The Twangy Trail of Easy Mark Tomeo
Birthday salute to a champion of guitars and songs in the desert sands
Happy birthday to my friend and musical amigo “Easy” Mark Tomeo. I lack photos of Mark and I together, so I grabbed pivotal images from Mark’s fascinating career as a champion of pedal steel, resonator, and twang guitar + singer-songwriter.
Starting in the 1980s, Mark came to prominence in the Grammy-nominated “New Wave cowboy” band Rubber Rodeo (shown here)—in the 80s RR played at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco while I just happened to be lurking nearby. Rubber Rodeo’s music was described as “Gene Autry meets DEVO.” Here’s one of their best known songs:
The world got smaller when, in the late 90s, Mark and I met in Pennsylvania, performing and recording with Ben Kaplan, some Badlees-spinoff projects, and extensively with the band Neon Cactus.
Circa 2000 I was in the studio working with Davy Jones (Monkees) on his JUSTME series of original recordings. Davy wanted a pedal steel guitarist, and I summoned Mark. Here’s “Hold Me Tight,” a Tex-Mex samba we did; the Mike Nesmith-ian arrangement was Davy’s idea:
(we also made an alternate spoken word version of this)…
Currently Mark gallavants around the Southwest and Mexico with the band Last Train to Juarez…
and other edgy alt-country acts. Meanwhile HB EMT. By the time I get to Phoenix anything can happen…
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