Featured Artist: Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson’s debut album Quit Your Job — Play Guitar ignited like the first kaleidoscopic blast of a fireworks display. It was an attention-grabbing harbinger of even more exciting, incendiary things to come. DJs quickly embraced the disc and About.com Blues, Blues Underground Network and BluesVan branded it one of 2010’s best.
Now Robinson’s follow-up Have Axe — Will Groove provides an even more colorful and explosive display of the Nashville-based guitarist and songwriter’s estimable skills. And while the title of Quit Your Job —Play Guitar was autobiographical, the songs on his new release are even more personal… and dirtier and funkier and grittier. And when it comes to Robinson’s sterling guitar work, they’re also more colorful.
“Have Axe — Will Groove is about finding my voice as an artist,” he explains. “The songs are stronger and fit together well, and they all say something about my life — whether they’re inspired by things that happened to me or that I was reflecting on, or by the music and the experiences that have guided me along the way playing blues and country and other styles.
“What I’m interested in,” Robinson says, “isn’t being flashy or making the latest hit single. I’m making records and playing gigs to try to make music that moves people.”