Mark Arbogast

"I was born in St Louis but I grew up in many different parts of the country. I lived a great deal with my grandmother and she loved to travel. She showed me a lot of the world. She was a regular auntie Mame. Sometimes I think the reason my music has so many different 'feels' to it is because of all the different cultures I grew up around. My stepmother was Mexican-American and she loved the blues and traditional Spanish-Mexican music and introduced me to that too."

Mark started on the drums at 9 years old and didn't start playing guitar until nearly 17.

"My older brother was living in California in the late 60s and he came home for a visit with an old guitar, long hair and Beatle boots on and turned me on to Hendrix. He showed me a couple of chords and that was all it took. It blew the top of my head right off and changed my life forever.

I loved the Ventures, The Shadows, and Roy Orbison. Man, those sunglasses were too cool!"

Mark played in several local bands growing up and moved to England in the late 70s playing in several bands there before returning to the states in 1980. He scored a job as a session guitar player in Ohio and recorded sessions and demos for many people including the Ohio Players and Joey Glover before moving back to St Louis in 1980.

He was listed as one of the top 10 local guitar players twice and has garnered several awards from Billboard magazine for producing several local musicians including a top 10 nation wide in a national songwriters contest.

Although not his style of music, Mark has had auditions with the Allman Brothers, Wishbone Ash, and Jimmy Buffett. Currently working on his first solo record. Mark hopes to have it ready for release by the spring-summer of 2000.