Carolyn Mark: Absurdly Awesome

Did songstress Carolyn Mark just give Coastlines a bona fide scoop? Calling from Mimi’s restaurant in Toronto, she reveals, “I want to record something in September, on Salt Spring Island, at the Beaver Point Hall.” Pausing for a deep breath, she continues, “I might try something... solo!”

Solo?! Anybody familiar with the outrageously talented, always hilarious Victoria songbird – she’s as much Carol Burnett as she is Skeeter Davis – most likely discovered Mark through her prolific collaborations. Last year’s Just Married: An Album of Duets (Mint) boasted stellar musicians Geoff Berner, Corb Lund and Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer among its guests. The year before that, Mark released The Pros and Cons of Collaboration, an antic collection of swoony pop songs and classic country featuring another raft of impressive friends, including her dad on fiddle. Then, of course, there’s Neko Case...

“Actually, I’m just looking at her poster here at Mimi’s,” laughs Mark, who released the raucous live album The Other Women with the insurgent country superstar in 2000, as the Corn Sisters. “She’s everywhere,” Mark reports. “Thank God we’re friends; otherwise it would be unbearable.”

(Photo courtesy of Mint Records)

The notion of Carolyn Mark alone with an acoustic guitar in a big wooden hall only seems unlikely because the party seems to naturally materialize around her. In fact, Mark’s regular Sunday Hootenanny at Logan’s Pub in Victoria (as regular as it can be with her aggressive touring schedule. “I’m a shark, baby,” she growls. “If I stop moving I’ll die!”) has blossomed into a cross-country road show, which explains why the groggy-sounding chanteuse is sitting in a restaurant in Hogtown. The 13-strong touring party or “team of experts,” (including Luther Wright, Jenny Whiteley and Oh! Susanna) as Mark describes them, is recovering from a date at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern. The night before that, Mark’s Hootenanny hit Quebec City. “I was pretty nervous about the whole parlez-vous’ing,” she confides, giggling. Indeed, due to a “freak translating accident,” Mark fears that she might have baffled the francophone crowd by introducing tour mate Lily Fawn as “half-woman, half-goat-cheese.” “It was perfectly absurd,” she says with a hoarse guffaw. “And awesome.”

Perfectly absurd, and awesome? Carolyn Mark might as well be describing herself.