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Smartest Man in the Room is Born in New Orleans
Raw Blues Originals Recorded in the Crescent City
A new collection of music by Paul Mark & the Van Dorens is currently in postproduction and is slated for release in early 2012. The new CD is to be titled Smartest Man in the Room and release on Radiation Records.
Co-producing the sessions with Mark is long-time collaborator and Memphis music maestro Jeff Powell. Most of the basic tracks were recorded in Summer 2011 at the Music Shed, one of the premier working studios in the New Orleans.
“I largely succeeded in keeping the musicians out of the bars for several long spells, so we ended up with some really great tracks,” says Mark. “Of course no one’s perfect, and as a result there are now several establishments in the French Quarter where we will never be welcomed again.
“New Orleans is one of those places where all the horrors of its past make you believe you could live there for some time with interest,” says Mark. “Like Berlin. Like New York. Like Paris, San Francisco. The chill factor…it worked well for us.”
After his acoustic guitar departure (Mirage Cartography) Mark and the band are once again working in the muscular roots rock tradition of the Van Dorens. “For me there was a good year of lonely finger-picking, working on Mirage. Now my mind has regressed into the realm of troubadour blues-rock,” says Mark. “It was nice while it lasted.”