably more so) than the greatest flat pickers of our time!

The brilliance of this recording is that it captures, as no other recording I know of does, the energy, the command, the lyricism, the optimism, and the audacity of the musical prodigy. Listen, and remember what it was like to be young.

Back in 1982 I stumbled upon this album while browsing at my hometown record store. This was a very fortunate occurence. My decision to purchase it was one of the best moves I ever made. Recently weened from mainstream rock and getting into jazz, this music couldn't have sounded better to my ears. The fact that Mark was only 16 years old at the time and was able to attract legendary talents such as Sam Bush, Tony Rice, and David Grisman attests to his remarkable musicianship. Even Mr. Guitar himself, the late Chet Atkins was blown away upon his initial hearing. Clocking in at under two minutes, the opening track Dixie Breakdown will have you convinced as well. Other highlights include Mark's fine originals Berserkeley, an uptempo swinger matching wits with Sam Bush, and the beautiful title track. It would've been nice if Rounder could have re-issued this cd with the original album cover. If you're new to this release it doesn't matter. Dig the music! One other important fact. Mark no longer plays guitar due to some physical problems with his arm which makes this musical document all the more precious.

This late-70's recording is one of the best official releases of Mark O'Connor that showcases his unprecedented skills as a bluegrass flatpicker. Although Mark is now most renown for his prodigal fiddle virtuosity, he is also an excellent guitarist. This album sees a teenaged O'Connor exploding with creativity and youthful zeal, attacking the fretboard in a style unparalleled even today. These songs (all instrumentals) are mostly original compositions leaning towards jazz-grass or "Dawg music," but included are some fiery executions of classic bluegrass numbers that Monroe himself would be proud of (i.e., Blackberry Blossom and Dixie Breakdown). Not only do we have Mark absolutely devastating his dreadnought with ingenious improvisation, blistering speed and uncanny accuracy, we have legendary flatpicker Tony Rice backing the young O'Connor up on his infamous Clarence White D-28 (even taking a lead or two), and the innovator of Dawg music himself, David Grisman on mandolin. David was so impressed by Mark's performance on this record that he soon after recruited Mark into his Dave Grisman Quintet on guitar and violin. If you're a fan of bluegrass music, acoustic music, flatpicking or guitar in general, you must add this title to your musical library! It's not only an absolutely extraordinary 40 minutes of music, but it's a significant piece of bluegrass's evolutionary history. You won't be disappointed!