by Mark McCafferty



Middle age –

Some buy a motorbike or go skydiving, some swim with sharks or hunt for ancient treasures…. me I started to record all the songs I’d scribbled on little bits of paper over many years! As the technology made it infinitely easier to set up a studio at home… that’s what I did, and here am 😉 7 albums, two e.p.’s and a couple of compilation albums in 4 years, and many more still to come!!

Listen to the song while reading the text.

In The Beginning…

I got my first guitar when I was three years old – a plastic toy thing as Elvis was always on in my house. Over the years I’ve owned guitars but just really settled for strumming a few chords and playing a few classic campfire tunes, and that was about it.

In the 90’s I bought one of those Tascam 4 track recorders (made popular by Mr. Springsteen who recorded most of the Nebraska album on one) and made about 30 demo tunes (still got the tapes in the loft or attic for all my American friends!) and that was about it, back to a little strum now and then until around 2016.

Who Wants To Live Forever….

At this time, one of my close friends passed away suddenly, he didn’t have any kids and wasn’t married, but I thought to myself, what if that was me! What was I leaving for my kids to remember who I am, or who I was? Photos and videos don’t really tell the story of a person, they’re just little snapshots in time, but they don’t convey that person’s thoughts and ideas..

That’s when I thought, I have a lot of my thoughts in lyrics and little snippets of songs, what better way to leave a legacy for my children, than in the beauty of songs. They could hear my voice, and have my thoughts long after I’ve left this mortal existence!! Plus as a bonus they would have to decipher some of those song lyrics!! while I know what they are about some are more trickier than others… for instance the song attached to this blog ‘Left To Rust‘ from my ‘Free Soul‘ album is about Brexit!!!!! ‘who’dve thunk it’ if you listen to it, but thats what its about;-)

So I got myself a laptop, downloaded the basic software I needed and bought myself a new acoustic guitar (Takamine GD30 Black CE) That’s the guitar you can hear in all my recordings to this point, and I started writing and recording….and haven’t stopped yet!!!

Between 2016 and Today (14th August 2019) I’ve released 7 albums and 3 e.p.’s as mentioned earlier all original songs available on Bandcamp and online streaming services.

I Never Saw That Coming!

Originally I popped these tracks online so that my kids could listen on their many apps!! And my family could listen, my mum always enjoys listening to the new songs as they go online;-) What I didn’t expect was that other people would enjoy them and start listening!!

Total streams on Spotify since May 2016 are at 342K!! Now that can’t all be my mum!! 😉 Listeners are from all over the world, USA, Canada, South America, Thailand, Europe, Australia, New Zealand to name a few, and I’m grateful to all who have a listen in or have added some of my tunes to their playlists…

Rustic Folk Music…

I have loved Heavy Metal/Rock Music since I was about eight years old!! Been to see every band under the sun many times, but I also love the singer-songwriters and the stories they tell, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and love the sound of just the acoustic and vocals…

I call my ‘style’ if you like ‘Rustic Folk Music‘ – It’s in the ‘Folk/Indie Folk/Singer-Songwriter’ niche if you like, but I’m no perfectionist!!

There are bum notes, string buzzing, creaky doors in the background! But I like that as it’s all-natural. On a recent track from my latest album ‘From There…To Here…’ there was a door creaking in the wind as I was recording the guitar part. Now I could have gone back and re-recorded it easily, but thinking back to my kids I thought, how nice to hear the creaky door, they would sometimes complain about many years from now in the background of a song, in the house where they lived… I think that’s cool..(the song is called ‘Through The Years’ Have a listen on Bandcamp and let me know if you can hear the door!!)

My own songwriting comes from my own experiences growing up, leaving home, adventures with friends, falling in love, having children, losing loved ones… there’s no rocket science in there;-)

To Infinity & Beyond…

As I said, I started out on this little quest to leave something behind for my children. Hopefully I’ll be very old and cranky before that time comes but they now have stories and thoughts from me they can share with their families and hopefully my grandchildren (If I have any in the future) can do the same, and on and on the circle of life rolls with a musical dynasty to look back on and you never know even use in the future by another member of the family who decides to go down the singer/songwriter route…

Still On That Train…

I’m currently recording a batch on new songs for the next album (Yes I know nowadays with all the streaming it’s better to put out E.P’s on Spotify etc, but I’m old school!!) Have a listen to tracks on Bandcamp and streaming sites and add them to your playlists, like them or download and tell the world… I mean, I’m not getting any younger so the quicker I get that one hit wonder the better…. 😉

Mark McCafferty Mark McCafferty, Category: Artist, Albums: From There…

Have a listen to my songs on Spotify…

Have a listen to my songs on Bandcamp.com

Download MP3/CD’s from Amazon

Watch my lyric videos and acoustic covers on YouTube

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Artist’s Note

Edinbugh, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe, Midlothian

Folk, Folk Music, Indie Folk Music, Folk Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Rustic Folk Music, Original Music



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