Mark Ross (Eugene) is a master old time musician. His repertoire of over nearly 500 songs runs the gamut of American roots music, including ballads, train songs, blues, and western swing. He is a Grammy and INDIE Award nominated musician for his work with U. Utah Phillips. Ross sings and yodels and also plays guitar, fiddle, and banjo.
Bio
Mark Ross is a master old time musician—he fiddles, plays guitar, and sings. He left at home at 17, and, armed with a loud voice and a guitar, made his way to Greenwich Village in 1978, just in time to catch the last of the Great Folk Music Scare of the ’60s. Yodeling, singing, cracking bad jokes, making execrable puns, and picking up a storm, he’s been making his way at this trade ever since. With a working repertoire of close to 500 songs, his music runs the gamut of American Roots Music, including hobo ballads, train songs, blues, western swing, mountain ballads, fiddle tunes, raucous banjo melodies, and early jazz to the works of contemporary songwriters. Ross is a Grammy and Indie nominated musician for his work with U.Utah Phillips. Ross has also been a Master Artist in the Oregon Folklife Network’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program.
Related Experience: Guest lecturer on American folk music, railroad songs, labor songs and the history of American Labor and radical politics; Artistic Director and Producer of the Butte FolkFest, 1997-2000; Folksinger-in-Residence at New York Folklore Center
